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Showing posts from September, 2012

Opening Chapel Talk

Following is a transcript of the Opening Chapel Talks I gave this morning after welcoming the boys back to school: Ralph Waldo Emerson once mused, “All are needed by each one; nothing is fair or good alone.” When Emerson spoke these words, I believe he was talking about community—our need to feel needed, connected, a part of something greater than ourselves. Sometimes we may think we have “a community” when the people around us believe exactly what we believe, or value only what we value; when they look the same as we look, or sound the same as we sound. But it isn’t necessarily so. This summer, I found myself traveling in the deserts of the American West—Nevada, California, Arizona, and Utah.  The Navajo, the aboriginal people of this region, struck me.  They were completely at one with the land and everyone had their roles to play, something specific to do. They didn’t all try to be or do the same; in fact, they recognized and celebrated their differences. Seeking pea...