Winter 2004
One thing I love about the academic calendar is that it offers several opportunities for new beginnings: the beginning of a new academic year, the start of three new terms, and the advent of a new calendar year. I customarily make a New Year’s resolution to strive for greater balance in my thinking about the general state of the world, about the lives of the people with whom I share this community, and about my own life, both personally and professionally. The point of the recurring resolution is to remind myself to be hopeful in my world view and not fall easy prey to the cynicism that abounds today.
Hopefulness is a quality that adults must be able to convey to young people, if we expect them to discover ways to balance the good with the bad that will inevitably come their way.
I would go so far as to suggest that the quality of our lives can be measured, to some extent, by our reaction to the malaise of gloom and pessimism which seems increasingly to characterize our common life. It is true on a global level, and it is true on the local level. No great talent is required to produce a list of formidable problems in the world which can weigh heavily upon us: concerns about the environment, about poverty, about injustice, about war and the threat of war, about disease and hunger—to mention only some of those universal concerns. But sometimes we give such exclusive attention to these and other problems that we seem unaware that these problems have all been balanced by enormous human achievements.
In an essay titled “Mankind’s Better Moments,” the notable historian Barbara Tuchman writes: “Amid a mass of worldwide troubles and a poor record for the twentieth century, we see our species—with cause—as functioning very badly, as blunderers when not knaves, as violent, corrupt, inept, incapable of mastering the forces that threaten us, weakly subject to our worst instincts: in short, decadent. “The catalogue is familiar and valid,” Mrs. Tuchman goes on to say, “but it is growing tiresome. A study of history reminds one that mankind has its ups and downs, and during the ups has accomplished many brave and beautiful things, exerted stupendous endeavors, explored and conquered oceans and wilderness, achieved marvels of beauty in the creative arts and marvels of science and social progress; has loved liberty with a passion that throughout history had led men to fight and die for it over and over again; has pursued knowledge, exercised reason, enjoyed laughter and pleasures, played games with zest, shown courage, heroism, altruism, honor, and decency; experienced love; known comfort, contentment, and occasionally happiness. All these qualities have been part of human experience, and if they have not had as important notice as the negatives, nor exerted as wide and persistent an influence as the evils we do, they nevertheless deserve attention, for they are currently all but forgotten.”
Mrs. Tuchman goes on in this essay to catalogue instances of ingenuity, imagination, skill, and courage, reminding us with a variety of examples how splendid human achievement, individual and corporate, has sometimes been. Surely such a reminder from this distinguished historian helps to restore balance in our thinking, to remind us that enormous difficulties are not new in human experience. Certainly only an incurable optimist could ever forget that our lives are, indeed, beset with troubles. Given the kind of uncertain world we are living in, how can we properly react to the forces we find arrayed against us? The familiar question from the Psalms, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the hopeful do?” has only one meaningful answer: they can go right on being hopeful. Indeed, what other answer is there? When we are confronted with difficulty or peril, or tragedy, what can we do except exert our very best effort to deal with these things, and as far as may be, to conquer them? How we respond to these vicissitudes of life is surely one of the most important tests of our education.
So, in short, I never regret making my resolution or constantly reminding myself and others to return to the local level and rejoice about the many good things that surround us here at Mercersburg. Students here have studied hard and done well academically, staged wonderful plays, sung beautifully, played valiantly in athletic contests, published excellent school newspapers, participated in important committee work, been kind to one
another, welcomed friends from other countries, and the list goes on. As 2005 unfolds, I hope that all the Mercersburg faithful will find time and cause to celebrate some of the notable achievements of this great school.
Douglas Hale
Head of School
