Faculty Reflection : MS Morning Meeting (1-22-10)

Faculty Reflection: MS Morning Meeting (1-22-10)

Several years ago, while driving up Reisterstown Road on my way to school, I stopped at the light at Panera’s and noticed a bumper sticker on a car in front. It read “I don’t know and I don’t care and it doesn’t matter.” The bumper sticker troubled me then and still does to this day. It conveyed something sad about the car owner, that he or she did not connect with life at all and that their life really didn’t matter, really didn’t make a difference.

The bumper sticker expressed something so different from my own philosophy of life, that we each matter, we each make a difference. Everywhere I look at McDonogh, I find people making a difference, individuals, small groups, bigger groups, each with a purpose, each with a goal, each with the desire to make a difference, to make our world a bit better.

Nineteen years ago, one person I knew at a city church sent me the church bulletin; it described an effort to help an urban church at the holiday time. My friend asked if McDonogh might be able to help out. That year, McDonogh sponsored 35 families in what we began to call the “Holiday Project.” This past holiday season we sponsored 133 families and helped ensure that 367 children had something to smile about and food on the table for a holiday dinner. It all started because one person sent us a request.

Last year about this time, one McDonogh teacher went to a conference and learned about a man who was making a difference in his native country. His story was remarkable because he had been born with just one leg and he was determined to help all people in his native land learn about the challenges faced by citizens like himself. This teacher brought his story back to McDonogh and you know the rest of the story: Emmanuel Yeboah came to McDonogh and spoke to a full theater about his work. You know that in a few short months we will all join in filling a large cargo container with bikes and other items that will help him in his work. It all started because one person heard his story and told it to us.

At a meeting of the Character Education Committee last year, teachers were trying to come up with an idea to give concrete visible shape to some of our main ideas. One person said, “How about a compass, a moral compass, one that would help us have a sense of direction about what’s important in life.” The idea took hold and you know the rest of the story: how the McDonogh compass has come to be an important part of school life each and every day we are here. It all started because one person had an idea.

Sometimes it is a teacher with an idea, sometimes it is a staff person with a thoughtful gesture, sometimes it is a student with an act of kindness. In 1983, when I was just in my third year at McDonogh, I was having a particularly challenging day, so challenging that I wondered if McDonogh was the right place for me and if I was the right person for McDonogh. As I trudged up the main drive from a meeting at the Bowman House, I wasn’t sure of anything and then I heard a voice, a small voice, call out to me. I looked up and it was a small second grader, Bobby. He greeted me, “Hi Mr. Grega.” “Oh hi Bobby.” “How are you, Mr. Grega?” “OK, Bobby, how are you?” “Fine, thank you. Have a good day, Mr. Grega!” “Thanks, Bobby, you too!” It was a small simple moment and yet it seemed to change everything. I really did begin to have a good day from that moment on, and my doubts about my place at McDonogh resolved themselves. And now 27 years later, I still remember Bobby with deep gratitude.

We do make a difference, individually and collectively. We do matter. Even in confronting a problem as huge as the catastrophe in Haiti, we each matter, we each may make a difference, whether with our own contribution or with helping with a bake sale or with making posters to support Middle School fund-raising. Each and every act helps to make a difference for people like us who have lost just about everything.

In conclusion, let me share a story that I heard Mrs. Millar in the Upper School share some years ago. A young girl was walking along the beach after a huge storm the night before. The storm had churned up thousands of star fish and had flung them up on the beach. Out of water they would literally dry up and die. As the girl walked, she would reach down every few steps, pick up a star fish, and toss it back into the ocean. A grown- up was coming down from the other direction and was watching her. When he got close, he said to her, “What are you doing?” “I’m saving star fish.” “But there are thousands of them; you’re not making a difference to all those thousands of star fish!” She looked at him, blinked one time, bent down, picked up another star fish, and tossed it into the ocean. “Made a difference to that one!” And she continued on up the beach, picking up star fish and tossing them back into the ocean.

Find your star fish. Make a difference.