The Journal presents my weekly reflections on being a private, Catholic school principal during what promises to be a year filled with energy, excitement, challenges and possibilities…
I am struck and frightened by the notion of how little I would be, how much less I would be, how lost I would be without the women of power in my life.
We take a brief break from the pandemic this week to speak of something very important…
In our living room, there is a display cabinet. It is lighted, five-shelved and filled with some remarkable items, perhaps the most remarkable occupy its top slot, the highest shelf closest to the light.
The top shelf has a collection of statues and figurines symbolizing what my wife calls “Women of Power.” Most of these icons are representations of fictional women – Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas – but St. Agatha is there, too. Colorful plastic and ceramic shines out from that shelf and I have wondered how many guests to our home (back in the Before Times, when we used to have guests) have taken a look at that shelf and noted what it is.
Likely not too many. Our house is filled with colorful plastic and prints and posters on many, many walls. To decode all of it would take a Robert Langdon like interest and what guest has that kind of commitment when drinks are waiting in the kitchen and appetizers are on the deck.
Not many spend much time looking at that shelf, at those talismans of women of power and that is, in a way, all too predictable.
How often does this world we live in ask us to recognize the women in power in our lives? So infrequently that we have a month dedicated to reminding ourselves that, without women, we would be lost.
I am struck by all the women who have been powerful in my life – my mother, my first grade teacher Mrs. Batman (that was truly her name for all readers who just scoffed), my first serious girlfriend, my professor who put me on the path of becoming a teacher myself, my wife, the principal who hired and promoted me as an administrator, the many amazing women with whom I have taught these years, the incredible young women who’ve been my students, my daughter – so very, very many women have shaped and influenced and inspired me in effortless and beautiful fashion. They have made me who I am.
I am struck, too, by how few of them have needed recognition for this inspiration. Surely if they have changed me, they have changed others, but these women do not seek accolades or the spotlight or desire either. They simply are. They simply do.
I am struck and frightened by the notion of how little I would be, how much less I would be, how lost I would be without the women of power in my life.
We would all be lost without women of power. We would be lost without women.
Those icons sit on a glass shelf at the top of a display cabinet in our home. But they and the real-life women who inspire shape our lives and our world. Here’s to women of power this month and every day.
We had a quiet week on the new cases front, though the quarantines from last week’s scenario impacted many of our students as they were preparing for final exams on our trimester system. We have to continue our diligent, personal approaches to this pandemic especially in our school as we look to coming back in full capacity in less than 3 weeks!