I've been encouraging my students and my parishioners [and yours truly] to think as often about thanksgivings as we do concerns and petitions. In light of which, I had two moments for which I gave quiet thanks last week.
When I served in a variety of educational and administrative positions at Berkshire School in Massachusetts almost two decades ago, I was in charge of several aspects of campus life, especially with the committee that hired faculty and another committee that chose student leaders.
Last week I was reminded of these responsibilities when, first, a lower school student at Rumsey Hall School told me that her father knew me. As it turned out, I had been the one to recommend his hiring as one of our history teachers many years ago when he had just graduated from college. I was delighted to learn that he was married, still teaching [now at Taft School], and blessed with two children, both of whom are members of my student body.
The second good bit of news involved a former student whom I had recommended for a significant campus leadership position when he was a high school senior, a decision that was met with no small amount of resistance and criticism from my fellow faculty [a commonplace practice on their part, I'm sorry to say]. While I suppose that his leadership qualities were shared with only a few, the headmaster [a true professional and fine gentleman] backed me and the student grew into his role.
I was casually reading something the other day and discovered that the student was recently named a deputy editor of the New York Daily News. Not bad for someone not yet forty-years-old and vindicating, too, in light of his high school teachers' lack of faith in him.
It's always nice to participate in a very small way in another's development and I'm happy for both of them. Thanks, Lord, for letting our lives cross paths.