What Will Your Verse Be?

This week, my school celebrated Grandparents' Day.  It's a long-standing tradition and one we haven't had in person for the last two years.  It was so lovely to hear them laugh at the corny jokes of our emcees, cheer for our band, and oh and ahh over our theater dance class.  Even better, I get to travel from classroom to classroom photographing kindergartners running and leaping into their grandpa's arms, 3rd graders proudly showing a project to their grandma, and 5th graders interviewing their grandparents about major historical events on a timeline.  It's a precious day, but this weekend, I have mulled on its deeper importance.  It's more than just sweet.

Yesterday, I was sitting in a MacDonald's drive-through behind a car whose license plate was CARPAYDM.  After I chuckled at the clever way to express Carpe Diem, I started thinking about the movie Dead Poets' Society, a favorite of mine since I saw it in the theater decades ago.  My love for Robin Williams knows no limit, and as a person who loved teachers so much I eventually became one, it's an inspiration.  Most people carried away the phrase Carpe Diem or perhaps quoted "Oh Captain, my Captain" at school, but the scene that has always stuck with me is the one in which Mr. Keating quotes the Walt Whitman poem "Oh Me! Oh Life!" which ends with, 

"That you are here—that life exists and identity, 

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

Carpe Diem essential became YOLO in Latin, basically meaning you should do what you want now, but the end of the Whitman poem should cause you to examine it differently.  You are here now, continuing a story that began long ago.  Watching kids talk to their grandparents about their memories of historical events reminds us of that. The world didn't start with our birth, and it won't end with our death.  "The powerful play goes on."  What we have the opportunity to do in our time here is to "contribute a verse."  The scene ends with Robin Williams looking Ethan Hawke in the eye and saying, "What will your verse be."

Schools are ever-changing plays in many ways.  No matter how nice we are to them, seniors leave every year.  New students join.  Some teachers stay for decades; others are in a school for only a year or two.  Unless you are the school's founder, it was there before you were, and unless you are unfortunate enough to be part of a school's end, it will be there after you.  What you have the opportunity to do while you are there is leave a mark, contribute to a legacy, and leave something for those that follow.  

What will your verse be?