Champions of the Heart

If you are a Spartan athletic fan, you either attended the boys state championship game or you by now know the outcome. Gaston Day lost by two points in double overtime to Carmel Christian. Congratulations to Carmel Christian on their hard-fought victory.

My son Isaac, a 2007 GDS graduate, and I were there for the semi-finals victory at Westchester Country Day over Asheville Christian on Friday afternoon, spent the night in Winston-Salem, and arrived at Forsyth Country Day for the noon championship game. It was a great game between two great teams. We were up by ten points at half-time, and things looked so hopeful. Carmel Christian fought back. At the end of regulation, Gaston Day had a close-range shot to win the game that literally hung on the rim for what seemed to me like three seconds before finally trickling out. If all the Spartan fans in the gym could have tilted the planet slightly and made that ball drop through the hoop, we would have. At the end of the second overtime, we had a three-point shot at the buzzer that also would have won the game. Alas, the shot did not go in, and we lost by two points. All of us wanted so badly to win. But nobody more badly than Coach Trent McCallister, Coach Jody Patton, Coach Ed Addie, and our players. 

What makes this loss so tough is just how much we admire and respect the varsity basketball team and its coaches and how fitting it would have been for them to win. They worked so hard to be the best, and they came up one point short in regulation, one point short in the first overtime, and three points short in the last overtime. Part of the reason their loss is so hard for me is that I wanted it so badly for them. They were so deserving!!!

Every single player on the team is a gentleman and a scholar. That may sound cliché but in their case it is absolutely true. The basketball players are our classmates, friends, and students. They are humble, kind, hardworking, and talented. The four seniors--Nate Hinton, Quan McCluney, M. J. Armstrong, and Bailey Gardin--have provided us with so much entertainment and pride with their accomplishments on the court. But they made us even prouder with their hard work in the classroom and their laughter and friendliness in the hallways.

Those of you who have heard my graduation charge know that one of my favorite passages in Scripture is Romans 5:4 which talks about the way suffering produces character, and character produces perseverance, and perseverance produces hope. Our varsity boys basketball team embodies character, perseverance, and hope. In all the things that truly matter in life, they are winners. I look forward to following their careers after they graduate from Gaston Day and watching them continue to grow as young men and accomplish things for themselves, their families, and their communities. I am so proud of the boys varsity basketball team, most of all because of their individual characters. 

This basketball team and their season will always be special to me. Part of the reason is the grace and skill with which they played, the fierceness with which they competed, and their unselfishness. They were a beautiful team. But even more important, they were beautiful teammates, classmates, and friends. They embodied the spirit and the values of our school. The boys varsity basketball team and the rest of the school truly belonged to each other. 

Thank you 2017-2018 boys varsity basketball for representing the best of Gaston Day School. You gave us your all, and it was more than we ever could have asked for. You are champions of our hearts. 

Visiting Wendell Berry

How often does a person not only get to meet their hero, but also to visit with her or him in her/his home for two hours? That is exactly what happened to me yesterday (Sunday, February 5, 2018) when my son Isaac and I travelled to Wendell Berry's farm outside Port Royal, Kentucky, and visited with 83-year-old Wendell and his wife Tanya.

For those of you who have never heard of Wendell Berry, Wikipedia describes him as an American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic. According to the description in Amazon books, Berry's 1977 book, The Unsettling of America, "has been recognized as a classic of American letters. In it, Wendell Berry argues that good farming is a cultural and spiritual discipline. Today's agribusiness, however, takes farming out of its cultural context and away from families. As a result, we as a nation are more estranged from the land--from the intimate knowledge, love and care of it." Berry is the author of many works of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction essays and received the National Humanities Medal in 2010 and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. He is arguably America's most important cultural critic and often described as our modern-day Thoreau.

I first began reading Berry's essays in the early 1980s while in graduate school and was touched by his insistence that caring for the land and for our neighbors is connected. Giving up a high-profile position as a college professor at one of the nation's most prestigious universities early in his adult career, Berry moved back to his family land in rural Kentucky where he and Tanya raised their two children, and where he has practiced sustainable agriculture ever since. There he raises sheep and uses draft horses to work the land. And he writes and writes. Everything Berry does involves caring for creation and for his neighbors. To me, Wendell Berry has lived out his vision of a good life, one lived in harmony with the land, with his neighbors, and in the place where he grew up. His example influenced my decision to come back home to be head of school here instead of pursuing other jobs elsewhere.

Here is how I came to visit him. My son Isaac, who is an administrator at Christ School near Asheville, has a colleague who is a close friend of a close friend of Wendell Berry. Somehow, Isaac parlayed that relationship into an invitation from Wendell Berry to come visit him. We drove up to Lexington, Kentucky, on Saturday, spent the night, and drove to the Berry farm yesterday afternoon for our 3pm appointment. Berry's modest white farmhouse sits on a hill less than 100 yards above the Kentucky River, which is about the size of the Catawba with big hills on each side. There are lots of sheep on his hillside pastures and also a fair number of large solar panels, which reflect his commitment to clean energy.

What was my hero like? He was warm, funny, an incredible story teller, laughed easily at himself, a good listener, and, at times, profoundly moving. We covered a lot of territory in our conversation over two hours, helped in part by the fact that I have read everything he has ever written and adopted a lot of his thoughts and beliefs as my own.

Here are moments I will never forget from our conversation. Wendell Berry talking to my son Isaac about difficult years he spent at a military boarding school. He mentioned that he never told his parents about how hard and unpleasant it was there. Isaac--in the most forthright and disarming way--asked him why he never told them. Berry's response was unbelievably moving and honest as he spoke with great feeling of wanting to shield his parents and, especially, his mother from all knowledge of the brutality of military school.

Wiley Cash

Another memorable moment happened when Berry described Ernest Gaines as his close friend and an author whose beliefs most resemble his own. I remembered that Wiley Cash, GDS alum and best selling novelist, studied under Gaines. Wendell Berry was fascinated to learn about Wiley Cash and
intends to read his books. I was thrilled to make the connection and proud to tell Berry about Cash.

After about an hour, I asked Wendell--he insisted I call him by his first name--if we should be leaving. He said, "No. I am enjoying your visit. It is not making me tired at all. Stay longer." So we spent another hour in the most delightful company. When Isaac and I left, we looked at each other and wondered if our visit really had happened or was it all just a really marvelous dream.

Thank you, Wendell, for your warm hospitality and for your profound influence of my life and thought. I will never forget the opportunity for Isaac and me to sit with you and Tanya and talk about things that matter.