Weekly Message from Head of School 2023/05/14-2023/05/20
“By Leaves We Live.” - Patrick Geddes
As you enter our high school library you will be greeted by a beautiful piece of art commissioned by Keystone’s founding Head of School and Honorary Trustee Malcolm McKenzie. It is a timeless slate engraving by Caroline Webb, a celebrated master craftsperson from the UK with the quotation of botanist Patrick Geddes, “By Leaves We Live”.
Last year at the class of 2022’s graduation ceremony, Malcolm described the three important meanings of the phrase. First, the fragile natural order of the world in which our very existence depends on our capacity to protect our environment. The delicate web of life in which life-sustaining oxygen is only available to us by the grace of the plants, and their leaves, that produce it. Malcolm’s first message to the class was that they must think and act urgently on “saving our species, our people, and nature’s diversity.”
The second meaning of the quote is the lifegiving power of reading, and learning—leaves being a word for pages of paper. This points to the decision to hang these words in our beloved high school library, were just as plant leaves provide us with the molecular building blocks of our metabolic survival, Malcom says, “reading is also life-giving and life-preserving".
The reason that we pause wistfully at this quotation in this time of year is about the third meaning of this quotation—the leaves, or departures that we make or witness across a lifetime.
“Saying goodbye,” Malcolm reflects, “[…]is an essential part of our humanity. And it is the manner of our leave-taking, how and in what spirit we say goodbye, that means everything for when we come together again.” Earlier today we began to say our goodbyes to the members of the graduating class of 2023. They were celebrated by their school mates in a parade around campus and honored with our first high school assembly back in our newly re-opened Performing Arts Center earlier this afternoon. This evening, they enjoyed the Archway Ceremony, in which their leadership was formally passed to our current 11th grade students. Thinking about “how and in what spirit we say goodbye” does indeed prepare us for a life of connection and meaning. In our new “world school” we must be practiced and expert at goodbyes, because if we are to live in a diverse global community, we will have more than our share of them as our personal and professional networks will include humans from all corners of the globe.
Goodbyes are not the end, just a formal acknowledgement that we have begun the wait until we meet again. And sure enough, just a couple of short weeks later, on June 9th, we will welcome members of the Keystone Alumni community (including the members of the class of 2023!) back to campus for our Keystone Alumni Reunion. As the numbers of our alumni grow with each passing year, the annual event will become another one of these ways that we honor Geddes words, “By Leaves We Live.” And we look forward to welcoming back a very special guest to campus, our founding Head of School! Malcom was the first to tell this community that hope for reunion is the best salve for the melancholy in goodbye. We abide in gratitude for all of it.
Wishing you all a lovely week,
Emily
