A Week of Love (05-07-07)

With so much going on this week, I have given a lot of thought to what to write. We’ve celebrated our athletes at the Athletic Banquet, we’ve enjoyed our musicians at the annual dinner theater, we’ve looked to the future of FCCLA at their Officer Installation Dinner, and now I sit here writing in the hospitality room of 2A State Forensics in Clearwater, Kansas.

What a week.

The buzz at this tournament is not so much about Forensics as it is about the Greensburg tornado. The tournament host is Deerfield. While most of their team arrived early to set up the school, four member of their track team, along with their coach hit the road after a track meet.

They were stopped outside of Greensburg. The coach was an EMT, and the four students were all certified life guards, and without blinking an eye, they all pitched in and did what they could to help, mainly providing critical triage and transportation of the wounded to area hospitals and shelters.

The last four member of the Deerfield forensics team arrived safely at their Wichita hotel after three in the morning, and as I write this, these courageous and caring kids are somehow competing.

So, what to write amid so much activity, so much celebration, and now, amid so much destruction, drama, courage and compassion?

The answer came to me from the Deerfield coach, who gave a moving speech during the morning’s coaches and judges meeting. She said, “I have been teaching for many years, and I have seen kids change, and change, and change. But one this that has remained constant in all the years is that kids love to loved, love to be appreciated, and love to be involved.”

To the Deerfield coach: Thank you. I could not have said it better if I had thought about it all year. Her comments aptly captures all I have seen and heard this week.

All of the banquets and award ceremonies have been about love. We love our athletes for their determination and perspiration. We love our musicians, actors, and other artists for their talent and dedication. During the year, we as adults ask for the students to look up to us for guidance and knowledge. But at this time of year, the tables are turned and it is our turn to look up to our students. They become our heroes as they struggle to better themselves and achieve usually unattainable goals.
But most of all we love our kids because they love to be loved. They may not always admit it, and they may not always thank us, but we know that our kids need us and that we need them. Our children hold in their tender hearts and hands all our hopes and dreams, all of our pride and all our worst fears.

So I say, let’s celebrate them every chance we get. Whether we celebrate their feats on the fields and courts and mats and tracks, or whether we bask in their songs, their speeches or their art, I say we never miss a moment to show these younger versions of ourselves just how much they mean to us.

We never know which way or how hard the wind will blow. We just know that someday we will turn to the fine young men and women, and because we loved them, they will love us in return.

They already know how to give back to us, even if it means working in the wind and rain through the wee hours of the morning on the night before State Forensics. Those kids from Deerfield gave a lot of love last night. Now it is up to us to make this week of love last all year.