On a weekend recently, through an act of herculean will, I convinced myself that the lawn mowing could wait; if I watched another minute of tennis, I thought I’d explode, and though the Netflix movie catalogue is large, there was simply not one that interested me enough to waste data streaming it.
It was then that it appeared, the question, a question as clear as a UHDT tv screen in a darkened room
A question that would take me on little journey, “what are you going to speak about at the Opening mass?”
The easy route would be to use ChatGPT. This AI program is the latest thing. Simply type in your requirements - Year 12, opening mass, final year, great bunch of guys and bingo! Speech.
To be frank, it seemed a little too much like cheating.
So, I turned to the old ways, to the traditional, the time honoured, long established ways… I pulled out my phone, and I went to Google: font of all knowledge, source of ultimate truth and wisdom; sometimes right, sometimes wrong, sometimes fake, sometimes sensational and all of the time ready, accessible and available. Discernment was necessary; information needs to reputable. Where to begin, what might be a good beginning?
I remembered a conversation I’d had with a nice young man in the yard during the first week of school. “What did you do over the Christmas break?” “Rode my motor bike sir.” My journey of discovery began with Suzuki motorbikes.
Click…the DRZ125, the RMZ250, the Hayabusa Gen 3, 1340 cubic centimetres of…hang on Suzuki make cars too… Click…1.4L turbo, red, sporty version; my wife’s got one of those, Suzuki Swift, nice!…and what about Taylor? Click…Taylor Swift, Tay Tay, what’s she up to…a new album, called Midnights (as if one isn’t enough) …here’s a song, Karma; Click…apparently, it’s a jolly electroclash, chillwave, disstrack, that’s Tay Tay’s having a go at Kanye, she’s such a rebel. Click … Wow sale … they’ve got a sale, at Rebel, a shoe sale. And just like, that my journey came to an end.
Shoes! You can wear them to the gym, to a party, to school. There are shoes to look good in, shoes to get noticed in and shoes like the Air Jordan Dior 1’s that at anything from $10,000 and $40,000; you’ll have to apply for a bank loan in. There are shoes for a run, shoes for a walk, shoes for a journey.
Lao Tse, founder of Daoism and writer of the Dao de Ching wrote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” For the young men of Year 12, this year is the final leg of their journey with us. When they stand and look into the distance, the road looks long as it disappears beyond the horizon.
Just as St Francis wore sandals, Blessed Edmund, no doubt, wore boots; our young men will need to choose their shoes and take that first step. They will need to choose to take the journey. In learning, leadership and life, the road to success is about making a choice to commit. Committing to learning, committing to leading, committing to doing their part and living their lives so they make a difference.
Whether they wear steel-capped boots, or Desert boots or RM Williams boots, Asics runners, Under Armour Trainers or Air Jordan 4s (the Travis Scott Purple variety, they look nice), this year is theirs, to work diligently, play intensely and finish well. For them, it will be the chance, tie up the laces on preferred shoes and contribute as they can in their way to the greater whole.
This year the Year 12 cohort has chosen as their theme “Be Bold Never Fold”. In their journey, I encourage them to be bold, to take every opportunity and embrace it with all the energy and enthusiasm they can muster. I urge them to be courageous, to not be scared of giving something a go, to not fear failing or looking uncool. It’s in moments of humility that we learn.
In what they learn, in the relationships they form, in the life they lead, there will be times to walk, times to run and times to just stop and smell the roses. However, each step they take, small or big, fast or slow, constant, sequential, deliberate will move them ever closer to the values we at St Edmunds hold true; values represented by our vision and mission, faith, community, compassion, living simply and making a difference.
The moments here for the men of Year 12 are numbered. It’s February, and the final leg of the journey is beginning. Between now and October, there will be assignments, exams, certificates. They will get things right and get things wrong, they will succeed and fail, but they will celebrate and learn. When the final roll call is taken; for some, it will come all too soon. It’ll seem as if they’ve just put their shoes on to begin, and before they can say, “Are we there yet?” they are turning to look back at the road travelled, saying, “How did we get here?” It will be when they take their first steps away from this place, our place here on the Hill.
Hopefully, they will have walked the journey in their own shoes, perhaps even taken time to walk a mile in the shoes of another and the more steps taken, the more comfortable they will have become with who they are.
The journey of a thousand miles may begin with one step, but it’s completed one step at a time.
Our culture is about living simply and striving to achieve. Perhaps our young men will get there first time or perhaps need to take the longer road. I trust they will have the resilience, no matter what, to keep going one step at a time until they have made their difference in the shoes of a son, a brother or partner, maybe one day in the shoes of a father, but always as an Eddies Man.
