PAVEing a Blog

Everything moves as fast as the hail that surprises you in the middle of a sudden thunder/rainstorm – dashing then full out galloping across block after block, meeting the beginning of a rainstorm as you hear it approach, dogs in tow becoming greyhounds sensing the urgency to miss the onslaught of a storm that is a regularity; up the stairs, into the dry safe place, back out, lurching to the left out the door grabbing the umbrella, closing the hatch to the roof on the way out or in was it, that is how fast these moments have been moving.

Back down three blocks, to catch the opening art gala promised at 6:00 – without dogs – watching a cascade of water fall behind the entrance that verifies I have been admitted to the opening – art – art everywhere in the form of hummingbirds – porcelain, shells made into lamps, graceful collections of fabric that frame a bedroom, treasures from room to room in this outdoors yet indoors gala – surrounded by friends just in from Indonesia – friends, promised, commitments blend together on the downpours all around us –

Where to? You to Polanco by 7:30 – we head to a Bodega, or to a warm, cozy retreat from the Mexican monsoon around us – hail welcomes our feet as we find ourselves at Belmonda, choosing a temporary hideaway from the violence of the natural world outside.

Talks of what was in Mexico, what IS in Indonesia, random pieces of conversation such as, “You still see that woman that you fell in love with that cuts your hair?” – relishing the fact that we see open heartedness and open mindedness where we once say one single narrow outlook on others and what we thought was the world around us – friendships, reminiscent of smiles, causal trips on a lazy Saturday and Sunday in bazaars in between streets, on the tip of our tongues as out eyelids begin to dance shut, that we are the lucky ones to have seen and experienced a true example of the world around us – and are living it.

Life is made up of these busy and hurried moments and yet the friendships that are squeezed in between from far away lands, that hold the memories in lock and key until they can be opened back up again with just the right combination, in this case, the connection of friends together again to reopen the moments that they remember and treasure the most; these moments define them as people no matter where they go.

Quite satisfying glimpses for a rainy Thursday evening, being tucked away again as another example of the beauty one finds in the middle of Mexico City.

Interesting two words and I never really thought about them.  Peace talks.  I mean, of course the emphasis could be on peace saying THAT talks more than anything else.  Then of course the actual act of talks, that usually occur between political leaders and well, about peace.  Then, I found another definition on my own the other day.

Sitting down, (which rarely happens) and realizing, that I had a chance a priceless opportunity, to literally discuss life, the future etc with one of the ASF graduates, perhaps was one of the single most priceless moments I had following capping, graduation, the whole difficult, yet memorable, yet stressful week.  Literally, just deciding to stop, sit, and talk and enjoy moments with the graduate and the world slipped away.  It was one of the single best moments ever I can recall.  It started something like this…

“How does post graduation feel?”  “Strange, different, scary…”  This lead to from pretty simple to some amazing reflections on traveling to the United States to study and then how one would see Mexico from the United States.  One comment stood out from the others. “I love Mexico’s problems!”  I have to agree.  I had never lived long term in another county BUT the United States.  But for me personally, I find that the urge to push, push, push ahead has slipped away, somewhere along the way, I finally have found the ability to slow things down, see universal. world perspectives more clearly, including how I view Mexico and being IN Mexico, seeing the day to day life and understanding it so much more clearly.  I love my home country but appreciate what Mexico has brought to me in the form of a life and realizing the misunderstandings I had about another country are not the reality at all, this has had a huge impression on me.

I loved to hear this particular graduate knew enough that going to the United States would enhance her skills and knowledge in art, yet, she also realized Mexico was where her heart was.  I could relate because I have fallen in love with Mexico three time over at least, but, also know, I can always go back to visit in the United States and that is a huge privilege to do both.  I see so much heart in this graduate, and potential, and I realized so much of the valuable moments are the moments we take out of a prescheduled day, a scheduled day I would always maintain of a treadmill like pace in the states, and was thankful for this chance to just stop everything and list to how this graduate saw things, felt things, and just wanted to see her country play a role in her future.  Moments like these? Priceless.

I felt so lucky to be have fallen into a situation where I can slow things down to reflect on them, enjoy the company of amazing talent in the young students around me, and have them okay with me being a part of their moving forward.  I am excited and know I am lucky to have been able to see my life change for the netter in slowing things down, but also in being a part of so many talented and rewarding individuals.  It has changed my life in the process for the better, while I take in the amazing life that Mexico has to offer me, and the amazing lives of the students around me.  A good day for sure, where a sense of peace just settled in among and around me.  🙂

Sometimes the responses I receive from the blog are well, I LOVE. Here is one I think you will LOVE.  Kudos back to the Les Miserables cast.  🙂

“I’m struck by your entry on Les Miserable on two levels. Your students must truly dig learning from and with you. Its obvious that you love them and their unique spirits. Or put another way, you know that to know is to be known. And to be known is to know. All are lucky here. Second, your school must be bomb amazing to stage such a play. Reading this entry, including how you spent real time on each person makes me think of these two pieces I don’t think I shared with you in my last note. As background, a friend has a leader and organizational blog. In a recent entry, he notes the NBA MVP acceptance speech by Kevin Durant and a related article. Thought I’d share both. They resonate ON MANY levels and may you, too, especially in the context of the power of the speech and your blog entry.

ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

RELATED ARTICLE

Third, I enjoyed your longer recent entry. One, perhaps it is time I invest time in Facebook; your explanation on why Facebook is good is powerful!  You write about how you “want to change how people saw librarians…that you want to change a stereotype.” I love this and have a question. I agree that librarians’ power, like all professionals, lie in discipline and working within lines, creativity to see how and when to cross sector boundaries, and the passion to drive the crossing (READ: love). Unlike many librarians, you seemingly have a bit more bandwidth to push the boundaries (and sustain the work to do it). Hurrah for you! Question. As I said when we met, you seem to be knee deep into action learning or experiential education–horses, theatre, student-led publishing, etc. In doing, the learning lives. If true, is it that you want to change a stereotype or that you simply want to be “you” in the context of a profession whose walls can and probably should be pushed? Lastly, when we next meet, lets discuss your appreciation for this line from Les Mis, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”  Including, to hear and heed the still small voice, the gut as you call it, is to “to love and respect the God that is within…”: “

Of course you were DYING for a history explanation, right?

1) Tooth Capping or ‘Crowning’ is a procedure used by dentists for a number of reasons. From cosmetically altering your smile to repairing decayed / broken teeth, crowning is a procedure that involves essentially bonding porcelain, ceramic or metallic cover over the tooth in order to protect and stabilize it. Performed correctly, the procedure can be invisible, painless and it can last for a decade or longer.

2) Capping ceremony is a ceremony held when a boy turns 13 years of age in china. It is normally held on February in an ancestral temple and the date is chosen by the person to be capped by divination. Ceremonial dresses are worn by the host, capping assistant and the father of the person to be capped.

3) THE CAPPING CEREMONY.
The ceremony of graduation is still called in New Zealand, in imitation of Scottish usage, and in remembrance of medieval practice, the capping ceremony; although there is no longer any capping and often very little ceremony. It consisted originally PAGE 12in the public initiation of a new doctor, master, or professor—his formal entrance upon the duties of his new office. It may be said to have consisted of four parts, the first of which was the formal granting of a license to teach in some particular faculty, i.e. formal admission as a master of the University. The form of admission of graduates in Oxford is worded to this day as a license to teach. Secondly, the new graduate is publicly presented or invested with the insignia of his office, namely a ring, a book, a chair, and a cap. The ring and the book have disappeared. The chair is still remembered in the customary mode of speech by which we term the professorship of law or of Latin the chair of law or Latin; but in standing up to lecture the modern professor has grievously departed from the more luxurious and dignified habit of his predecessors. The cap was the square biretta, which in a more or less modified form is still a familiar feature of academic costume. It was the recognised badge of an academic teacher. The third part of the capping ceremony was an inaugural lecture delivered by the new candidate—this being the public commencement of his duties. To this day in Scotland when a new judge is appointed, the ceremony of his elevation to the bench includes the trial of a case and a judgment delivered by him in the presence of his colleagues. The fourth and last part of the capping ceremony was a banquet, at which the new member of the University entertained his colleagues. In New Zealand the banquet still exists, but by some strange transformation the new graduates are the guests instead of the hosts.

4) Associated with Nursing and providing nurses with their caps as a sign of eligible for graduation and service.

I am not sure about you, but on May 28, 2014 and in 2013, and n 2012, Capping Ceremony, while I NEVER, EVER heard of it before coming to The American School Foundation in Mexico City – I walked away NEVER forgetting that I wanted to internalize this ceremony forever.  Sound crazy that you do not want to leave somewhere partially because of this ceremony?  Well take this in and let me know what you think…

You watch individuals grow, offer advice, and then watch them mature and progress, and do amazing things al throughout the school year, and in addition to watching them leap over the obstacles that fall in their way during school, you realize, this individual has become in retrospect, a reflection of me, and sometimes it occurs without even you REALIZING it.  Similar to this year, this all happened within what sometimes feels like NANO seconds.  I mean literally, instants.  Yet, this ceremony, where was are graciously asked to place the graduation cap on students who have asked us to, symbolizes more than the act.

Okay back up, realize this, some individuals do hold this as a competition to see how many they can cap, how many gifts they will receive, and on and on, yet remember this – my first year, I was new, I never capped anyone, and I walked away absolutely THANKFUL I was in the theatre watching some amazing people I worked with that first year – walk across that stage and be recognized.  It is NOT about the act, being asked, receiving gifts, none of that, if you are lucky enough to see an amazing young person who you have had something to do with being there, and you see the at capping ceremony, I think it might change your life.  I am amazed and beyond words when someone asked me to partake in the act of doing this, but make no mistake, the only thing I cherish after more than anything else, is seeing them become the young man/woman they are and chaining the world, which I have no doubt they will go onto do.

When you are asked, of course it is amazing as well, and an honor, but I feel bad for those who believe that gifts or being asked is the ultimate sign of you having an influence of their life, NO WAY.  Being a part of their life changes you and them and leaves a piece of your motivation and creativity with them.  Remember that, and in doing so, and knowing that, when you approach next year, I feel, for me anyway, that is a HUGE motivation to be the best you can all year so that does happen by the end of the year.

In my ASF lifetime (three years) I have been graciously asked to cap three individuals, Camila, Daniela, and Lucia.  While I was in the audience this year, and last year, of course I teared up, I mean I TEARED UP.  MAJORLY.  A few times.  See?  I did not need to cap someone to feel that emotion because they were there with me in my heart without doing anything.  I thought of the times we laughed effortlessly, looked back on something they did that was like, “Whoa.  You just made my year in seeing your talent displayed for so many others to share… or…You have given me the best gift ever and that of being successful, I love you so much for the young man or woman you are becoming and already are.”

So you see, capping ceremony is simply AMAZING.  It is breathtaking, it is a snapshot that freezes the progression of these very young leaders from moving forward and away from you for just an afternoon, just.  Do not think placing a cap on someone’s head in front of a theatre of parents, faculty, and more is an easy thing either, um, if I told you there is a huge technique to it, would you believe me?  Trust me, it is an operation worthy of when I watched my Dad place an engine in a new vehicle overnight, and you think I am joking, lol.  (I loved the fact that me capes (new word) told me that could take the front and I could take the back, I felt I was ready to build a skyscraper.  Yet, they were right.  We released the moment and that hug I gave and received from them, it broke me a little inside but yet there was not better feeling, IN THE WORLD, than that hug. if it occurred on stage, occurred on graduation, well honestly, it did not matter, I just loved the hug.

Of course for me, something that they have picked out and have given me well, is priceless and the same was true all three times, I cherish what I receive in addition to the time they have give me on this special day, but just seeing the and feeling their pride in honoring their ability to share what they have with the future, THAT is the ticket my friends, something I try to put into words here, but I will always fall short on this.

I like to build in other little traditions, just to add to their amazing day but one of my favorite is providing them a letter that they receive to take with them. This year I did get an extra bonus, in helping provide a profile of one of the young ladies as she receives a scholarship, and any chance I can to give these young women an advantage, absolutely YES.  I provided this one particular letter below, and have to let you know, yes, coping with this is mental, it plays on your emotions and mentally prepares you for saying good bye, though I never have been able to quite reach that point even after three years thanks to the “amazingess” of the young scholars we see walk across that stage.

Congrats to everyone, congrats to Daniela and Lucia in my heart as well, and yes, this is Capping…not dental, kind of mental, and full of promise.  🙂

Lucia as artist

…if you witnessed something as powerful as ASF’s production of Les Miserables, then you have walked away with knowing you received quite a powerful gift.  It has been difficult to next to impossible to find the words to take all the experiences that flowed from so many sources and direct them to a solid, definite focus of feeling that wraps up what exactly happened on stage over the past five shows. Yet, there is the need to truly make the effort to get across the sense of achievement that did occur.

After a long day, or a stressful one, or even a loud one, often when I return home, I know I am one of the luckiest people to have a home to return to, where I can close the door, and instantly, literally, I get this sense of being able to melt into my couch, bed, or favorite reading spot, and the world and all the things that are on my To Do list disappear and what remains is that feeling of being perfectly content.  That sense of safety, security, and just being truly at home, relaxed, and just HOME, it is always the place, if it is home you appreciate, a home that fits your personality, where you just feel absolutely right.  Every single one of the members of the Les Miserables cast were able to turn the Fine Arts Center into that exact type of home base, magnet for a place to be, for five shows.  If they were able to do that for attendees, think of how difficult it was to walk away from this moment on the very last evening of May 24, 2014.  I do believe everyone left with a lump in their throat and a weight in their heart, and still carry the memories that reached past the stage and touched them the most.

Attending every show to some I am sure seems like overkill.  It would from the sound of it if being told this is what you planned or even did.  Yet, believe it or not, for myself I wanted more shows, I felt that comfort of seeing familiar friends, and that feeling of being uplifted from so many scenes.  You could easily look to the technical aspects that sometimes could blur the image for some, as there will be technical issues that involve sound, reverb, and such – yet, the power, talent, and passion for what was being delivered came through every single time and never allowed such events to get in the way. On top of that, add the details that often go overlooked and you realize there is so much more here than meets the eye, touches the hearts, and than is first heard.   I found myself too fixated on the very elements of voice, emotion, and a powerful storyline for anything to get in the way, and I found this every single night.  I am not sure I could point out an event that was as powerful thanks to the Drama Club, Theatre Technical Club, parents, and sponsors, and let the audience feel as if they were a part of the amazing storyline that make up Les Miserables.

What I did discover was the many unseen facets of this production, that made individuals even more dear to my heart.  Being able to see the excitement and preparation behind the stage, in the light and sound booth, on stage, in the dressing rooms, outside, was a re emphasis in witnessing the passion, the humbleness, the commitment, and the striving for truly bringing Les Miserables to life to everyone involved, and I mean everyone.  Despite this journey through emotions for five shows, I found I would still discover new revelations that I had taken for granted, right up to the last night.

Meeting Paloma M. was yet one more page that had been left unturned while I soaked in Les Miserables night after night.  If you truly sit down and make a list of all the events that occur without much thought of how, that list becomes quite extensive.  Considering the elaborate makeup, adding just the right amount to not seem freakish, an at first, it does some like there are way more layers of makeup on characters than needed, until you see the lights down and the characters on stage. Then you realize Paloma has just made magic.  Every time there is a scene change, every time a character grows older, every time a character runs off staff and nowise another character, think of the countless transitions that need to occur based on makeup rather than prosthetics like fake noses, eyebrows, etc. I never had and realizing the depth of commitment Paloma and so many others brought to this production willingly is a statement about what this production meant to everyone involved.

In talking with Paloma on that last evening’s show, many things were expressed that rang true I think for many.  Being a part of a family from day one, being supported by everyone, a sense of humbleness for being a part of this production seeped from Paloma’s words.  Having never done this type of work before, Paloma truly pulled off a masterpiece with the supporting makeup artists for this production.  As you listened to Paloma tell of how much she took away from this experience, learning how to be patient, not pressuring yourself but supporting others, you begin to realize how everyone in this production became a better person overall from the very things that tied them to one another.  Trial and error helped her perfect the process of improving aspects of this production, and that element of always being here, being there, rapidly moving from one location to another, is shockingly surprising win the last day of production appears like a ghost out of the mist. Paloma’s amazing contribution to Les Mis, and support of all the makeup members (it is worth checking that program for all their names) was just one of many groups that did go unseen as I found out in a previous look at the sound, light, and stage crew) that overall contributed to a smashing success.

As I sat there on the last show, I dimly had a difficult time finding the words.  At all.  Even today.  It was perhaps the greatest gift ever given to be asked to helped unveil a plaque and be a part of this experience for five shows, and I recalled the first day I walked into the FAC and saw a rather large group circled on stage, watching the UTube videos of scenes.  I had no idea what would become perhaps the most emotional walk through the storyline of Les Miserables.  I feel even today, each contributor to this production has created their own storyline as a result of this product, which is always bittersweet when it comes to a finality.  I am truly amazed at the humbleness that poured from every individual involved, it was impossible to miss this in just observing, talking, and listening to what unfolded since day one.

I remember the natal high I felt when I was younger and came back from a winter camp far away from home, where I made friendships overnight with individuals I previously never know.  Be it from the inner tube adventures in the snow, the late night bonfire where we revealed how much we had grown in a short time among what used to be strangers to so many things that could not be explained and put into words fro anyone outside that experience.  I felt the same feeling each night I returned from this  Les Miserables production, and all the members were gracious enough to open the door to let me in time after time.  For that I cannot possibly reach any level of thanks, because somewhere wrapped up in that, is the fact that I can’t shake that feeling even after the production, nor do I want to.  Each individual, whether I knew them or not, caused me, and still do, to smile constantly becauseI saw the spring in their step, the smile they produced, and saw the heavy heartedness of a production that became their for so long come to a closing. It remains in me as well.

Yet, truly perhaps the most famous quotes from Les Miserables,

“To love another person is to see the face of God.”

stood to represent what each member responsible for Les Mis brought to each of us.  From the amazing and soul reaching voices, the acting, the details that normally go unnoticed, and the heartfelt passion each member did feel and sent our way, because they lived that quote on and off stage, the Les Miserables members brought each of us home every night.  I can think of no other place I would be, among the lights, the sound, the voices, and the beauty, that became Les Miserables thanks to so many people I came to love over the course of five shows.  I know everyone felt this as well from the silence, as well as from the emotions we felt that very last night.  There can be no greater gift when this is realized and given freely from one individual to another.  I realize this as I carry with me each smile, each hug, each kind word I received each and every moment I was lucky enough to be around each and every contributor to the production.  As a result, I am made whole again 🙂