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OUR STORIES
​

Time Is A Limited Commodity

9/16/2019

5 Comments

 
​ Our buses made short work of the distance between Brooklyn and the Eastern Shore. Early September corn stands taller than a tall human—leaves, tassels, ears: all gone yellow and dry. The land stretches wide and flat reminding us that we are near Chesapeake Bay and beyond that the Atlantic. Rising sea levels, warming temperatures—a world at risk—for all the beauty and because of it we are asking the eighth graders to think hard this year about what happens next for them as individuals as members of a local and global community. This is a complicated challenge for our students and it will requires hours of consideration yet to come this year.

    Our 77 students and 14 chaperones are spending the first night at Camp Pecometh on the edge of the tidal Chester River. The cabins are as simple as shucked corn cobs—simple bunk beds and mattresses with screen windows. To get here means navigating two-lane back roads past small farms. Turkey buzzards navigate the humid air with surprising delicacy, with barely a wing flap between perches. We are far from the congestion and distraction of the city. Acres of meadow allow the 8th graders to get a sense of what they call these days “forest bathing” in Japan. It is so helpful to change environments, leave cell phones and the digital world behind. A single caterpillar draws a cluster of students—intrigued and a touch nervous about its toxicity. I hide my smile but it is gratifying to see them change with change, however small. Our world is nothing if not details. We find principles based on minute observations. 

   One of the counselors today said, “Let’s get going because time is a limited commodity.” I hope our students remember that.

   On the way down we stopped at the Walt Whitman rest area. Whitman never wrote an ode to capitalism and rest rooms but our own Brooklyn poet would be happy, one can only imagine, to know that to grow up in Brooklyn in 2019 means — still — to learn how to encounter America.

—Jim S.
5 Comments
Anya
9/16/2019 02:06:14 pm

Lovely report! Jewish mom asks: What'd they have for lunch/dinner?

Reply
Kathy Grandchamps
9/16/2019 04:55:42 pm

I knew from the poetic prose that Mr. Shapiro wrote this first blog post. Our family misses you, yet we hope that you are out there living up this "precious commodity" we call life! Our children are so fortunate. Peace. Kathy.

Reply
Aparna Pappu
9/17/2019 04:54:01 am

What a beautiful way to start the day - reading Mr Shapiro's wonderful post. That reminder to appreciate nature and that time is a precious commodity holds back here in Brooklyn as well.
Thanks for sharing.
A
PS my 4th grader and I had a chuckle about the humble caterpillar being consider toxic too

Reply
Pink Pasdar
9/17/2019 07:07:38 am

Jim Shapiro, I'd recognize your voice anywhere. Only you can make a elegy out of buses and a rest stop. With immense gratitude, I look forward to more field reports.

Reply
Chad Ruble
9/17/2019 10:31:13 am

A Mr. Shapiro cameo! What a pleasant surprise to be reading your inimitable prose. I have to confess that I checked the date of the blog more than a few times to make sure I wasn't reading last year's. What a nice coda for the students to begin their last middle school year with some time with you. It's sweeter than a post-credit scene in a Marvel movie you didn't really want to end.

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  • Welcome
  • 2019
    • Eastern Shore >
      • Itinerary
      • Blog
    • Costa Rica >
      • Blog
      • Itinerary
      • Prepare to Go
    • India >
      • Blog
      • Flights
      • Prepare to Go
    • Tanzania >
      • Blog
      • Itinerary
      • Prepare to Go
  • 2018
    • Costa Rica >
      • Blog
    • India >
      • Blog
    • Eastern Shore >
      • Blog