Reggie!

In 1995 Reggie Wills, Burke Dir. of Equity & Inclusion, was teaching in a local elementary school.  One of his 5th grade students was Nathan Fleming.  This January, nearly 20 years later, Nathan somehow found Burke.Word, saw an article about Reggie that had been written a year earlier in 2011, and took the time to write a comment about Reggie on the blog.  Regrettably, I overlooked Nathan’s comment, and didn’t see it and post it to the site until today.

Here’s what Nathan had to say:

Reginald Wills is by far the greatest teacher I have ever had. It is truly noble for a man of his capability to dedicate his life to teaching others and promoting principles of equality and justice. If you ever read this Mr. Wills, please know that you forever changed my life, and I’m sure the lives of countless others.

Nathan Fleming
Former 5th Grade Student (1995?)

Pride can come in many forms, earned and unearned.  But, Nathan’s comment is a reminder about the nature of  lasting pride, the kind of pride that actually produces an almost physical reaction in your heart or catches your breath or tingles your skin.  And that pride is not just about words you hear, or a score you might get, or an award you earn, but is about the acts one does that live on in the lives of others who have been changed for the better.  Nathan’s comment, the work that Reggie has done/is doing – and the work that Burke (and other schools) does in the lives of people in the building and outside of it is something to be proud of.

PS – Reggie is among the humblest of men… so, I’m probably in a heap of trouble w/ him about now…

Burke MS Softball Bengals ’12

The Capitals beat the NY Rangers last night to deadlock their Eastern Conference Series at 3 a-piece.  Ho-hum.

The Nats dropped one to the Pirates, but still stand a-top the National League Eastern Division…. zzzzz.
The real buzz among the DC sports cognoscenti from Capitol Hill to Capitol Heights is the continuing march of the Middle School Softball Girl Bengals to the PVAC Championship Finals with a breath-taking playoff win over a very strong Covenant Life team.

With storm clouds threatening, and the game see-sawing back and forth, these Tigers pitched and hit their way to the final.  Kate S. and Catherine W. continued their solid performance off the mound this season, by holding down a powerful CovLife lineup that defeated Burke in the Finals last year.

All 10 Burkies contributed at the plate and on the basepaths.  Albert Pujols may be struggling at the plate, but Sofia and Aya stayed hot at the dish with key drives during the game.  And Catherine, helping her own cause turned in what proved to be a game-winning triple toward the end of the game, driving in the go-ahead runs.  But for your humble scribe, the play that should be on Sports Center rotation today was the game-saving, championship-earning, all-star, last-second, breath-taking, running-catch by rookie Natanya S. of a  frozen rope fading liner that would have put CovLife back on top in the last inning!!  Last, but certainly not least, Esme won a spontaneously given Good Sportsperson Gatorade from Covenant Life for helping one of their teammates after a collision at First.

The Championship match is at home this coming Monday against Sandy Spring.  Come on out to the old ball yard, there may be a few seats left, and see the team that everyone in DC is talking about!!

Go Bengals!!!

A special thanks goes out to the Coaches: JD, Shala, Sam and Adam K. for an exciting, great season!

Thanks to photo-journalist and dad, Jeff Taylor for the action photo.  Thanks also to veteran sports reporter and conga player Danny Weiss for the reportage.

["50 More Years of Trotsky!!"]

Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers magically weaves together the joy and pain of childhood, the meaning of kinship, the weight of love and loss, the power of imagination and dreams, and the promise and curse of the ticking clock – almost as if Dickens, Freud and Edward Gorey had helped ghostwrite.  The incredible cast brings these timeless themes to life – so much so, that they stay with you long after you leave the theater.

Great reviews are pouring in from the Washington Post, Maryland Theater Guide, DC Theater Scene, Metro Weekly, etc.  The play also just received a Helen Hayes Recommendation! If Helen says so, you and your family gotta go see it!.

Peter Pan is on stage now and runs through March 4 at DC’s H Street Playhouse.  You can buy tickets here.

Congrats to the entire NRTC team, including our very own Cory Frank, former Burke Theater Dir., and Joshua Morgan, who directed last summer’s The Davids.

Lenny, and his driver 7th grade teacher Susan Hearn were in attendance, as was MS Girls Soccer mascot and band-dog Jackie who is catered to by Coach and Band leader John Howard and most any musician that happens by the Band Room.

Lenny--perennial Burke 7th grader

Jackie--the Band Room dog

Suspended in Time

Sometimes, as you approach a beginning, it’s appropriate to start at the end.  The Class of 2011 “graduated” last June.  We tend to think of a graduation as an abrupt and final step, distinct from what came before or what comes after.  But is that right?

The word “graduated” can mean – divided into intervals or to change gradually.  An “interval” is the time or space between two moments or states.

Through this lens graduation is less of an event than an interval connecting one important part of your life to another.  Like the mortarboards suspended in time in the picture above, graduation is a waypoint where things are momentarily at rest, a time of equilibrium and introspection where, in the blink of eye we can scan back and forward to the fleeting images of all the classes, stories, laughter, tears, games and songs that came before and to the journey that lies ahead.

It’s not so different with these last few moments before the first day of school begins.  With the warmth of summer at our backs, who knows what stories new sixth graders may write for themselves this year, or what plans the rising seniors will craft for themselves and their time after graduation, or the potential that awaits all the other students and families as the 2011-2012 school year opens.

With last year in the rear view mirror and the new year on the horizon, take advantage of this quiet interval to watch the performance of Joe Pug’s Hymn 101 by Kevin Messinger and Nora Schlang at last summer’s graduation.  Performed in a sanctuary, the song appropriately is a prayer to the actions and hopes that trailed the graduates as they walked in and those that awaited them as they left.  Or, in other words, as Kevin says in his introduction, the song’s about “movin’ around… and finding yourself…”

Thanks to Mike and Amanda Messinger for the video (Amanda makes a cameo vocal appearance!).

More graduation pics at BurkePix – click here!

http://gallery.me.com/messdukemac#100100&bgcolor=black&view=grid

….can’t mention Pi Day Assemblies without a big shout out to Stacy Smith!!!