FLEX TIME ALUMNUS ON CAMPUS
‘ Ask No Guarantees, Ask for No Security: See the World’ By Mike Kennedy ’99
A
S HE sat in the Old City — in the ornately designed lounge of his hotel in the Arab quarter of Jerusalem
— Tommy Mulvoy ’96 scanned an ominous, flashflood-like warning from the U.S. State Department,
“I realized that a true sense of failure and regret would have settled into the deepest recesses of my soul. I couldn’t turn back.”
urging Americans to defer travel to the West Bank immediately. “Violent demonstrations, kidnappings, and shootings are unpredictable and can occur at any time,” the message read, forebodingly. It was the fall of 2008: Mulvoy was in the midst of a five-month, 20-country tour of the world, his goal to stuff his senses with the Department’s warnings of “shoot-
at Mary McDowell Friends School, a
central objective to become physi-
room for the night, not reading or
ings,” “kidnappings,” and “gun
Quaker school in Brooklyn, N.Y., for
cally and emotionally closer to the
returning to another word of the
battles.”
students with learning disabilities,
Israeli–Palestinian Separation Wall.
message. Sleepless hours of tossing
“The immediacy of the strangers’
and turning, of endless wondering
generosity and their spirit of engage-
Switzerland, with his new bride,
and wavering, awaited him.
ment decisively won the battle that
Vicky, a native of London.
history that he taught, his most
“I taught the Israeli–Palestinian conflict for six years at Brunswick in my World Cultures class,” said
He got up and headed to his
When he awakened, Mulvoy had
I had struggled with the previous
Mulvoy will next venture to Basel,
On campus to encourage
the 1996 ’Wick graduate, who also
made up his mind, deciding to press
night,” he said. “It was an influential
students to pursue the Study
worked in the Academic Support
on to the Wall despite the clear and
victory that continues to rule my life
Abroad and Foreign Language
Office and coached hockey, cross
present threats of danger — soon
today.”
Immersion Programs, Mulvoy left
country, and lacrosse during his
crossing into Ramallah at the infa-
professional return to his alma
mous Qalandia Checkpoint.
For Mulvoy, that life has since
his fellow Bruins with a lasting
taken him to King’s Academy in
piece of advice — one he found
“I realized that a true sense
Amman, Jordan — a country very
while in the literary depths of Ray
“But, as much as I studied the
of failure and regret would have
much then (and now) in the throes
Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.
barrier, my lessons only scratched
settled into the deepest recesses
of enormous political change —
the surface of the Separation Wall’s
of my soul,” Mulvoy explained to
where he taught for two years, from
than any dream made or paid for in
construction. I desperately wanted
Upper School students during his
2011 to 2013.
factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for
to engage with the Wall — to
January visit to Maher Avenue. “I
grapple with it and to climb inside
couldn’t turn back.”
mater, from 2002–2008.
Palestinian skin.” And so, here he sat — merely
Hours later, he’d befriended a
He, too, has returned to the Wall, even chaperoning a small group of students to the tiny Palestinian
“See the world. It’s more fantastic
no security, there never was such an animal,” he quoted. “And, if there were, it would be
local doctor. He’d been given a ride
village of Mas Ha during Eid al
related to the great sloth which
20 kilometers south of the city
by a man who sensed he was lost.
Adha, the Islamic festival commem-
hangs upside down in a tree all day
of Ramallah, the seat of the
He’d been handed an orange by a
orating the willingness of Abraham
every day sleeping its life away.
Palestinian Authority in the central
fruit seller on the street.
to follow Allah’s command to sacri-
West Bank — strongly advised by his own government not to move.
38 | TIMES
Flex Mulvoy.indd 38
And, most important, he’d forgotten about the State
fice his son Ishmael. After two years teaching English
“To hell with that, shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.”
OF BRUNSWICK • SPRING 2016
5/19/16 10:18 AM