Atrium from Afar
May 2020
INSIDE ATRIUM Dear Atrium community, We’re all drawing on our inner resources these days. Which of your past experiences have been most useful for you? A touchstone for me comes from many years ago, when I chose to live in relative isolation. Alone in a cabin high in the Rockies for two months, I hiked every morning, fished a bit, cooked simple meals, and learned to distinguish one bird from another. I played endless games of Solitaire, and learned where the phrase ”cabin fever” comes from. Sometimes I sang loudly, just to hear a voice! Once a week, I’d go into town for groceries and to see my grandmother. On these visits, I was rather chatty from the isolation––can you relate!? The cabin had no internet (quite literally––it was the early 1990s) and no television, but there was an old red rotary phone. Living at 9,000 feet elevation, the best entertainment came when tremendous summer clouds would build slowly up over the tallest peaks. These afternoon storms would march forcefully over the mountains, rattling the cabin with pelting rain and jaw-cracking lightning booms. As quick as they’d come, the storms would sail on. That beautiful Colorado blue would spread anew through the wide sky. The leaves of the quaking aspens in the canyons would settle, and warming pine scented the air. It was a gift. Only through the rhythm of isolated days did I learn to notice and appreciate such beauty. At Atrium, and everywhere, this is certainly not the spring we planned to have. And yet, we are differently productive, and newly creative. What we value has been distilled and is expressed in new forms. You’ll read in this Inside Atrium about our shifts in service learning and student “lunch bunch” meetings. Mini Performances were a huge hit, inspiring the reinvention of the Middle School performance of Alice in Wonderland on May 18. Flip to the back page to read about how each 8th grader wisely chose their high school during this tumultuous time, and read about what our students are most looking forward to when restrictions are lifted. What are you most looking forward to? That summer in Colorado, I re-read many of Shakespeare’s plays. Coincidentally, I learned very recently that Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra and others were written under quarantine from the widespread plagues of the early 1600s. So too does creativity pour forth from our community these days. Some of the best things emerging from this situation will last, and fondly become part of our lives moving forward.
Warmly, Marshall P.S. Don’t forget to plant your sunflower seeds and send me your kids’ postcards!
Embroidery by 7th grader Lexie!