La Ofrenda

Dear Members of The Waldorf School of Santa Barbara Community,

On Monday we celebrated Dia de los Muertos wherein each class visited the ofrenda, the altar made in honor of the beloved dead. Such an altar -- with its candles, decorations, and photographs of passed relatives, human and non-human -- helps the students (and adults) metabolize their griefs and anxieties. Such an altar also drops the students (and adults) into an undefendedness, a love, allowing them to feel, along with Vergil, "the tears at the heart of things." We thank Senora Marcela, Senora Melissa, and everyone else who created this glorious ofrenda, one of the highlights of our WSSB year.

Speaking of undefendedness, The Waldorf School of Philadelphia recently shared the following message: "Now is a time when isolation and divisiveness are all around us. COVID-19 is keeping us at home. Politics is telling us we must choose to be Red or Blue. The news is showing us all how we’re different and afraid. While these anti-social forces drain our will, we must hold fast to stand for togetherness, keep our connections, and cultivate courage over fear and apathy. What is to be done? Connection and relationships are at the heart of Waldorf education. In our classes, our teachers cultivate curiosity about the world and their classmates and help students focus on being of service to one another. Waldorf educators help children see and develop the qualities that make us human."

In a recent open letter, Franciscan monk Richard Rohr echoes the foregoing: "We live in a time of great hostility, and the temptation from which we must defend ourselves is to pull back from others, deny our shadow, and retreat into our own defended camps or isolated positions."

So here's to privileging togetherness and humanness over camps and partisan-ness and the various other flavors of the anti-social!

With heartfelt gratitude,

The WSSB Admin Team

PS -- The poem of the day is by Denise Levertov:

To Speak

To speak of sorrow
works upon it
moves it from its
crouched place barring
the way to and from

the soul’s hall.

PPS The pensée of the day is by the Dalai Lama (via Radhule Weininger):

"The Dalai Lama was asked in a time of crisis how he does not get overwhelmed in the face of so much suffering. He answered, 'I trust in my Heart’s intention.'"