Today is the first day back to school for the majority of elementary and high school students in BC.
How are you feeling?
Are you excited for a new year?
Even if you haven’t been a student for years, can you identify with that new binder, neat printing fresh start? Or are you nervous and uncertain and maybe even a little downtrodden, feeling more grey than excited?
As I listened to local radio this morning I noted that much of the discussion was around back to school and much of that was about the more negative and uncertain aspects of what students might be feeling.
There were multiple reports on how children may feel uncertain or afraid or might need more time to adjust to the new routine than normal. The hosts of the morning time slot must also have felt that there was a preponderance of gloom being talked about so at one point said:
“It’s not ALL bad! Many kids are super excited to get back to school to see friends again, and to start a new year!”
This statement was then followed with a segment on the good things about back to school. However, even in that segment, the host felt it necessary to state that talking about students being happy did not mean that ALL students were happy and that the station and hosts were well aware that this is a very difficult time emotionally for many students.
Here is why I share this little radio replay:
It strikes me that so often we default to the negative. We can be astoundingly aware of our feelings of greyness, dullness, general concern or ambiguous sorrow. Kindness does call us to be aware that even if we are feeling good, there are people around us who are not. However, we can move too easily to the posture of lack of enjoyment, failure to note the amount of positive things in our lives, in this day.
In some expressions of Christian faith there is a posture towards the world that holds a kind of constant gloom.
Faith can be confused at times with a hyper-awareness of what is WRONG.
Karl Barth argues that Christians have no reason for anything other than hope. He says that this hope is based on an awareness that God is renewing all things, that the future is truly bright, not bleak. In this argument, Barth uses the prophet Elijah as an example. Elijah (after a great victory) ran into the desert for forty days and struggled with being emotionally distressed. Barth says that like Elijah, “we might wander, but even our wandering is directed by a goal.” In other words, the future is hopeful, even when we do not feel this way. In a series of lectures presented in a battle-scarred lecture hall after WWII Barth said the following:
“We do not exist in any kind of gloomy uncertainty; we exist through the God who was gracious to us before we existed at all.” (p. 71, Dogmatics in Outline)
“We must not sit among non-Christians like melancholy owls, but in a certainty about our goal, which surpasses all other certainty.” (p. 132, Dogmatics in Outline)
Barth was not arguing for a trite, fake presentation of faith by way of some smiley sales job. He was stating that even in the midst of uncertain times and troubling days, we have a sense of the future (for all) that is guided by hope.
I know what it feels like to be a “melancholy owl”. I still find it surprising and somewhat upsetting at how I can feel down or grey instead of alive and hopeful. Of course, we can help each other by being aware of the struggle in which others (and ourselves) might be engaged. We also help each other by reminding ourselves (lovingly, not accusingly) that there is great reason for joy, even this day.
In the radio segment about the positive and happy things kids are feeling going back to school, there was an audio clip of a little girl about to start grade 1. The interviewer asked her what she is looking forward to, and she answered with her bright and hopeful grade 1 voice that also had a note of serious reflection:
“I am happy because I am pretty sure that this year, my grade gets to go to the tennis court area. So that will be great. Oh, and I am happy about seeing my friends and talking with them.”
Happy September!