Wednesday 21 April 2010

"ambition-dulling beauty"

...is a quote the headmaster at T***S once wrote, and which I find to be such a poetic, well-crafted phrase. Today, I was reminded once again how privileged I am as are the people I work with and for. The children from the mother's shelter I volunteer at with a student group came to my work today for a short concert and dinner. The workers were dumbfounded by the beauty of the place. They also perceived the blurry edges of the dream-like reality our students live in.

I rarely feel that awe anymore.

Yet, this is both good and bad. The good is that no, I am not awed by wealth and appearance. I see the students I work with as humans loaded with the weight of ambition-dulling wealth on their shoulders; I see the kids at the shelter as pure uncut jewels, representatives of the universals of the human spirit.

The bad is that I miss out on the breath-taking feelings that accompany first-time visitors to the area. That I take for granted what a wonderful place I work in and live in. That the creme de la creme of the planet is now my point of reference. The bad is that every day, I get closer to wanting to start ironing my clothes. And although this would make my mother-in-law happy, for me, it means the end of more freedom of spirit, the beginning of another limitation in my life!

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