Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Mr. Anderson
Dear Ridgeview,
Several years ago, I made much of a passage from Cicero in which he described the importance of gratitude and its relationship with virtue. “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,” Cicero wrote in Pro Plancio, “but the parent of all the other virtues.” At the time, I was happy to see the sentiment resonate intensely enough for one senior that it found its way into her thesis.
Feeling, as she acknowledged, is necessary but insufficient. As Matthew 7:16 has it, “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” The sentence that follows the previous quotation from Cicero shares a similar sentiment: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.”
It is humbling to be a member of a community that transcends sentiment, that seeks out what can be done for others with the knowledge that kind acts may go unsung, unrewarded, and quite possibly, unappreciated. Still, they are done and done as a matter of course. It is an exceptional privilege to belong to a community that does right because it is so rather than as part of a transactional means to another end. It is the bane of ulteriority that spoils good and authentic acts.
A spirit of thanksgiving is woven into the fabric of Ridgeview’s culture. Nearly every challenge that could be thrown at this community over the past nine months has been, and despite this, the spirit of thanksgiving only grows. When the wildfires raged and chased some members of our community from their homes, donations poured in. Not only in the form of monetary or material aid, but offers to take in pets, help with groceries, drive students to school, loan computers, move belongings, and even take perfect strangers into their homes. Given the restrictions caused by COVID, people have lost their businesses, their jobs, and their financial security. In response, others have stepped in to offer aid: while more people have needed it, more people have offered it. The first ever remote teacher appreciation week did not suffer by virtue of those tedious social restrictions; instead, teachers working under extraordinary conditions were shown extraordinary appreciation. Even when it has been hard to express thanks, people have muddled through and gone to incredible lengths to make their gratitude known. Over the past semester, parents have stepped forward to pay for back-to-school fees for other children, made considerable donations to make camping trips possible, stocked the teacher’s lounge with creature comforts, and provided food assistance to those in need. This is Ridgeview’s parent community, and it is known by its acts.
Equally vital, our staff have strung lights, danced in the crosswalk, sung songs while sanitizing thousands of hands and taking temperatures, decorated a Christmas tree, folded paper ornaments, created an elaborate game of Elf on the Shelf, and dressed in costumes to bring a bit of merriment and magic to this special season, and they have done it all unbidden in exchange for little more than smiles, a friendly good-morning, and perhaps a laugh or two. The faculty have nearly passed out trying to lecture from behind masks, have endured the frustrations of Zoom and Edsby, have lamented how estranged from their students they worry they have grown, and while some of these lamentations may be attributable to what one does in exchange for a check, much of their consternation and concern is for their students; it is heartfelt and not subject to compensation.
In our character pillars, gratitude is not included, but without it, are we likely to have respect, or integrity, or cooperation? Each virtue depends upon individuals doing what is right, not in exchange for something, but because they have been habituated to doing the right thing. Many places offer sentiments, but it is my belief that Ridgeview is all the more remarkable for the fact that its community is drawn to something higher and attempts to live by them as Cicero suggested we must.
Thank you to everyone who has made Ridgeview such a place. I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday!
Best wishes,
D. Anderson
Principal
Ridgeview Classical Schools
