Few things define a society more than the way it treats its most vulnerable members
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world Unmendably.
Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
I am sorry to begin this morning’s Routh with such a bleak poem, The Mower by Philip Larkin. He was an English poet and writer who died about 40 years ago. I understand that in the northern city of Hull where he lived, there is an archive of his work and with it is a blue mechanical lawnmower which was responsible for the act that inspired the poem. I think the poor hedgehog is elsewhere.
Around School we have beautiful grounds which are lovingly looked after by a team of talented grounds staff. Unlike schools that are in dense cities, we are lucky to have space here, with well-kept lawns that are the envy of many. I always enjoy seeing Gordon Green being mowed so that it looks smart for visitors on a Saturday.
I read recently that a tourist visited an old university and admired their immaculate lawn. How do you get those perfect stripes, they asked the gardener. Well came the considered reply, you mow and roll in a straight line and repeat - for centuries.
I’m not sure how many of the School’s lawns have been mowed and rolled for hundreds of years, but actually, that’s not really the point of what I wanted to talk about today, it’s that last line in the poem that Sanskriti read to us: Of each other, we should be kind, While there is still time.
Few things define a society more than the way it treats its most vulnerable members. That might mean how society treats children, or the elderly or those who, for whatever reason, have had a challenging time. Similarly, in a school, nothing is more important than the way in which we treat one another: how staff of all kinds treat each other, how the staff treat the pupils, how pupils treat the staff…but especially important is the way in which pupils behave towards other pupils – how they act, and what they say: face to face, in private and, these days, also in the virtual world.
Sadly, all of us are able to be unkind. It can be tempting to try to appear big by making others look small. Perhaps we might call others names, laugh at them, make comments about them and yet those folk might be feeling vulnerable for some reason or another and could really benefit from our help and support…unkindness might be tempting but it is a choice we make.
Because all of us are also able to be kind, to make others feel included and appreciated and happy – to know they have a friend, to know they matter within a kind community.
There is a danger that we repeat comments that others have made to us or that we have heard elsewhere by those who might think they’re acceptable; or that we behave in a certain way because, for us, its just a joke…rather like the lawn that is mowed and rolled year after year, even if it is what has always happened it doesn’t make it right.
Speaking up against unkind behaviour is really hard to do, especially if those who are getting it wrong are our friends. It might be that we raise it privately instead…but one way or another, raising it is the right thing to do – if we know that the behaviour is wrong and making someone else unhappy, we are wrong to just let it go.
Martin Luther King famously said, In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Let’s not be the one who is remembered for letting things go, for being momentarily deaf to the unacceptable comment or artificially blind to the unacceptable act. Be the friend who is remembered for helping to put things right.
So, as we walk through the beautiful grounds we have here, and indeed as we go out into the world, let’s remember that poor hedgehog and the mower Of each other, we should be kind. While there is still time.