“From truth I light the candle of friendship”.
I found this faded index card while looking for something else in my nightstand drawer. I do not remember why I put this card in the drawer. It should be with a box of high school memories of more than 50 years ago. I do remember first reading it at a Candle Lighting Ceremony for the Quill and Scroll Society.
Quill and Scroll is an honorary society for high school students, nominated, if memory serves me, by a teacher/advisor to school newspapers, yearbooks, or other publications. The ceremony was an induction into the society. Each candle symbolized a journalistic ideal to aspire to and was read by a student. The candle lit before mine would have been for truth. There were ten candles. Mine was the 8th candle. Friendship. Someone typed the words and wrote my name on the card.
Finding this card brought back memories and the idealism of my youth, which seem more poignant in the midst of these times we are in. I wonder and worry over the younger generation. How are they coping – really coping – with the uncertain time we are currently in, the new norms in higher education, in learning, and in becoming the citizens we hope they will be?
I know I tend to be a of a Pollyanna. I won’t apologize for that. I do have faith in our youth and I have hope for them and for the future – and I have hope for you, too.
The reverse side of the card.
I’ve rambled without a clear end to this post, which was tricky to compose as WordPress is doing their happy engineering “stuff” these days. I hope you are all well and wonder if you, too have found a piece of your past recently.
Lifeonthecutoff's Blog 
I love this. I love how young and idealistic we were even though we grew up during the Cold War threat. We did duck and cover drills at school, along with the usual fire and storm drills. Now the kids don’t have duck and cover drills, but they have building intruder lockdown drills which can be scary. I’ve been through them. They have COVID checks along with virtual off site learning.
I think they will be ok, we made it, even if we were a little weird sometimes. Kids are resilient. Many of them will come through this maybe more careful.
I hope they will learn thoughtfulness and learn from the folly of some of us older folks that it’s ok to have opposing opinions. It’s even more interesting sometimes.
LikeLike
Thank you, Janet. That means a lot to me. How well you state what we went through as kids and yes, we got through it and here we are. I remember coming home from school to my mother and grandmother staring at the television, crying; it was the Bay of Pigs and the fear that we might be going to war. Duck and cover – well, I knew that wasn’t going to save us from The Bomb, but I secretly hid behind trees and covered my eyes when an airplane went overhead in case there would be a mushroom cloud. I cannot imagine the fear of intruder lockdown drills or an actual shooting, but I have great faith in our teachers, administrators and especially in our kids. It won’t be easy, but they will come through this, we will all help them and they will help us. Well. I talk too much. 😦 We were young and idealistic and I think we still are. I know we are still silly 🙂 )
LikeLike
Oh Penny! So glad you kept that precious card. And how sobering in the face of what’s going on and the limitations many students are facing. I know for many the cynicism of social media has robbed them of their idealism. But I hope and pray that their hope can be restored.
LikeLike
I do so pray that their hope can be restored as well, L. Marie. It will be forever different, but I pray that the world they build will be better, inclusive, peaceful. I think I was somehow supposed to find this card at just this time to remind me how precious hope is. I hope you are well and settled in. Thanks for commenting.
LikeLike
What we all are going through has been one of the worst periods of my life. It isn’t easy for young people either. The young people I know are mostly sensible and caring, and they respect people who are different from them. I hope that is the tone for the future. Like you, I worry about them, especially my daughter who has been pretty much a hermit throughout the pandemic.
LikeLike
We are, indeed, Sue and it feels as if there is no end in sight. .I hope that we can go forward respecting one another, healing such long held wounds and regaining health.. We tend to see the young who are partying and must remember all youth, like your daughter, who are abiding restrictions but perhaps feeling alone and missing out on activities of their age.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dear Penny, I’m so sorry that I can’t read the typewritten text on the index cards. But there you have it. As Tennyson said, “though much is taken, much abides.” And I was given so much more than I could ever deserve, so as the loss happens I just remain grateful for what has been and pray that I can embrace what is.
As to being a Pollyanna, we need that right now. Along with the book about her, I read “The Girl of the Limberlost” when I was probably around 14. I just have such a good feeling when I think of that book even though I can’t remember the plot. But I’m sure it influenced me as to how I wanted to be as a young woman.
I’m hoping that the young men and women of today will find the book characters who can comfort them, lead them, inspire them when the humans in their lives–far and wee–sometimes fall short. Peace.
LikeLike
Dear Dee, I truly appreciate your words – and Tennyson’s. Thank you. This card is so faded and old that the words are hard for me to read, though not to the extent it is for you.
I’ve never read “The Girl of the Limberlost” and will try to remedy that. The books of our youth most definitely have an impact on how we approach life, how we want to be.
Peace to you, Dee.
LikeLike
Somehow I missed this post on August 20th. I don’t think you’re being a Pollyanna. I believe it’s the adults projecting their own wobbly feelings about the huge changes going on in the world and even the adjustments children are having to make in the schools. For the most part, I believe these kids are learning resilience and are going to have the self confidence that comes from surviving challenges.
LikeLike
Thank you for stopping by to read it now, Janet. I didn’t post it on Facebook, which is why you might have missed it. You might just be right about most children being resilient and become more self confident.
LikeLike