The Roundup - Edition 76

A message from 
Rich Jones, Head.

Every now and then parents ask me to share my Morning Talks that we have with students. So, I thought I would pass one along this week. On Monday I spoke to the Senior School about the UN International Day of Peace, a theme that feels especially relevant given the world we are living in. I hope you enjoy reading it...

“Good morning,

Today is the United Nations International Day of Peace. It is one of those days on the calendar that can feel a bit abstract, a nice idea but somehow distant. So, I thought I would tell you a story.

When I was younger, I travelled in Rwanda and Uganda and the Occupied West Bank during some of their more troubling times. For a short while I worked in a refugee centre in Rwanda, spending most of my time with children who had been orphaned through a horrific and violent civil conflict in the most brutal ways.

Their childhood was seared by the things they had witnessed. They were living as the collateral damage of war. Some better than others. Several merely stared as if in a trance.

One boy said something to me that has stayed with me ever since. He asked me about my home – about the chairs, the tables and windows I had – did I have curtains. I asked him why and he said he couldn’t quite remember his home so wanted a new memory or vision. We chatted for most of the morning. And when I asked him about his dreams, they were not of wealth, or fame, or even of safety. He said, “I want to watch Barcelona FC on a TV screen in Kigali.”

Think about that. For him, peace was not about luxury or choice. It was about the chance to sit somewhere safe, to be a child again, and to watch a football match.

When you hear the word “peace” you might think of something impossibly big, global treaties, world leaders shaking hands, the end of all wars. But peace is also something small. It is a child watching a football match. It is a family eating dinner together.

It is the absence of fear.

That boy in Rwanda reminded me that peace is deeply personal. For him, peace was not a political document. It was the hope that one day he might sit in front of a television and feel normal again.

So, what can we do here, today, at St Chris, to live out peace? We can start small. In the way that we speak to each other. In how we listen, especially when we disagree. In choosing not to escalate arguments but to find a way through.

Peace is not the absence of noise or debate. Peace is the presence of respect.

The UN says that peace is built through compassion, cooperation and understanding. They add, that peace is built every time we make space for someone else to feel safe and heard.

And I want to finish with one more story.

In Liberia, another place I spent time, during a long and brutal civil war, a woman called Leymah Gbowee gathered thousands of women together. They were mothers, daughters, grandmothers, ordinary people. They refused to accept that war was the only option. They marched, they protested, they prayed, they sat outside the Presidential Palace until people listened. When peace talks between warring factions began to collapse, the women barricaded the doors and refused to let the men out until they reached an agreement.

In the end, their persistence and courage helped to bring peace to their country.

Gbowee later said:

"You can never leave footprints that last if you are always walking on tiptoe."

That is what peace requires. Not silence, not walking on tiptoe, but the courage to stand firm, speak out, and leave footprints that others can follow.

So on this International Day of Peace, remember the boy in Rwanda who just wanted to watch a football match. Remember the women in Liberia who would not tiptoe around war but stood together until peace was possible.

And ask yourself, what kind of footprints will you leave here, in your school, in your community, and in the world, and how will it shape us?

Thank you.

We will now have our Silence.”