Lessons from “A Perfectly Messed Up Story”

by Michael C. Wirtz, Head of School, Hackley School

These remarks are adapted from the June 4, 2020 K-12 Convocation at Hackley School.

Since arriving at Hackley four years ago, I have given one K-12 convocation talk each year, always in the fall. Each of my talks was centered around a children’s book and I’ve done the same thing for this, our first K-12 spring convocation. Several weeks ago, I selected A Perfectly Messed Up Story by Patrick McDonnell, which drew me in because of its title and the aspects of the story that relate to this spring. We have to be honest with one another: this has been hard.

The main character, Louie, has this lovely “once upon a time” story in mind, where he sings and skips through the pages of the book. That is, until some invisible reader ruins his story by dropping a glob of jelly on the page, followed by chunky peanut butter, and then fingerprint smudges, all before spilling orange juice on it. And if that was not bad enough, someone scribbles on Louie’s pages. His story was ruined…or so he thought.

If you will grant me some latitude, Louie’s story seemed to mirror the spring term. First, we cancelled spring break trips in February — the jelly of Louie’s story — before dismissing early for spring break — the chunky peanut butter. Then came the first of several periods of distance learning. Let’s think of those as the fingerprint smudges on what it normally feels like to be at Hackley. Next we cancelled the spring athletics season — spilled orange juice — before committing to stay in distance learning for the remainder of the year, losing the chance to be together for art shows, plays, and concerts; athletic competitions and dinners, recognition ceremonies, prom, Class Day, and Commencement — the scribbles.

Despite these challenges and changes, teachers, students, and families responded in the most amazing way possible to continue learning and growing, albeit under much different circumstances. I again applaud our teachers and students, who demonstrated incredible resourcefulness in finding ways to adapt and modify on a nearly continuous basis, transferring as much of the Hilltop to digital tools as possible. We also saw the importance of the relationships we built throughout the fall and winter, allowing us to turn to one another for support to successfully navigate this time. Each of us experienced highs and lows this spring, glimpses of our perfect story, as well as fingerprint smudges, spilled orange juice, and scribbles from Louie’s story.

We seemed to have an invisible force in our lives, much like Louie’s invisible reader, the one dropping jelly and spilling orange juice. Rather than a school year that looked much like the one in this slideshow, we gradually grew accustomed to seeing each other through screens. And at this point, we are just now beginning to emerge from our homes, finding our way back into the world and into being with one another. It was not easy for anyone to be separated from friends and family, to work or go to school from home, yet these circumstances created a shared understanding and established common ground.

Certainly, the challenges we all faced and are facing this spring are far more significant than Louie’s, and I do not intend to diminish them by using a children’s book to frame my talk. We are not together right now because we continue to work our way through a global pandemic. COVID-19 has impacted all of our lives, in ways both big and small. Many within the Hackley community experienced illness, and some unfortunately, experienced loss. Some of us had family members who continued to go into work each day to provide essential services that kept our communities running. We watched as they bravely went into an uncertain world to be the helpers we all needed. And in return, we have committed ourselves to wearing masks, washing our hands, and maintaining a 6-foot bubble of social distance.

Our story differs from Louie’s, however. Whereas the invisible hand wiped away the scribbles, addressing our challenges requires that we work together. Further, we must aspire towards the habits of character named in our Portrait of a Graduate:

• Treat others with respect, honesty, and generosity in thought, word, and action
• Act with humility, integrity, and sense of responsibility toward the greater good
• Respect and strive to understand varying backgrounds and perspectives, fostering empathy, friendships, and community

The last of those bullet points — respect and strive to understand varying backgrounds and perspectives, fostering empathy, friendships, and community — has been on my mind a lot lately. Amidst adjusting to COVID-19, events around our country remind us that not everyone is treated fairly, sometimes it is because of the color of their skin. People are getting hurt, are hurting, and there is sadness, and there is anger. Fortunately, people want to work together to make things better, and there are ways each of us can help.

At one point in the story, Louie reaches a low point and says, “I give up. Go on without me. Who cares.” He is sad and in need of help. My younger friends watching will understand the language of being an upstander. If we were together, I might have called on a kindergartner in the front row and asked, “What makes somebody an upstander?” I am sure we would have heard about being kind, standing up for others, making good choices, and doing the right thing even when it is hard. The older students standing behind them, possibly less excited to respond to a question during an all-school talk, will better understand the powerful and difficult nature of the last few weeks. The world has been shaking and so like Louie, people are at a low point, searching for support and those who care. If we look around us, I am confident we will find shining examples of those who care, showing up as leaders, activists, and friends, contributing to the collective effort required for change.

Louie’s last words in A Perfectly Messed Up Story are, “Nothing is going to stop me.” The author does not really finish the story, other than to say, “This is Louie’s story.” Louie endured his children’s book-sized messes, and he found the determination to continue writing his story. I would like to think that we are at this point in our story. “Nothing is going to stop me.”

The events of this spring landed us far from where we had imagined. Yet with renewed determination, we can seize this moment and continue writing our story and do so together. We can leverage the strengths of our community, the passion that people feel for Hackley, and the strength of the relationships we have with one another, filling the pages of the months and years ahead with hope. But hope without action is merely a dream. We will need to work together as we write this story, overcoming whatever messes may come, and I know I can count on all of you to embrace and live out our core values in doing so: Character is higher than intellect, Enter Here to Be and Find a Friend, United, We Help One Another, and Go forth and spread beauty and light.