The Gathering: Moving Mountains Together
For the very first time, on Thursday 15 September 2022, we held The Gathering. It was a momentous occasion for the entire school to celebrate everything that we aspire to be.
Challenge was the all-embracing theme, no doubt it was a feat to organise, and was a genuine joy to attend. After a lengthy pandemic where a whole school meeting was out of the question, it was time to come together.
The sum proved more than an assembly, more than a recital, more than a spectacle. It was a gathering of all students and staff; of multiple nationalities; of artistic talents (music, poetry, theatre); and of hearts, minds and senses.
First, we were challenged to understand the introduction since it was delivered by two students in multiple languages representing some of Aiglon’s 67 diverse student countries, smoothly woven together as one voice of unity and togetherness.
Moreover, we were treated to the unspoken voice that emanates from art forms such as music, that surpasses the spoken word, and touches the very core. Our student Max beautifully played the composer Max Bruch’s most famous First Violin Concerto, a challenging piece, which in fact was itself a challenge to create in the 19th century, being rewritten by Bruch at least 6 times.
A few words were said by our remarkable Palestinian scholarship pupil Rakan. His journey to Aiglon personifies overcoming challenge. Access to education was not easy in his hometown. He highlighted that challenge is relative but that we were all gathered here in the name of challenge, that we should welcome challenge, take every chance offered, to bloom as an individual and eventually as a society.
Of course, during the get-together we were encouraged to sing, as a group, songs about leaning and counting on one another because we are greater together than the sum of our parts.
Our guest speaker and Aiglon alumnus Karl Kirchwey (Delaware, 1973) - distinguished poet and Professor of Creative Writing at Boston University - aptly described the mountains that frame Aiglon as “gathered”.
In his poem ‘Dents du Midi’, read out by one of our students, we face the stark contrast between the mountains’ “chiselled peaks” that “never change shape”, the “icefields of eternity”, and the “unchanged tableau”, and the fleeting nature of life: “life’s too quick”. This moving scenery would help to colour his once blank pages.
We hear of Karl’s sense of “scatteredness”- the opposite of gathering - resulting from the challenging confrontation of “up-rootedness” and “homesickness” that he felt on arrival at a “fog-bound” Aiglon, yet which culminated after two years in an unforgettable sense of community and belonging.
From our common hunter-gatherer origins, via Karl’s reference to transhumance (the seasonal movement of livestock that actually happened here in Barboleuse last weekend) which encompasses eco-conscious herders and “shared rituals”, we discover that we are all gatherers gathering impressions to find our own truths. Listen to more of Karl’s perceptions here.
Our students then shared exceptional adventurer Mike Horn’s ideas on striving to “touch the stars”. Essentially, we only get one chance to climb the “mountain of life”. Each one has their own mountain to climb, all the while staying grounded, and working together with others to reach farther, achieve more, and find higher purpose and meaning.
Following on, the modern multilingual theatre piece “Multi-Story”, re-enacted by our talented Year 12 IB students, injected some humour. The play can be interpreted on different levels and ultimately says that we can transcend our difficulties together.
We look forward to renewing this student-led experience during our next focus weeks, through the perspective of our other pathways towards the harmonious development of mind, body, and spirit: Diversity, Responsibility, Respect, and Service.