Dragonflies

Great Moose Lake (Hartland, ME)

Today was our all-staff training day. I've already gone to three-ish days of residence staff training and wasn't sure what this one was going to be. It ended being a greeting by the headmaster celebrating accomplishments; an introduction of all new staff with a round of a applause for each of us; a discussion on this year's school theme of "kindness" and what that means for our school community; and a trip to a camp on a lake with a barbecue, paddleboats and fun people.

In the morning, after the welcome, I sat at a table with an English teacher, two academic counselors, a Humanities teacher, a member of the maintenance crew, a guy from IT and the new Mandarin teacher (none of whom I knew) and we talked about whether or not we were a kind group of adults and what we would do if we saw/heard students being mean. Then our small groups disbanded and we returned to the big group to meld about our smaller discussions. We talked about the need to model kindness and demonstrate reconciliation. We talked about bullying. We talked about being assertive rather than aggressive; standing up, not rolling over. And throughout this, people threw out funny comments or laughed when someone said something too true. The headmaster talked about his "Courtesy Rage" - the anger that boils when people don't acknowledge doors being held for them and giving the polite hand flip when a driver lets you cross the street or pull out in front of them. "I have that, too!" I told Jared as we walked back the dorm. "I know," he said.

We hopped on a school bus and drove twenty minutes to Hartland where another staff person has a couple camps (translations: any home located on a lake that is not their primary home (can be mansion or cabins - they all = camps)) on a hill of property - see picture above for her view. We ate barbecued chicken, pasta salad, watermelon, hot dogs, potato chips and all that good stuff. We took pictures with our staff (see below). People played horseshoes, volleyball, bacci ball, canoeing, kayaking, swimming and fishing. The headmaster threw the football with a guy from maintenance and an honors teacher. And after I forced Jared to inhale his chicken, we went on the paddleboat.

I rolled up my corduroys, we strapped on the life vests, and pumped our feet until we were beyond the fishermen and swimmers. The water was still and pulled our plastic boat around in drunken circles. We whispered about the morning and looked back at the 100 or so people playing on the shore. "This is our job," I said and Jared smiled at me. A dragonfly buzzed past my cheeks and landed on the skin of Jared's knee, poised in the air to begin peddling again. It's body was about an inch long with wings that would have reached across my hand. It whittled its leg across the other leg, with feelers twitching in the barely wind.

"This has never happened," I whispered. "This is crazy."

Jared moved his knee, pushing in circles as the water gushed under our boat. The dragonfly stayed on him, a sentinel on the tip of his knee. It stayed there for at least three minutes, which is a long time when you are paying attention to stillness. We paddled back and when we were half-way there, another dragonfly landed on my knee.

"Can you believe this??" I almost shouted.
"Henry would love this," Jared said.

So I googled dragonfly when I got home. They have to symbolize something. Everything symbolizes something. On a Pagan/Wicca page, it says: For the AmerIndians, dragonflies are symbols of change, communication from the elemental world and messages of enlightenment and wisdom.

I'll take it.

Jared's Advancement Office Team



My Alumni Hall Team