Here at Asheville School, we believe that spiritual reflection opens the door to a greater understanding and appreciation of oneself, others, and the connection to something greater. We are incredibly excited about a new initiative added to our curriculum. Led by Chaplain Nate Sell, a new, trimester-long course will be added for all Fourth Formers called “This I Believe.” Students will explore spiritual autobiographies and stories from multiple perspectives.
Course readings include selections from works such as:
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- Black Elk Speaks by John Gneisenau Neihardt
- Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
Students will also engage with spiritual exploration in film and podcasts such as Krista Tippett’s On Being series. The class culminates with each student writing their own “this I believe” statement, in the vein of renowned journalist Edward Murrow’s radio series. As Murrow put it, they “will write about the rules they live by, the things they have found to be the basic values in their lives.” Simply reading titles of famous “This I Believe” statements hint at the possibilities of such essays: Be Cool to the Pizza Dude, An Athlete of God, Science Nourishes the Mind, and We Are Each Other’s Business.
Students will then revisit their “This I Believe” statements during the spring of their Fifth Form year in Humanities and write an updated essay (current Fifth Formers will have the opportunity to write their own “This I Believe” statement this spring). Over time, students will have the chance to see how their beliefs have changed and how they have stayed the same. Students wishing to give a senior chapel talk will then have the opportunity to present these statements in special chapel services. These services will continue our important tradition of senior talks and be a gift to our community as we celebrate the diversity of beliefs present on campus.
Highlights of Past Chapel Talks
“You drag yourself down your bed every morning, sit through a whole day of classes taking note or repeating your classmates during discussions, compete in sports, somehow work through your homework during study hall, and either go to bed earlier like a good kid, or try to have a night life like me (just kidding). You try to maintain a good GPA for your classes and make varsity for sport, after all, college prep, right? Four years on the assembly line, then you are shipped off to your higher education, then work, blah blah blah. … Something is missing from this picture of life, and you can’t deny that. To quote Ivan Karamazov from The Brothers Karamazov: “What’s the point of living beyond thirty?”
Hmm, maybe now you are thinking, this kid need some love, using his chapel talk to rant like this. I confess, we all need more love in our lives. And that’s precisely it, there’s not a single drop of love in the life I have just painted.
…Real people don’t live like stick figures in our minds; real people would cause us trouble from time to time, but who would mind helping a friend or their loved ones? I am not asking us to immediately become besties with one another and, with holding hands, dance like a giant earthworm immediately after chapel. No, that is too much for an introvert. However, I mean what Christ expressed in “love thy neighbors.” To strangers we can pay them due respect, understanding that they are travelers with their own past, their own dreams and their own futures to explore. To friends and close ones, we can be more open, communicative, and patient. We should see one another as full human beings, with our own agency and priorities in life. The virtues and qualities that we attach to our perfect stick figures are goals to strive for, not baseline requirements. This is the way of concrete love.
But how can one begin to love? Begin by noticing the details, perhaps not even of other humans, just of what you observe. Notice how flocks of birds, in fluent coordination, glide from rooftop to rooftop across our campus; how a random English marigold unfolds its petals in the middle of a vast grass field, how the orange rays of sunset paint a watercolor with soaked clouds, fresh from rain. You cannot help but stand in awe witnessing the grandeurs of nature, of the life that pours from all corners of our campus. To say it poetically, life dances hand in hand with love.
I sincerely wish that you don’t just find love during your time at Asheville school, but that you can live and love throughout the course of your life.”
—Bertrand Lin ‘23
“Horace, a famous satirist, wrote a whole story about being forced to hang out with someone he doesn’t like, all the while begging to be “rescued” by his real friends. Another poet writes letters to a friend saying how annoyed he is with his neighbors for talking so loud with their friends at night. I’m sure none of the boarders can relate to that…
The point is, we share similar experiences with these people from long ago. We might not wear togas, or have chariot races or gladiator battles, but we do have things in common. I finally understand what’s important about learning Latin: It’s about connection. We are connected to our history not just in the way it has rippled out to form our lives, but personally.
Think about all the people you read about. They weren’t some mythical people, better than everyone else. They were just regular old people who happened to do cool things, regular people who complained about the lunch options, and woke up with bad hair days sometimes.
If you don’t believe me about our connection to all people, just look at the science: Genetically, the similarities between people are inevitable; all humans are 99.9 percent genetically identical. That’s wild. That means only .1 percent makes us all unique, .1 percent of us is responsible for our hair color, personalities, eye color, height, our unique fingerprints.
We have all landed at Asheville School in some unique way. Some of you are legacies; your family has been coming here for generations. Some of you knew your hometown was not where you were meant to be, some of you ended up here because of the pandemic. It doesn’t matter how you got to Asheville School; we are all here now.”
—Owen Soccorso ‘23
“Jewel weed, a bush plant native to North Carolina, grows in abundance all over the state, including on the Asheville School campus. Its name comes from the sparkly dew drops that form on the smoothly textured leaves and the bush exhibits bright orange tubular flowers, spotted with red around the mouth of the opening. With the bright fiery oranges contrasting with various shades of green, the plant is beautiful to look at, and attracts a multitude of pollinators, including bees, hummingbirds, and a variety of butterflies. And, while it might be strange to consider a plant smart, it is also immensely intelligent. In a unique method of seed dispersal, the ripe seed pods of the plant pop open at a slight touch or pinch, flinging the seeds up to six feet away from the original plant. Personally, I find it comforting that the existence of the species is entirely dependent on interaction with other organisms within its environment. One of the most fascinating things about this plant, however, is that one can notice almost all of these key details about it, simply by taking the time to watch.
This past fall, every other day during E period, our nature journaling group of six ventured out into the daring wilderness of the Asheville School campus on a hunt for something to draw and write about for seventy minutes. While Jewel weed is one of my favorites, the extent of our exploration does not end there. From funky mushrooms to dead birds to transgender plants, we have seen it all. After sitting with these natural beauties, asking questions, jotting notes, and absorbing all of the details we could in only an hour, class ended with six renderings of the same thing, each with a new set of details, observations, and questions. Why does this species have that specific coloration? How does XYZ contribute to and interact with its environment? Why does this seed explode when I touch it? While asking all of these questions can lead to good answers, it also leads to even more questions, all of which are posed in an attempt to understand the complex interconnectedness of the world, and for me personally, my place in it.
In the fluidity of the natural world, everything has a place and a purpose, playing an important role for the environment to function. I strongly believe that this deeply woven web of dependence also applies to life outside of the natural world. Like plant and pollinator, habitat and inhabitant, we are all in necessity of one another, and the level of observation required to understand the connections is deeper than surface level. By paying close attention to each other, and the environment around us, we are able to form deeper connections and grow a stronger community.”
—Meredith Carlton ’23