Today is Tuesday March 1, 2016…nearly
the middle of Lent. Yesterday the
newscasters repeatedly referred to the day as “Leap Day”. In my younger years, Feb. 29th was commonly referred to as “Sadie Hawkins
Day”, the name derived from a newspaper comic strip, “Li’l Abner”, written
by Al Capp. It was the day of the year
when young ladies were permitted to invite young men on dates. Around this time of year, high schools and
colleges even had dances called Sadie Hawkins Dances. Now they’re called, “Turn Abouts”.
Also on the news last week, a scroll
at the bottom of the screen announced that St. Ignatius would be closed in
anticipation of a predicted snowstorm. As it turned out, the storm wasn’t
nearly as bad as predicted.
If you are a
contemporary of mine…Lord save you…you might remember that Fr. Nastold, St.
Ignatius’ principal from fall of ’64 until June of ’68, would go to heroic
lengths not to close the school for weather-related occurrences. The one exception that I can recall was the
great snowfall in February of ’67, when the entire city closed down. If there were other such days, the passage of
time has clouded my memory, but I can attest to the fact that, during those 4
years, many a winter morning, the lay faculty groused about having to face slow
traffic and icy conditions to get to school only to find our classes less than
½ full. I recall on
one such occasion, I had a class in which only one student showed up, but
Father insisted that teachers were to teach whatever the number. The student was thrilled. At that time, the Jesuits lived in the front
part of the school building. It wasn’t
nearly as difficult for them to make it to class. That fact also was made when teachers talked among themselves.
Fr. Nastold’s
motive was clear. The core value in Jesuit
institutions, including St. Ignatius, was academic rigor. Despite our grumbling, Fr. Nastold was a good
man and his decisions were in keeping with the common wisdom of the day. The only way to guarantee academic success
was by being in school.
So are today’s Ignatians are “wimps”?
Not at all. The times have
changed.
Now
when the weather makes travelling to school too treacherous, my grandchildren
in 4th and 6th grade, don’t have “snow days”; they
have “Edays”. They have been instructed that, on such days, they are to read and do their assignments on their ipads. In the ‘60’s, that wasn’t an option. On the Ignatius website on the day in
question, the students were instructed to check there assignments on line. Suffice it to say, that wasn’t an option in
1966.
In conclusion, regarding
judging others, Frank Raispis’ first “Cliche to live
by” says, “Judge everyone’s motives in the best possible light.” Hear, Hear!
