A poem and 2 Joyce quotes

Dear Parents,

The joys of recent interactions with your children has tuned me up to excellent encounters with favorite poetry and prose from my past, which have recently come to meet me again.  I'll share a poem by Cavafy and two quotes from James Joyce here before adding brief comments.

Ithaka
BY C. P. CAVAFY
TRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY AND PHILIP SHERRARD

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

"Longest way round is the shortest way home."  --James Joyce, Ulysses

"The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit."--James Joyce, Ulysses

Hearing the first poem again after many years reminded me of the gifts of Waldorf education and summoned the Joyce quotes.  Both first two quotes remind me of the pleasures of early childhood play in which the contrast and learning and process are key, and bear such rich fruits.  Some of the most textured, richest play scenarios seem to proceed nowhere as far as action, but as far as planning on the journey and benefit to all involved, they are as mountains of wealth.

When Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom convene and bond toward the end of Ulysses, they look up at the stars.  Rather than seeing the dark night and bright stars, they see the complement:  the darkness becomes possibility, the humid nightblue fruit in between the stars.  Our children in their play seem right in tune with this contemplative transformation.

All three quotes remind me of my work with Kim Payne over the years.  He makes it clear that we need conflict and contrast in life and in school, that this provides the chance for growth--I'd even say for joy and alignment and expansion.

With warmth and light,

William