LIFE’S LABYRINTH BY THE REVEREND MEHRDAD ABIDARI, Chaplain
NEWS FACULTY
2016–2017
ALUMNI AWARD
SABBATICAL IN SPAIN
result. Perhaps the young boy I watched centering himself in that slow walk those years ago was engaging in all these processes. Labyrinths were used in ancient Egypt, India, Greece, Mezo-America, and South Pacific aboriginal cultures. Ancient Greek coins were embossed with the patterns of labyrinths. Theseus used his wits and a string to find his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinthine den. In Medieval Europe, in the time of pilgrimages (St. James of Compostela, Canterbury, etc.) the labyrinth came about, it is thought, as a substitute for long pilgrimage journeys that could be prohibitive to some due to physical inability, lack of time, or money. Chartres Cathedral in France is postulated to have been the first to install a labyrinth with this philos- ophy. Centuries later, Grace Cathedral’s labyrinth copied the exact same model as that of Notre Dame de Chartres. Labyrinths are not mazes. This point cannot be lost—no pun intended. Mazes are designed to induce an experience of confusion, not knowing where to turn, and getting lost. They have their place. Garden mazes can be the delight of lovers, lost in time, and each other’s embrace. Labyrinths are meant induce the opposite experience. There are no wrong turns and no dead ends—only the beginning, the journey, and the destination. Labyrinths are designed for transformation, not confusion. Another clarification should be that labyrinths are (obvi- ously) not some New Age creation. Certainly New Age spirituality finds an attraction in them. I, along with the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, was at Chartres Cathedral on the summer solstice in 2009. The laby- rinth was a sight to behold: all sorts and conditions of folk walking, dancing, and even crawling the ancient mosaic tiles—somewhat to the irritation of the Cathedral clergy. This, however, is not a new, but an ancient conception. There is something quite simple about the idea of a laby- rinth. The simplicity hides a basic primal spiritual instinct. One may wonder how something so uncomplicated can have practical use beyond a child’s game of following the line to the end. All one can say to that is what I said to the second grader long ago. Try it—and take your time; search, seek, find, resolve, figure out, and—in a sense—arrive. You will be wonderfully surprised at the peace.
Mrs. O’Connor took a sabbatical in Spain this summer to study Islamic influences on Spanish art and culture. She focused on viewing tile patterns in the Alhambra in Granada as well as the tile works of Triana. Her trip ended in Barcelona, where she found Islamic influences on contemporary artwork. Mrs. O’Connor hopes to create a tile wall with the Upper School art students this school year, using math and Islamic patterning as inspiration. FEATURED ARTIST
Mrs. Ghidini’s work was featured at the “What Becomes Home” exhibition at the Sanchez Art Center this summer. This show examined how spaces, places, and people inform our perception of
On January 7, 2017, Mr. Mundy received the Alumni Recognition Award during the Alumni Day celebration at the Grand Hyatt in San Francisco. The Alumni Recognition Award is given to a member of the Cathedral community who has had a significant impact on the life of the School. An Upper School history teacher, Mr. Mundy began teaching at Cathedral in the fall of 1997 and continues to inspire, mentor, and motivate the boys. He was honored by a group of his graduates from his nearly 20-year tenure at Cathedral. YOSEMITE RIDE
YEARS AGO, MR. BERTRAND HAD A SECOND GRADER SENT TO HIS OFFICE WHO WAS HAVING A PARTICULARLY ROUGH DAY. The boy was tense, angry, and all out of sorts. Mr. B. asked me if I could take the boy outside, so we went out to the Plaza and sat by the outdoor labyrinth. It was a beautiful blue-sky day. While watching a couple of people walk the labyrinth, curiosity set in. The boy wanted to give the labyrinth a try. Just before he entered it, I advised, “If you do it too fast, it won’t work.” He nodded that he understood and set off. A most amazing thing happened then. This young lad—who many a school day was tied up in a knot—walked a deliberate, pensive, silent labyrinth walk, finally winding his way to the center. Then he looked up with a smile, came back, and sat down. He kept that composure for the rest of the day. Labyrinths are designs from ancient times. They were thought to have mystical auras and effects on the psyche. They represented searching, seeking, finding, resolving, and figuring out—all activities of process, not so much of
what becomes home. Mrs. Ghidini was also commissioned this summer to construct a glass wall for a new Kaiser Medical Facility in Dublin, CA. Her drawn images of a forest section will be transferred onto two glass panels along an interior corridor. The wall is 10’X39’. CONNECTING WITH FRIENDS
Faculty members, Mr. Mundy, Mr. Marini, Rev. Abidari, and Mr. Taylor rode from the Bay Area to Yosemite Valley last summer.
Mr. Breen and his wife dropped in on the Corsellos at the Washington National Cathedral where Dana is the new Vicar.
84 | CATHEDRAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS
FALL 2017 • RED & GOLD | 85
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