Cherish the moment
I am sure, like me, that you have been stunned by the devastation wrought by wildfires in the Los Angeles region. They have occurred in a highly developed and wealthy part of our planet and have not discriminated between rich or poor. 5998 structures have been confirmed as destroyed, with 27 confirmed fatalities in the Palisades and Eaton fires. Homes have been turned to rubble and many people’s personal belongings consumed. We have become sadly accustomed to reading about the thousands killed and millions displaced by war and natural disasters elsewhere in the world, but we all know in our own relatively comfortable lives how attached we become to our homes and our belongings – and all that they represent to us. They are, however, fragile.
Indeed, we are all vulnerable as humans despite our confidence in our powers of intellect and reasoning, and we know all too well that the unpredictable can suddenly occur and that life is precarious.
My intention here is not to write you a gloomy message, but to build on my encouragement to pupils last week to ‘make the most of the journey’. Life, however challenging it may appear at times, is a precious gift which we should savour. Understandable though it is (and we are all prone to such thinking), wishing the days away will not make the exams finish earlier or the holidays come more quickly! So, I hope that, within the LGS community, we can cherish every day and enjoy the opportunities presented to us. And that we can be thankful that a ceasefire and the release of hostages at last appear highly likely in a bitter conflict that has endured in the Middle East for far too long.
Best wishes,
John Watson
Headmaster and Principal