Principal's Message
Recently my best buddy from university passed away, which has left me reflecting on the importance of great friends and their impact on our lives. Thank you to the students, parents and carers who have shared their condolences with me.
Seated comfortably on the grass mound was a cheerful looking rabbit. After a while, along came a fox.
“Hi, rabbit. What do you know?”
“Well,” said the rabbit, “I know that rabbits can eat foxes!”
“Rubbish!” laughed the fox. “Everyone knows that rabbits can’t eat foxes.”
“Come into my burrow, then, and I’ll show you,” cried the rabbit in challenging tones.
The rabbit and the fox entered the burrow together. Sounds of yelps and scuffling were heard. The rabbit emerged alone and sat cheerfully on his grass mound. After a while, along came a grizzly bear.
“Hi, rabbit. What do you know?”
“Well,” said the rabbit, “I know that rabbits can eat grizzly bears!”
“Rubbish!” growled the grizzly bear. “Everyone knows that rabbits can’t eat grizzly bears.”
“Come into my burrow, then, and I’ll show you,” cried the rabbit in challenging tones.
The rabbit and the grizzly bear entered the burrow together. Sounds of yelps and scuffling were heard. The rabbit emerged alone and sat cheerfully on his grass mound. After a while, along came a wolf.
“Hi, rabbit. What do you know?”
“Well,” said the rabbit, “I know that rabbits can eat wolves!”
“Rubbish!” snarled the wolf. “Everyone knows that rabbits can’t eat wolves.”
“Come into my burrow, then, and I’ll show you,” cried the rabbit in challenging tones.
The rabbit and the wolf entered the burrow together. Sounds of yelps and scuffling were heard. The rabbit emerged alone and sat cheerfully on his grass mound. After a while, along came a …
One of the best things about this story is that it can go on for a very long time! Shall we shorten it by taking a little excursion, unobserved of course, into that remarkable rabbit’s burrow?
When we do, there in the corner of the burrow, happily surrounded by the skeletal remains of a fox, a grizzly bear and a wolf, we will find a very large contented lion!
The moral of the story is this. The logic of what you claim doesn’t matter so much; what matters infinitely more is whom you select as your friends!
I don’t know how many people have friends. Far too few, I suspect. I don’t mean pleasant, collegial, knock-about mates; like-minded, warm people that most of us have the pleasure of knowing in our lives as we travel along together. They can enhance a pleasant evening, provide support at times, show concern when appropriate. I would not want to denigrate those sorts of connections at all. They are a significant part of what makes life more agreeable and manageable. These are the positive qualities of the relationships which form the backbone of our different communities – at school, in our social groups in the workplace, in the local area.
But that is not real friendship, as I understand it. Real friendship seems to be much more rare. Andrew Greeley makes a profound observation in that regard:
One of the critical problems in society is the absence of trust. Men and women cannot trust because they do not have enough friendship in their life. If there were more friendships in the world there would be more trust, and the level of tension in societal relationships would decrease almost automatically.
Greeley goes on to describe how being involved in a deep friendship is worth every effort we might need to make to develop and maintain it.
We become fuller, warmer, more humane human beings precisely to the extent that we are able to enter into friendship relationships. The more we permit the friend to know us, the more worthy of his/her love we become; as his/her searching gaze probes even deeper into our personality, (s)he discovers riches of which no-one else was ever aware and in which we scarcely dare to believe. But because (s)he sees within us, we actually become the good that (s)he sees… We become that which the friend wants us to be, and (s)he becomes that which we want him/her to be… The friend, in other words, is a person who makes our dreams about ourselves come true.
If you have the blessing of such a friend, cherish them. Little else in your life will be so important.
Ms Michelle Crofts
Principal of Matthew Flinders Girls
