I don’t know about you, but I like to rationalize my newfound addiction to WORDLE–the viral “six chances to guess a five-letter word” game–by forcing myself to come up with a different opener each day. If I were shrewd, I would always begin with RATIO or IRATE, which each include five of the six most commonly used letters in English, but where’s the fun in that? Instead, each morning I try to think of a word with immediate relevance. At MICDS on Wednesday, the temperature was seven degrees when classes began. CHILL was my first instinct that day, but double letters are never smart. Then I remembered a synonym: GELID. What a very good word this is for very bad weather.
Since that afternoon I have been at a conference in Chicago, where conditions are even more GELID still. (Decamping to this city in January may also qualify as “never smart,” by the way, although I am not having quite so difficult a winter experience as this amateur skier.) My end-of-week schedule has been unusually constrained by my travel; and finding myself without as much time as I typically would have to share observations and reflections with you, I offer this WORDLE of my own inspiration–of our own inspiration as a school community–instead:
There may be no more essential distillation of our common endeavor than these good five-letter words in unison. Always reason, always compassion, always courage. With apologies for my brevity, I wish you a very happy weekend with your families, and I will look forward to being in touch with you again next week.
Jay Rainey
Head of School
This week’s addition to the “Refrains for Rams” playlist: Quicksand by Hatchie (Apple Music / Spotify)