I spent Wednesday morning with victims of the Eaton fire at Altadena who, according to the mere measure of their years, occupy the ends of the spectrum. But they have in common, by virtue of their shared experience, the vocation of teaching.
At the invitation of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church rector the Rev. Carri Grindon and head of school Jenn Tolbert, my Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles colleagues Missy Morain, Ryan Douglas Newman, and Grace Wakelee-Lynch and I were guests at a first anniversary chapel at St. Mark’s School, whose elementary cohort is meeting at EF Academy in Pasadena. Jenn preached movingly; the St. Mark’s Gospel Choir sang stirringly.
Invited to offer a greeting, I told the young people and their parents, some of whom suffered the loss of their homes as well as the St. Mark’s school buildings, that their experience of a once-in-a-century catastrophe made them all natural teachers, empaths, and helpers. I told the kids that their great-grandparents, if available, could tell them about World War II, their grandparents about struggles over civil rights and Vietnam, and their parents about Sept. 11. But no one in the world knows more than they about surviving a wildfire.
Later in the morning, I took a similar approach during a chapel service at the MonteCedro in Altadena, where the Rev. Liz Gagnon Piraino, the MonteCedro chaplain, and intern chaplain the Rev. Stephanie Herman graciously presided. This congregation would probably say that they already had sufficient lived experience without going through an evacuation to the Pasadena Convention Center and fears, thankfully unrealized, of the loss of their homes.
And yet they still demonstrate the truth that we teach and build relationship by conveying our lived experiences. I had conversations I won’t forget with an 85-year-old who just ran a 5K, a former press aide to LA Mayor Dick Riordan, and a 101-year-old who served as a radar spotter during World War II, working in the war rooms beneath London.
Chaplain Liz concluded our service with a traditional New Year’s home blessing invoking the theme of how, young or old, we use our experiences, sad or happy, to deepen our empathy, particularly when others need us most. “May you go from this place wrapped in peace,” she said. “May strength rise from where weariness lingers. May hope return – not all at once, but day by day. And may we remain a refuge for one another, now and always.”
