I want to welcome everyone as we return to school for the final Term of the year. I have had a very full two weeks away from school with family visiting and every minute has been spent with them, which for us is not very common. I enjoyed having 15-18 people in my house, just sitting and watching the dynamics of great grandparents, grandparents, parents, and children all mixing and relating to each other.
My life as a chaplain has taught me that the relationships part of life can be very difficult for many people. Things like the complexity of characters, the inability to understand each other completely, the potential for individuals to feel neglected, and for offence to spring up at any time, always seems to damage our personal connections.
During the holiday break, I have been pondering the idea that it takes work and effort to keep things in order. Without the required work and effort to hold things together, things tend to fall apart. I mentioned this last term when I wrote on the Law of Entropy. Another term that theologians and scholars use when referring to the consistent breakdown of order into disorder is CHAOS! Chaos seems like an extreme word, but it is always at the edges, threatening to disrupt the order that we hope to build and maintain in our work and lives.
In Term 4, I want to use several of my newsletter articles to explore the idea of order and chaos. Chaos is what happens when all the musicians in a symphony play their own notes without the ordering of a conductor. Chaos is when an organised garden is not cared for by a gardener. Chaos is when a toy room is left in the care of two grandchildren when they visit over the holidays! I hope that you are enjoying the order of life as we return to the rhythm of school term.
Peter Chase
College Chaplain • Pastoral Care
