Gliding through the tranquil Devon countryside on the day after we joined Donna and Tim on the final part of their 222 mile walk I felt moved to record my own thoughts on the significance of this event and the importance of Dartington to me, as Donna’s mother:-
Dear daughter of mine,
How proud and pleased for you am I that you have completed the return journey to Dartington, seven years after you walked “home “from there in your final year of study. At that time the world was reeling from the impact of the events of 9/11 which led you to enquire of those you encountered along the way what they considered to be important to them.
When planning this return journey, at the beginning of the year, you could not have known how this September, in the year 2008, would see the world in turmoil again; not this time as a result of outside attacks against the West, but due to internal commercial processes all but consuming themselves in a feeding frenzy of greed, fuelled by the unshakeable, unfathomable, insatiable belief, stronger than ever during those intervening years, that capitalism and economic growth must continue, can continue and will continue at any cost.
How sad that it would seem the same commercial pressures which are currently tearing the world apart should also bring an end to the opportunities which Dartington has given you and so many others over the years. And how fitting, though ironic, that on the day you completed your epic journey (this time suggesting to those who joined you along the way, that they think about how Dartington was important to them); the world’s greatest economic power had been forced to consider the consequences of its past excesses, which had so nearly brought about a worldwide catastrophe, with potentially even more far reaching adverse effects than the events of 9/11.
In 2001, the President of the
What poignancy then did I feel in contrasting these thoughts with those I had whilst walking with everyone in silent contemplation on the gently winding path to Dartington, beside the calm meandering river, beneath the ancient sheltering trees, under a warm blue sky in the early Autumn sunshine? To consider once again the paradox that the only constant in life is change, which as David Williams suggested in his address to the group at the end of the walk, if wisely anticipated, rather than pointlessly resisted, can lead to an open embrace of all the possibilities and opportunities that life has to offer. And how well the experience of Dartington has prepared you for this! I have witnessed how it has enabled you to freely explore your potential for creative expression, to gain confidence in learning how to deal with the challenging, often frightening, world which lies outside the sustaining, nurturing walls of Dartington and to mature into the beautiful, thoughtful, enquiring, reflective, sensitive and caring young woman I know you to be. If this is a measure of Dartington’s success then I am so happy to have supported you to be a part of it.
From those bold yet tentative, lonely but strong-hearted, steps towards an uncertain homecoming seven years ago, you have retraced the path in the loving companionship of those who are dear to you, committing to memory all that was significant about the Dartington experience in a carefully documented account of what it was like for those who were there.
This time you walked towards the certainty that change can bring about new openings as well as endings in the knowledge that Dartington has helped you to seek the potential in discerning and exploring whatever lies on the path ahead.
And in doing so I have been inspired by your endeavours to appreciate that Dartington offers not just an alternative education in the Arts - something completely other than its competitive counterparts, but an antidote to the materialistic, commercial world which we have just witnessed in the grip of global panic even as you walked, just walked, and continued to walk with strong sturdy feet upon the solid earth in a spirit of positive commemoration of the special and unique place that is Dartington.
With all my love to the ‘you’ you were, the ‘you’ you are, and the ‘you’ you are becoming,
Your ever loving
Mama xxx
Sharon Hamlin ( Littman)
No comments:
Post a Comment