Henry Barnes, American Lodestar of Waldorf Education

(Excerpted from a memorial publication, created in gratitude by the Santa Fe Waldorf School, santafewaldorf.org)

The last time that Bob Gates and I visited in person with Henry Barnes and our mutual friend, Lisl Franceschelli, at the Fellowship Community in Spring Valley, NY, the four of us gathered in Henry’s room. He wanted to read to us what he had written that morning for his memoirs; the words he shared are reprinted at right as “A benedictory insight from the last years.” In a single paragraph Henry affirmed that the most profound thread running continuously through his life lessons was “learning to love.” I listened with great interest, for when I looked back, the first qualities I would associate with Henry were his fine intelligence, his clarity of thought, the objective presentation of his ideas and ideals, his ability to envision and then carry out worthy goals. It was as if these capacities were in his very bones, as if he knew the scope of his talents well and wielded them with ease, as if he himself could hold his own life in balance and embrace moderation. What I sensed as he read to us that morning in his 94th year, was a recognition that Henry Barnes had had to struggle to master the lessons he needed to learn about love. If that impression were true, then his affirmation that morning encompassed his gratitude that what was hard won was also, in retrospect, most highly prized.

A benedictory insight from the last years

Originally published in “Henry Barnes: A Constellation of Destinies” (2008), a biography of Henry Barnes edited by John Barnes.

Henry Barnes:

“We, in the Western World, are easily will- and intellect-driven and what we need, above all, is to awaken, and nourish the forces of the human heart....

“At the Fellowship Community in my closing years, ... I set out each morning after breakfast for a walk that leads me up the hill behind Hilltop House, past the chicken yard, and into the woods where a bench awaits me, where I can rest and enjoy the quiet solitude with the morning sun illuminating my surroundings from the east behind me. And I marvel at the mystery that I do not see the light until it strikes the trunks and branches of the trees around me. How remarkable! I do not “see” the light until it strikes an object. Light is, in itself, invisible, although it illumines the whole world! And, as this thought awakens in me, another thought rises up beside it. Doesn’t love behave in the very same way?

“As these reflections arose within me, they deepened and led me, gradually, to the realization that I might describe my whole life-journey as “learning to love.” This [journey] led me to myself, to who I truly was, and am, and want to be.”

Henry Barnes & Jann Gates

For Henry Barnes

by Jann Gates

In all that accompanies

the gesture of our lives,

we hover

in our in-breathing

as persistent embrace

of what has called us

into life

and never waver

in sending forth

our out-breathing

though we know

the whispered

Cosmic Word

will draw us

in an instant

beyond our

material

longevity.

And we shall,

still will-filled

enter

lovingly

therein.

18 September 2008