The Space to Choose DR LINDA EVANS, PRINCIPAL
In speaking of places and spaces in between, Viktor Frankl, holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and Christian, is attributed as saying:
‘between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies your freedom and power to choose your response. In those responses lie your growth and your happiness.’ Whether or not Frankl said these precise words, matters little. What matters is that he gained insight through enduring difficulty. His was suffering at its most extreme, yet in its midst, he found hope through what he termed 'the space the choose one's own way'. In the following words, he illustrates this beautifully – We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts, comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may
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have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
imagined; our global and local responses were and are varied and interesting.
It is easy for us to view 2020 as having been a year of enormous struggle, to talk of it as a disaster, or of the things we missed out on. It was an extraordinary year. We were all held captive in some way by the power of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was difficult for everyone and amid this difficulty; we were called to have perspective. Frankl, as an Auschwitz survivor, gives clear perspective; he also reminds us that we have the freedom to choose [our] attitude in any given set of circumstances; to choose [our] own way. From moment of stimulus to moment of response there is a space for contemplation.
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This pandemic entered our collective consciousness in ways we couldn’t have imagined, can’t imagine or haven’t
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In Bangalore, India, a restaurant Desi Masala fed more than 10,000 vulnerable people every day. British Army Captain, the late Tom Moore, aged 100, set out to raise money for the Health Services by walking back and forth in his garden – he raised over $32 million British pounds. People in Naples, Italy left solidarity baskets for those struggling … 'Put in, if you can, take out, if you can’t.’
More locally at Fairholme – when staff stand-downs appeared imminent – administration staff responded by offering to reduce their working hours to allow others to continue to work, the swim staff became bathroom cleaners just to allow the pool to reopen, and our Day families opened their homes to our Boarders, to enable them to return to face-to-face learning. Even
