Mind Set Go

“Climbing out of a 1942 Stearman Barnstormer biplane day before yesterday, I had the opportunity to reflect upon what placing one’s feet on the ground is about. It’s all relative. I also had the chance to reflect upon not just what flight was like in the early stages, but what I was like before I was given the opportunity to take to the air in such a remarkable way, such a historic way. Each of us is given opportunities to not just reflect and remember, but to experience history in ways in which we can wonder, dream, and believe.

It doesn’t take a dreamer to capture the essence of where we have been, where we are, and where we may be blessed to go; it takes relativity, it takes consciousness, and it takes time, perhaps the resource we take the most for granted. Today we have all of these things at hand. While we cannot be so sure about tomorrow, I believe we owe something to human prosperity, something that researchers may define as human capital. Is it the same? Whether referring to prosperity or capital, we must never forget, that when one affects other human beings, one is responsible. We have a duty not just to right wrongs, but to ensure honorable, dignified, and purposeful actions today. For tomorrow.

No, I cannot ask the Wright brothers of their memories, I cannot capture the essence of their verve, but I can climb out of a cockpit and wonder. I can tap into motivation driven by new eyes, aware not only of possibility, but the vision, the sacrifice, the intuition, and the force of “she” whom we call mother, creator, provider. It was a woman who brought me into this world, and yet another woman who took me to the skies day before yesterday, yet another trailblazer, another mother whose son also touched down and climbed out of yet another biplane in a five-ship about to perform a missing-man formation, the symbol of never forgetting.

I am an American educator, and I dedicate my life to serving others. We have the opportunity to do more than to learn from the lessons of the past. We can take a relative stance that accepts exceptionality not as difference, but as perhaps the only constant life truly provides: The potential to perceive what is ever present at, below, and beyond the surface and not just what is on the surface to behold. So much is taken for granted. So much is lost. So much cannot be changed back. But we have the opportunity today to fly.”

by Nancy Marie Farley Rice

Published in Beyond the IEP: Parents’ perceptions of music education for individuals with exceptionalities, Boston University, 2020 dissertation