Dear members of the Mount Lilydale Mercy College community
Blaring on the radio the other morning was the Kelly Clarkson song Stronger (what doesn’t kill you), which is a song from her fifth studio album Stronger (2011), and although much of the song is irrelevant to my thinking, there are some great lines in the song:
“What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger, stand a little taller…”
Of course, the saying itself was not first attributed to Clarkson, but rather to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who wrote a book about personal struggles, which was printed by the German government and issued to soldiers during WWI. Nietzsche suffered depression and is believed to have been bipolar and he actually said, “that which does not kill us, makes us stronger”.
This saying is often attributed to resilience and how life experiences make us stronger if we do not give into them. I was reminded of it again the other evening, when I watched an older gentleman being interviewed on the news as he arrived to pick up water. When interviewed about the situation he smiled at the camera and said words to the effect of, “well, what can you do about it?”
It is this ‘roll up your sleeves’ attitude that appealed to me and I know there is much evidence of it around us at this time. Surely this is the resilience we want to teach our children — “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
We often talk about building resilience and it is for times like these, that it becomes evident.
These past two weeks have really called for both resilience and community support. Last fortnight at this time, we were finalising the arrangements under which we were to finish lockdown No.4 and have all students at the College undertaking final assessments and for many ends of semester exams. Preparation and planning was well underway to achieve this.
Last Wednesday night, however, torrential rain and extreme winds swept through East Gippsland and the Yarra Valley causing unprecedented damage, loss of power, internet and phone service, water contamination and, for some, damage to houses that made living in them almost impossible.
Thankfully there was no loss of life in the Yarra Valley or the Dandenongs (of which I am aware) but two lives were lost in other parts of Victoria.
Following this, we closed the College last Thursday morning and with very few avenues of communication, we did our best to inform our community. I realise that communication was not ideal. With no power, but a generator running to protect our network and provide limited wi-fi, no telephone system and limited network on mobile phones, we used the only options open to us: email, SMS, SIMON and Facebook and hoped that word of mouth would assist us in informing others. I fully understand that some families simply did not have access and would not receive such communications. I believed, and still believe, it was better to communicate using as many mediums as possible. Overall, I believe our approach was successful and I apologise if communication was lacking.
As a result of this, we will review our communication processes and opportunities for the future.
I am also fully aware that many members of our community are still without power and still have limited access to services due to fallen trees and/or flooding. Like many of you, we survived at home without power, phone service and internet until late Monday night and a number of College staff are still without these amenities. I am extremely grateful for our community and the support that we offer to each other. Please continue to look for ways to offer support as much as is possible, to ensure that no one is isolated or feeling isolated. Please make contact with neighbours and College colleagues to ensure they are feeling safe and offer any support possible.
In these times, more than many others, we are called to be of service. Let us be of service to each other.
In the spirit of Catherine
God bless
Philip A Morison
Principal
