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The Short Vort- -“The Little Princess” (9/1/10)
The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Wednesday the 22nd of Elul 5770 and September 1, 2010
The Little Princess
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life”
Who has not heard this quote at some time in their life?
Today as I walked home from shul, I noticed her.
She must have been five or six years old.
She was wearing a brand new blue pleated skirt and freshly pressed white shirt.
On her back was a large weighted object which caused her back to arch to such an extent she had to walk hunched over.
However, her eyes and face said it all.
Her eyes were bright and excited while simultaneously showing slight fear and anxiety of the unknown.
Her face was bright and her hair was pulled back in a neat pony tail.
She smiled; however, her smile was one of anticipation of the good coupled with a healthy dose of uncertainty as to what the day would bring.
Indeed, there was no denying it.
She was a first grader on her way to begin her school career.
As a former first grader and former teacher I could predict the contents of her heavy knap sack.
Brand new note books with many ‘number two’ pencils (they still make them, don’t they?) plus white out and colored pens and markers.
She quickly ran to the passenger side of her father’s huge Suburban and disappeared into the huge vehicle.
I stood there watching as I silently predicted her first day at school.
She would meet her Morah and the teacher would explain how first grade is totally different than pre-1A.
The Morah would say, “You are now big girls; you are no longer little girls who play the entire day. You will have homework and be expected to complete your assignments.”
Our little friend will have small butterflies in her stomach as she wonders how she will manage in such a big school.
She looks around at other girls and wonders to herself, ‘Will I have friends? Do the girls all have friends already form Pre-1A? Will they accept me? Am I wearing my hair the proper way? Will I have friends? Are these girls ‘clickish’? Will the Morah be mean or nice? Will I have friends?’
Today is the first day of the rest of her life.
For how long will our little maidel be able to maintain her pristine innocence?
Will she become jaded and cynical? Or will she be inspired and go on to inspire others?
Will she be comforted by her teachers and her friends? Or will she be distanced and turned off by them?
Many questions.
However, for today, as I watched the little princes make her way into her father’s car, I not- so silently davened that she receive the nurturing and cultivating environment which she (and all of us) desperately need to achieve success.
And did something else; something which was not planned nor predicted; I cried.
I cried and cried.
I cried as I thought of all the young men and women who have lost their pristine sheen.
I cried when I thought of all the beautiful children who went to first grade with the same smile, anticipation and hope as the little princess, only to have their hopes and dreams smashed and destroyed.
I cried for all the precious neshamos who no longer arise in the morning with a feeling of purpose and of hope.
I cried for all the young people who ‘in the morning wait for the night and in the night agonize about the coming of the day’.
I cried for the smiles which have been erased from their once hopeful faces; perhaps (G-d forbid) never to return.
I cried for their innocence and hopes and dreams which were dashed.
I cannot stop crying, the computer screen is a wash in a sea of my tears and the letters are beginning to mesh into one large indiscernible blob of non-clarity.
An older Jew from Frankfurt on Main once told me that he tells his children every time they go into their cars that they she merit to exit the car in the same health which with they entered the car.
To paraphrase that holy Jew, I daven that all of our precious children should exit school with the same pristine naiveté with which they entered school.
That their hopes and aspirations be fulfilled; that there dreams be accomplished and most importantly, that they never have to ask themselves, Will I have friends?