锻造的勇气
According to Mark Eichinger-Wiese—or Mr. E-W, as he’s called around school—the majority of his students enter their first Blacksmithing class scared of fire and having never before wielded a hammer.
“It’s too heavy,” he often hears.
“我不能那样做!” is a popular refrain.
两周后, 然而, the students are transformed: striding confidently around the smithy, they wield hot steel like it’s an extension of their hand. Working, hammering, sweating at the anvil forging 2100-degree steel to their will.
In the course of half a month, “can’ts” become “cans” and “won’ts” become “wills.” While many of Mr. E-W’s students may never work in a smithy again, they take with them a key, transferable skill: resilience.
Mr. E-W is the heart and soul of the Blacksmithing program. During the first several months of the pandemic, he expanded the EWS smithy—indeed, doubled the footprint—to conform to COVID safety protocols.
This was no easy feat and was accomplished in part due to two generous vendors: Lowes, who gave Mr. E-W a contractor’s discount on materials, 和Duravent, a specialty manufacturer who donated $3,000 worth of materials, 使先生. E-W to construct and install a third chimney.
而奥. E-W—who is a volunteer, mind you—is certainly proud of the renovated smithy, he reaps more satisfaction from watching his students transform.
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As the lazy glow of summer fades and we approach the chilly autumn months, we would do well to take note of the arc of a Blacksmithing student. It’s September now; soon we will notice days shortening and temperatures dropping. The air will thin as the earth—full from a season of bounty and harvest—prepares to hibernate. During this time—when the engines stall, 光线渐渐暗淡, darkness creeps in—we must dig a little deeper to confront our inner challenges.
“We must seek to meet our challenges—no matter what form they take—with bravery.”
Challenges come in all shapes and sizes. For some, it is a daunting test or big school paper. 为他人, it is a new job in a new city paired with the struggle to adjust to an unfamiliar routine. 对于许多, it is less concrete and harder to articulate—the bitterness in the air seems almost to seep into the bones.
Holidays and festivals from a whole host of cultures find different—yet reassuringly similar—ways to bring light to the darkness.
The Green Corn Festival (or Festival of Thanksgiving and Forgiveness)—a tradition honored by the Iroquois, 溪, 切罗基族, 塞米诺尔, Yuchi Nations—includes the building and tending of a fire that must burn constantly throughout days of feasting.
The Menorah—a nine-branched candelabra associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah—brings welcome illumination in the depths of winter, represents a miracle of light from eons ago, when a small supply of oil far exceeded its burn time.
Snaked around trees and stretched across eaves, Christmas lights twinkle at you, warming the air—and perhaps the heart—ever so slightly.
At the Emerson Waldorf School, we acknowledge the changes happening both within and without as nature reflects back to us what we ourselves aim to cultivate. Leaves burn with hues of scarlet and gold. The night sky twinkles with meteor showers (autumn sees more than any other season), in turn elevating the level of iron in the atmosphere. 很久以前, meteorites that fell to earth were the best sources of iron for ancient tool and weapon makers—the Egyptians called iron “black copper from heaven” and used it to fashion knives, 的矛, 和箭头.
Photos by Courtney Potter
We must seek to meet our challenges—no matter what form they take—with bravery. We must strive to ignite our inner flame and harness the resilience of Mr. E-W’s blacksmithing students. Humans are drawn to fire—it is a mesmerizing, dancing, constant source of warmth. Take comfort in the knowledge that winter will thaw, 春天会来, the light will return in abundance. 面对你的恐惧. 走近锻炉. Warm your heart with the heat of the flame; fill your bellows with the atmosphere’s iron; steel your nerves for the cold months ahead.
Grip the hammer and swing.
Kaylen Alexis, Class of 2015