plans. A morning or afternoon walk or run. Food and drinks on the patio or deck. A round of golf. A track meet. A tennis meet. We all realize we need rain but it seems the timing is just never great.
April
seems to bring us more rain than most months, or maybe it’s just that it’s the
first month of the year when we notice rain.
Radio DJ’s get into the spirit and dig out any and every song related to
precipitation. Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On
My Head, I Wish It Would Rain, The Rain, The Park and the Other Things. I can take or leave most rain songs but I
must admit, I never get tired of hearing one that I heard on the way home last
night - Credence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop The Rain.”
It
took me a while to figure out the Credence wasn’t singing about precipitation. They were singing about the messy state of
the world or to put it more simply - chaos.
Like most Credence songs, the lyrics are simple.
Long
as I remember,
The
rain’s been comin’ down
Clouds
of mystery pourin’
Confusion
on the ground.
Good
men through the ages,
Trying
to find the sun
And
I wonder, still I wonder
Who’ll
stop the rain?
Not
terribly deep but you get the picture.
The world was a confusing and messy place in the 70’s when Credence sang
that tune. The Vietnam War, nuclear
threats, human rights violations, racism, poverty, terrorism. Discontent.
Disagreement. A lack of understanding. Sound
familiar? Seems we could sing the same
song today.
For
me the most important line of that song is from the title, “Who’ll stop the
rain?”
Who
will clean up the mess? Who will clear
up the confusion? Who will promote
understanding? We certainly can’t do it
all. But we can do something. And as leaders, we have the responsibility to
reign in (pardon the pun) the chaos. We
owe it to the people we lead. Our
students. Our coaches. Our staffs.
Our community.
As
leaders, we are called upon every day to chart the course, develop the plan,
set the sails…choose your cliché. Sometimes
it’s a matter of taking the complex and simplifying it. Sometimes it’s taking on challenges from every
direction. And without question, we face
resistance. It seems no matter what we
come up with, someone is upset. It can
make us feel like throwing our hands up and saying, “It’s too much.”
We
may also be tempted to think, “I don’t have what it takes.” In fact, we do have what it takes. Consider the words of Marianne Williamson
from her book “A Return to Love:”
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.'
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.
As
we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates
others.
And
one of the wonderful things about the professional world of education is we don’t
have to do it alone. A phenomenal
network of other leaders is available to connect with. In a world full of, “me first, then you,” the
community of school administrators is a welcome breath of fresh air. All we have to do is reach out.
Sometimes the challenges, the chaos, and the confusion can be overwhelming. But someone has to take it on. If not us, then who?
The
waiting is over. Just as we have seen
enough precipitation, the world has seen enough "rain." I encourage each of us to be the answer to CCR's question, “Who’ll Stop the Rain.”
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