“If I only had a heart” –> “Lift up your hearts!”
March 21, 2017 was when the refurbishment began to restore Oregon’s water tower, nicknamed the “Tin Man.” It was like it was given a new life, maybe even a new heart.
When we leave school from Sursum Corda, I find it appropriate that as we walk up the stairs, we look up and see the Tin Man directly in view.
Its namesake, the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz lamented “If I only had a heart…” In the end, he found what was missing. At Sursum Corda, we aim to give students that which is missing. We seek to “lift up students hearts,” to fill their education not merely with facts or ideology, but with truth, goodness, and beauty. In other words, the stuff of the heart.
These come from outside of us, for inside of us cold and empty like the Tin Man. It is God who gives us a new heart. From Him we learn to appreciate what is good, true, and beautiful, and in response to be creators ourselves of that which is good, true, and beautiful in the world.
In the words of the Tin Man from the classic book, “I have no heart, and so I must be very careful. I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much rather have a heart.”
Leave a Reply