A letter from John Bachofen (LGB, 1959)
John started to write a weekly letters 5 years ago and share them with a close group of friends. On his 81 birthday, John's decided to dedicate his letter to all his Ecolint's friends and to the school ideal. As the school approaches its centenary, John reminisces about a close friend he lost and the base that Ecolint provided for their future. Above all, he calls for future generations to keep on hoping and working for a better tomorrow.
"I write about anniversaries and birthdays as it connotes dates to be remembered. Anniversaries are a perpetual event, and birthdays eventually disappear with one. However, for now, it is that time again, when a year comes around full circle, and you need to celebrate a personal event yet again. Yes, today is my birthday, and at 81 I am slowly starting to feel a bit more mature. I have to admit it is marginal - my maturity. I have always been rather ambivalent about birthdays, but now that I am, so to say, into longevity I am rather fond of the numbers. In fact, what I want to celebrate is not my birthday, but the fact that so many friends, who are near my age, are still all about. It seems somewhat reassuring. None of us are into a challenge with each other, but we are aware that, as we progress ever further into this new frontier, we need reassurance from our fellow travellers. The more important event, a true anniversary, is however more than a year away. For in 2024, those of us who were lucky enough to have found each other stranded in a school called Ecolint in Geneva, will once again plan a reunion. By that time most of us will be well into our 80s, yet we will inevitably be feeling as young as we were then, but needlessly having to admit we might have changed outwardly ever so slightly. I therefore will write about a celebration to come, and in a way also about those we might miss.
I have lost quite a few good friends these past years, but few from Ecolint. However, I do miss one great friend who always made me laugh, challenged convention, and was a total optimist. This person was always very dear to me and he is sadly missed. I carry a wonderful photograph of him on my iphone, and I refer to it now and again and wish him well. He faced death bravely, as if it was a challenge to be accepted, and one to be met head on. Albert was in many ways quite unique, but then we are all unique in so many ways. Coming from so many different backgrounds one would have thought only conflict could ensue, and yet the very opposite occurred. We learned to love our differences, and furthermore to learn from them. Albert was also the embodiment of what we all came to comprehend. His family, exiled and persecuted, finds refuge in a foreign land where religious tolerance prevailed, and then 500 years later again exiled to make a new life. Yet was there ever any intolerance expressed by him - never!? In time we all begin to understand the essentials, and it has to do with tolerance and not the opposite! A recipient of my letters once gave a speech in the school's Greek Theatre, which we all helped to build so many years ago, and voiced a truth. He said one reason we always loved to return to this school was because it was in fact our true home. It was in many ways a place of refuge where we learned to listen.
I am therefore dedicating this Saturday letter, on my birthday, to all of us who remain well and alive, and can maintain that spirit which has not only sustained us, but inspired us to, not only do well, but to always remain fair. I have always maintained that it is what you do with yourself after school that is important, and yet it is that basic grounding we all need to keep the roots securely implanted that ensures a future. Roots that have had to struggle to find their way into the subsoil will keep the outer structure firmly in place, not only sustaining it, but also protecting it from the fiercest onslaught. A beautiful forest is made up of a multitude of different plants - we were the plants and the school was the forest. What is seen above is sustained by a microscopic army of fungi and beasts in the subsoil, maybe invisible, and yet essential. Our past education continually protects and feeds us in understanding that differences make a greater whole. Differences give us strength, not only of character, but of imagination. Ecolint gave us a thirst for making a better world. We were optimistic and motivated. I believe most of us remain so?!
What I have written above may now be about our past, and yet I doubt most of us have ever given up hope for a better future. Rightly so, as we need to believe, and that is what we have learned from our experience together. That hope is something we should never abandon. I have written many times that where there is hope there is also a future. We might all be into our 80s, but we should be proud of that fact, and we should be proud of our sustained optimism. We must carry that approach towards life for as long as possible, and certainly until we find another generation that will carry that torch onwards. I have a grand nephew who refuses to have children as he does not wish to bring children into this world. There may be others with the same view, but I cannot accept this logic. One may think one is doing justice by not committing a conceptual injustice, but is this a way to view the world?
I am not celebrating my birthday here, but I do need to celebrate the anniversary of my old school that will soon be 100 years old. This anniversary will coincide with our class's reunion, for Ecolint was founded with just 8 students in 1924 and today they are counting almost five thousand. What an achievement. It is a celebration of goodwill between all of mankind, and what we should focus on continually. It is all about understanding each other. This letter is thus a celebration to an ideal, and one we oldies have all, in our own way, lived by. We are all proud of this fact. We should also be celebrating our longevity, which may have represented a struggle now and then, but somehow we have managed to persevere, and in a small way also triumph. A triumph represents an achievement. Getting to 80+ is definitely an achievement worth celebrating, but it pales compared to what has sustained us, and that is a deeply felt love for one another.
John Bachofen"