The world feels on fire. As I write this, war is being waged in all kinds of places and spaces. There are the big wars, the ones that result in great damage to homes and families. The ones that commit such grave violence and alters human history irrevocably.

But there are also small wars – ones where we find ourselves in political conflict; or we find ourselves unsafe and forgotten by our government. There are real economic wars and every day we find it harder and harder to keep our money enough for all that we need.

All of these remind me of that poem I took up in freshman year in English class by Robert Frost:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Truth be told, I did not understand this poem very well. In a class of 32 freshmen only I had a different interpretation and got a 0 in my quiz. I was disappointed in myself! English was always my strongest subject and Robert Frost was a poet I really knew. How could I have gotten it all wrong?

Perhaps because at 18 I knew so little about the world. Without social media or the availability of news 24/7, news and information came via the encyclopedia, from reading books, or the newspaper. I knew so little about my own self and I came to the Ateneo ready to be formed – into what, I wasn’t sure. But I knew I wanted to live life deeply and lovingly.

We use that word “formation” a lot in the university. We use the phrase “forming men and women for others,” as both mission and vision. We understand that it isn’t easy – that making our students go through different classes and activities that will make them aware of their responsibilities to the world is no guarantee that they will live their lives for others. After all the call of the world is contrapuntal to that difficult refrain.

In my own classrooms, I have discovered that a powerful tool beyond experience is storytelling. Perhaps it is because of its own history in the story of humankind that storytelling brings with a built-in recognition of what we are and what we can become. Every student wants to listen to a story and even when they resist they cannot help themselves and listen anyway.

This is perhaps why, year after year, Fabilioh continues to bring you stories, successful stories of how we live out what it means to be men and women for others. As I plan and read these stories, myself, as an Editor and university storyteller (yup that’s what I call myself), I am always surprised by the surprising ways Ateneans find themselves in the middle of the call of magis - and in particular to be always “more for others.” It seems inevitable that once you begin to live and love for a higher purpose, the challenges to do so become more and more become part of the story. 

What better way to enter this moment of deep reflection this Advent season. I am always reminded of that song from grade school - that refrain: “let peace begin with me, let this be my solemn vow.” Some days I chant this as I walk our beloved school.

Indeed, the world may end in fire, or in ice. Perhaps, just maybe, to begin with peace in ourselves, the world may end in love.