Winning Eternity

"If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present." - Ludwig Wittgenstein

I watched the State of the Union address this year with consternation. I won't fully explain my views on education here. I'll simply say that I think education accomplishes much more than helping students "win the future," which apparently will be a battle among global corporations.

I thought of our president's slogan Friday night as I watched a performance by the boys of the St. Thomas Choir School. The concert was hosted by St. Mark's Church in Philadelphia, and the proceeds went to support the opening of St. James School, an Episcopal middle school being founded in north Philadelphia.

Before the performance, Father Sean Mullen, St. Mark's Rector and a St. Thomas Choir School alumnus, spoke about the value of Episcopal education. The most powerful testimony for parochial education came not in his speech but in the music that followed.

The choir sang English and Latin texts with melodic precision, clear diction, and dynamic nuance. These words can't capture the experience, though. As I looked around the near-capacity sanctuary, the glances I exchanged with others seemed to say, "We are in the presence of something special."

When the choir stopped singing, I checked my watch and was surprised to see that an hour had passed. That amount didn't seem too long or too short -- it seemed irrelevant. Time had absolutely nothing to do with my experience at the concert.

I had that timeless experience because a group of boys dedicated themselves to studying and mastering the tradition of Anglican choral singing. That's the value of a real education -- it gives fresh insights with which to turn the mundane into the sacred. The boys at St. Thomas School might never win the future, but that doesn't matter. They've already won eternity.