"There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.  The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place."
That's the introduction to a book I read a while back by G.K. Chesterton entitled The Everlasting Man.  Parts of the book are tough because I don't know history very well.  Otherwise it is excellent, and revisiting it has given me some comfort in these past heady days. 
There are two ways of getting home, and Victoria walked round the whole issue of a public elementary school these past two years and came back to the same place.  At first I didn't even realize I was home again, because the education from the round trip made me a different person (only sort of, don't get too excited).
Anyhow, I now see with new eyes, and I can make a promise to the people of Victoria.  Never again will The Victoria Gazette allow an election of people to the school board of District #112 to take place with only minimal notice and information to you.
There's a reason that very few people vote in a school board election.  Heaven knows it's not that we are complacent.  It's that we didn't know or stop to think how important it was, and we haven't been enticed to vote.  From now on I will entice and inform.
In electing our school board members -- who in turn hire our teachers and school superintendent -- we must ensure that they know the Number One priority is to educate our children, and that includes teaching right from wrong through example as well as words.  It means teaching truth.  All the money and free land in the world can't do that.  Abe Lincoln read by candlelight in a poor log house.  My grandmother learned English in a one-room country school (and walked uphill both ways).  They didn't get money from huge referendums for their schools, and yet they're smarter than many of us are today.
If kids are in trouble today, if kids are not being educated today, if kids don't know right from wrong today, it is our fault as a society.  We, as a whole, don't know the people we elect to our powerful school boards.  We don't know the people who collect the lion's share of our local property tax dollars.
There are several things Victoria can do about the lack of an elementary school in our neighborhood.  I, person-ally, have already lost my temper, my patience, and much respect for people currently serving on the Board of District #112. 
But G.K. has again come through for me.  Compared to losing our temper or our wit, he says, "It would be better to see the whole thing as something belonging to another continent, or to another planet."
Now you may think this is utter foolishness, or something from H.G. Wells.  But it's not.  I found it quite healing to write about Dorothy and the Munchkins in the Land of Oz.  It gave me another perspective.  It gave me vent.  And now it makes me smile.  Like Father Elstan writes to me, "Keep smiling.  It'll drive your enemies nuts."  (By the way, as one might suspect, H.G. and G.K. knew each other well.)
Now where was I?  Oh, yes, thinking about home and the Land of Oz, on the outside looking in and then on the inside looking out, gaining a new and vigorous vision.  It is, indeed, good to visit another continent, another planet.  In addition to Oz, I've recently visited a country in the Caribbean.  'Twas only ten days ago that Allan and I returned from spending a week in the Dominican Republic, where the sand and sun are unending and nobody talked about schools.
The following passage from G.K.'s book refers to our spiritual home, but I find it also makes sense if we substitute the word "physical" for "spiritual."  Try it yourself:
"Now the best relation to our spiritual home is to be near enough to love it.  But the next best is to be far enough away not to hate it."
He says it quite well, don't you think?  For example, my home here on Lilac Lane in Victoria was especially dear to my heart as I blanketed the faraway beaches at Punta Cana.  And yet, after I have spent many consecu-tive days and nights working at home, the nearness of a long walk in Carver Park helps me not to hate it. 
And so it is great to be alive in this wondrous world.  We are so very fortunate here in Victoria, the pearl of Carver County, the crown jewel of the Twin Cities, because so many opportunities and advantages are available to us.  It is simply a fact of life that we are sometimes called to swim against the stream.
As G.K. says, "A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.  A dead dog can be lifted on the leaping water with all the swiftness of a leaping hound; but only a live dog can swim backwards."
In all instances, whether we are swimming or skiing or running a race, our track record has to be truth.  Victoria likes facts.  Victoria likes open doors and honesty.  Victoria doesn't like distortion and games with unfair advantage or moving goal posts.  Through its hard work and fair play, Victoria is a fine messenger to the rest of the school district.
"A messenger does not dream about what his message might be, or argue about what it probably would be; he delivers it as it is.  It is not a theory or a fancy but a fact."    --Sue