The ancient Greek aphorism, “know thyself” has been quoted and used for thousands of years. It was perhaps most famously used by Plato as he quoted his teacher, Socrates. As legend has it, Socrates also said, before his execution, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Although the origins of these sayings may be interesting, the meaning is what interests us here at ReWritten. What does it mean to “know thyself”? How do you begin to know yourself? What do you examine about your life, and where do you start? Finally, why does it matter? It matters because although everything you know, believe, and do in life may relate to things and people outside yourself, your understanding of everything begins with you. How can you understand anything until you understand how a thing relates to yourself? That’s why it is important to “know thyself.” Our kids tend to be kind of intense much of the time. These kids face big struggles, which makes understanding others, school, work, relationships, God, etc. challenging. They battle on so many fronts—social pressures, being fatherless, and, most importantly, seeing themselves as bearing the image of God, the ultimate father. How can they and we begin to understand what matters most without really looking inward? We can’t and they can’t. Recently, we hosted an interesting self-portrait drawing workshop with our students. For the kids, it was fun, educational, creative, and, sometimes, kind of intense. An interesting thing happened in this simple session—students were required to carefully examine themselves. No, they didn’t undergo therapy or do intense soul searching. They started with just looking, looking carefully, and trying to really see themselves. We set up mirrors, tables, art paper, and pencils. The task was to really, carefully, look, notice, and draw. The students spent a long time intently staring at themselves, trying to see, to examine themselves. Intuitively, most did not quickly draw themselves and move on. They looked and looked, then looked some more. As they began to draw, add details, and focus on their self portraits, it was very interesting to see what they most noticed about themselves. It was fascinating to observe which students most engaged with their portraits. It was also intriguing to note the way some students so clearly saw themselves and were able to communicate that in their drawing. The whole session was a thing of beauty. Some wise thinkers say that the important elements to pursue in life are essential attributes of the Father God—namely, we should focus on what is good, true, and beautiful—because these are life giving and affirming aspects of life that lead us back to God. In our simple ways, we hope to point our students toward these attributes. If they begin by becoming more introspective and understanding themselves better, we think they can then look outward to the world, and, especially, to God. In this case, they drew, but they looked too. We hope they noticed and thought. We hope they saw a little bit

We’re called “ReWritten,” so why are we reading? Shouldn’t we be writing all of the time instead? We read because stories matter. Great stories show us how people live, think, succeed, fail, manage life, interact, imagine, love, hate, and help. In recent years, reading great literature, and even not-so-great literature, has declined. This is the age of the quick read, the YouTube video, and the videogame. Have you noticed that in your social media feed, articles will often state how long it will take one to read them? We often don’t sit down, go deep, and engage in something that cannot be knocked out in less than five minutes. At Rewritten, we see things differently. We see the value of slowing down, sitting down, and getting into a great story that won’t be finished today, tomorrow, or this week. Maybe we’ll need to work through it for a month or more to not only get through it but to absorb, engage, and apply the ideas the author means to communicate. That sounds like heady stuff for college or even postgraduate studies, doesn’t it? Could be. Could also be heady stuff for second, third, and fourth graders. Intellectual development and imagination don’t begin at adulthood–they begin at birth. Our students may or may not have systems in place to reinforce those qualities, but we do, and we’re kind of pushy about it. We push reading. We push engagement. We push imagination. We push critical thinking and wisdom. Most of all, we push our students to learn to recognize truth, beauty, and goodness in stories and in life because these are essential aspects of the character of God. Currently, we’ve got some deep thinking going on at the center amongst the 2nd-4th grade set. We’ve got big themes for young minds–classic, essential ideas. You might think we’ve lost it and are teaching them ancient Greek or high-level philosophy. Actually, we’re not opposed to going deep at any age. This semester, though, we’re going deep with Winnie the Pooh and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You might laugh because these are obviously fun children’s stories. You’re right! We’re teaching children, and children learn from relatable stories for their ages. Have you actually read these books? There’s some deep stuff in them! How about these themes—friendship, loyalty, imagination, helping, art, courage, honesty, integrity, and hard work? Do these sound like themes that are only valuable for young children? We don’t think so either. These are themes for living a life of value. Our kids are learning about them here and now, not just at 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 or 60 or… We believe you’re never too young or too old to learn about wisdom, so that’s why we read deeply and early. We know it’s a tough world out there, and these kids experience hardship all too often, unfortunately. However, since it’s a tough life, why not be armed with the essential things one needs to fight through it, knowledge of

Some days, weeks, months, and even years, it seems like we shoulder so many burdens. Some of the weights we carry were placed upon us by others, and some of them we take on ourselves. The heaviest loads tend to be those that hurt and don’t go away easily. When those struggles occur during childhood and adolescence, they can seem to be insurmountable, permanent, invisible, and even normal. Sometimes, they’re in the form of inability to trust and love others, caused by rejection, abandonment, and hurtful relationships. At other times, they take the form of expectations or attitudes from others and from ourselves, both reasonable and unreasonable. The worst may be caused by trauma—those are the burdens that can become the hardest to put down, or even to recognize. The truth is, we all carry things that hurt, but for those with few resources, the hurt can overwhelm the days, weeks, months, and years. Still, amidst the difficulties, we also bear the weight of responsibility for living productively, for influencing and caring for others, for making a living, for achieving goals, for helping society, etc. These burdens can be difficult to carry too, but they also have the potential to bring great growth and development to our minds and hearts along with benefiting others. A parent, for example, can have great effect on the future of his or her children by bearing the responsibility of parenting well. That same parent will inevitably grow as a person by way of giving that time and love to the children. It’s a win-win situation. Also, by taking the time to develop oneself in body, mind, heart, and soul, one will certainly affect both self and others positively. Working at a job or career may seem like a bother at times, but if pursued well, it can benefit the organization, colleagues, society, and self. Again, win-win. For our participants, there are so many seen and unseen burdens. We sometimes need to help them to identify them, and sometimes we need to teach them to know what to carry and what to unload. Sometimes we just need to pick up some of the load ourselves to lend support. The participant who catches on to the idea that he or she can, in fact, change his or her situation for the better by laying down or taking up a particular responsibility can make tremendous progress in life. That’s what we’re here for—to help identify the choices and assist in pursuing the positive ones. That often looks like responsibility. The famous quote by Thomas Edison seems to fit all of us at times: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Responsibility is work, but it’s also opportunity. We hope to send this message to all our kids, that doing the hard work is hard, but it matters, it helps, and it transforms. At ReWritten, we’re able to support our participants because of the generous support of our sponsors.

No school, swimming, s’mores and staying up late, summer was in full swing for most in mid-June when five of our participants took a trip to visit Washington D.C. and New York City. It was an educational trip that was sure to challenge these five young people and, hopefully, change the way they see themselves and how they serve the people within their circle of influence and communities. It was a goal in 2017 for Rewritten to take a trip to Washington D.C. We didn’t accomplish our goal, but with a determined spirit, patience and perseverance, what was once a wish list item, became a reality for five of our young people this year; R.J., Darrius, Hunniee, Jason and Desanthony had the privilege of traveling to the east coast. For some, it was the first time out of state; for most, it was the first time on an airplane; for all, it was their first opportunity to see, feel and touch what they’ve read about in textbooks and seen on television. From tours through a portion of the White House and the Capitol Building, the first couple days set expectations for the trip high. Those days and every day thereafter were packed with museums, International Spy Museum, Holocaust Museum, Air and Space Museum and National Museum of African American History and Culture to name a few, memorials, such as, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Arlington National Cemetery. These sites and so many others had much in common. Grand, yes. Beautiful, no, more like stunning. Striking, in more ways than could be expressed. The vastness of every building and what is kept inside seemed to transcend the immediate and radiate courage, hope and perseverance. This, our participants can relate to more and more often because of the support system that surrounds them at Rewritten. It is having the courage to dream and hope for a different future that fuels their perseverance to toil and march into the unknown. Mixed into the learning and education of it all, the group took a one-day trip to New York City to soak in city life and the hustle of a big city. Times Square gave some ground perspective while the Empire State Building offered a view overlooking Central Park, The Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square, from a much higher vantage point. All of this had participants quickly becoming partial to the energy and excitement of The Big Apple. This trip wasn’t short of its own time of reflecting on some more recent history and considering the weight of a hole in the hearts of many, though. The event of 9/11 is so clearly recounted by many: what you were doing, where you were going, who you were with or weren’t and, possibly, concerned about. These people were fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, and other family members and friends, set out on a day like any other, but not to return. This too, participants can relate to; a hole pierced by the departure of a loved