One of my guilty pleasures on Monday nights is to curl up on the couch and watch PBS’ “Antique Roadshow”. There is just something about watching people’s hopes and dreams realized when the painting rescued from the garbage turns out to be worth a hefty amount, or that moment when the whatchamacallit inherited from Aunt Thelma turns out to be worth a small fortune.

The other night someone brought in a ‘crazy quilt’. Popular in the late 1800’s, the crazy quilt became the national craze as mixed textiles became readily available during the industrial era. The quilts are put together in a random order with no apparent pattern; however, the one common thread of crazy quilts is that they are bound together with elaborate embroidery that looks like fans or spider webs.

Ultimately, it is the distinctive stitching that identifies a crazy quilt. That got me thinking: you know, trying to make connections in high school is a lot like a crazy quilt. Random pieces of fabric: the sparkly sequins of the extrovert, the woven wool of the letterman’s jacket, the leather of the hardworking mechanic, the colorful kaleidoscope of the artist, the denim of the solid student, and the silk of the international pupil, are being bound together with God’ grace.

Each Monday our Roots Groups (22 of them in all) meet to patch our stories together. Led by peer leaders, Roots give opportunity to make connections on a one-to-one, out of the classroom, off the athletic field level. Roots is making LCHS a distinctive community, weaving into the high school a quilt of connection and grace, where every student has a voice, and everyone is given an opportunity to be themselves, among their peers, as we all weave ourselves together. Much like a crazy quilt, apart from each other, while each student is beautiful, it is when they are stitched together