Newton South High School - Regulus Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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---4.4.-11.7 social studies . . . Let's take a look at what consequences follow from a recognition that we can view the same events from either a Being-Substanceu frame of reference or from a Becoming Process frame of reference . . . I'll attempt to give you a feeling for the above terms with two exam- ples, the first in the realm of metaphysics. Hadwe been brought up as Orientals rather than Occidentals, the Process-Becoming orientation would seem more natural to us. The current attraction of Zen Buddhism and Taoist-like philosophies with their emphasis on The Way rather than T he Being probably shows a desire to make our mental world corres- pond more closely with our deep intuitions of the Way things are in our sensual world . . . The second example involves a dose of Einstein's Relativity Theory. Its appearance caused consternation among 19th century physicists who had used length, mass, and time as the fundamental concepts of physics. Einstein suggested that different conclusions when making measurements of length, time, and mass. Notice length, time, and mass are just the kind of concepts you would pick as fundamental ones if you were working in a Being-Substance frame of reference. Suppose we were trying to pick a fundamental concept that would fit a Becoming Process frame of reference. Try velocity-the velocity of light in free space. Einstein chose to assume that the velocity of light was not dependent on the observer as were length, Column 1: Miss Scherban, Mr. Roberts M Neel, Mr. Wicks, Mr. Altree, Department Hefulg Mr. Burnham. Column 2: Miss Hunter Mrs. Glick, Mr. Steeman, Mr. Sherman Column 3: Mrs. Vainstein, Mr. Henderson Mr. Freidman, Mr. Shaw, Mr. Busselle Fur Right: Mr, Cuyler. Not Present: Mr. Dam mond, Miss Katz, Mr. Mattson, Mr. Thompson department

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language department Row l: Miss Leighton, Mrs. Hagarth, Mrs. Nichols Mrs. Mazzotra, Mrs. McChesney, Miss Cohen. Row 2 Mrs. Hayman, Mr. Rivers, Mrs. Leisher, Mr. Petrillo Mr. Cornell, Mr. Ethier, Department I-Ieadg Mr. Little: Miss McLane, Mrs. Pike. Not Prerent: Miss Ashley. To give an impression of the year at Newton South in 200 words is like trying for a good snapshot of one's wife, or like finding a helpful response to smashing one's thumb with a hammer, or maybe like teaching. It may very well be impossible. How many words for people? How many for place? How many for the encircling world that shines, or dulls, or reddens the eyes that tie us daily to each other? How many for those things for which there are no words, unfinished things between us all which are what's really happening? Should yearbooks note the wounds we inflict upon each other, depict the transfer of history's hang-ups to the future? Or should they rather celebrate only those magic moments when we are surprised by joy? Should they record only the taste of victory, the A's and B's and party faces, teachers chewing learned pipes and fondling promiscous books? Who speaks for the dying in class and corridor? Who has words for the healers, young and old? How incredibly careless we are of each other. How casually we maim and fracture our minds and spirits. How unimaginatively we arrange a space for learning and reflection. No time to know each other, too many faces without names, too many names without faces. Lives too different to stand so close so often without ritual combat and justification. Minds slam shut on minutia or loll open to spill out discretion. Questions too large to ask. Answers so shrill only dogs can hear. And yet, to use the current jargon, this is where it's at , this is tell- ing it like it is. This is what the world, what life is like in our time- crowded, abrasive, incoherent, threatened by relatives, challenged by un- familiar authenticities, confused by monumental fictions, sustained by outrageosly beautiful hopes. So day by day we stand forth upon the balance beam, teetering out an order over the abyss fashioning new creation for tomorrow. Thus I exhaust and go beyond my 200 words in an impression of leaving an impression. Yet perhaps the energy and whirl of so much life, like viewing the sun, requires a dark glass to be perceived at all. R. S. WICKS 1 I

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time and mass . . . The relativistic aspects of Einstein's theory show up when we are viewing events from a Being-Substance frame of reference. But a kind of absoluteness fi.e. results independent of the observerj not relativism hits us if our frame of reference is a Becoming-Process one . . . Perhaps you can now look at some people whom you might call hypocrites through Becoming-Process rather than a Being-Substance eyes. I am going to mention two topics and begin thinking, leaving the continuation of it to you-as a ten or twenty year project. The first of the two topics concerns student government and the second concerns some parents reaction to mixed marriages. On the student government issue, I would ask whether much of the adult world hasn't-in their idea world - been playing in a Being-Sub- stance ball park. They have created the Democratic Dogma in their thought worldn, but they might apply it to a world of action in which I have suggested that Becoming and Process are the fundamental realities rather than Being and Substance . . . Is it any wonder that we adults seem to be guilty of double talk when we make promises which we can't possibly keep? On the mixed marriages issue, segments of the adult world, playing in a Being-Substance ball park have said that Being in Love was a major determinant on when to get married. Here, we have come very close to telling you a bold-faced lie. Some of the problem is that the intellectuals ffrom the scientist to the theologianj, whom society has entrusted with maintaining and refurbishing societyls capital reserves of intangible realities , have done so poorly that the natural tendency of people to believe only in that which they can see or touch has had more influence than it should have had. Marriage is not an isolated happening in a Being-Substance frame of reference. It is much closer to a process whose healthy growth is at least partly determined by the environment in which it must function. Woe be unto those who's foresight is so lacking that they refuse to compare-prior to acting- the number of points of correspondence between their private dream world and the Universe in its present moment of Becoming. VINCENT W. BRONSON science department Row lr Mr. Silluzio, Department Head: Mrs. McAvoy Miss Evans, Mrs. Pitt, Mr. Jesdale. Row 2: Mr. Gold- man, Mr. Verdun, Mr. Bronson, Mr. McLaren, Mr Brough. Not Prefentz Mr. Kojoyian, Mrs. Liebman Miss Sullivan.