In retrospect

By Mauro López Dardaine (O.F. 1959) Maybe “in retrospect” is a somewhat exaggerated title for this comment, for hardly twenty days have elapsed since our opening matinée of “The Time of our Lives”. No better name can one possibly think of, however, to express what we -the old facrectean players- lived since early August of last year. It was indeed the time of our lives! No need to tell you what the concert was about, for either you have been a spectator and experienced the emotion, enjoyed the funny moments and shed your tears at the end, or have read about it in our school blog, or heard the story from another old facrectean. But after the initial emotional currents have somehow or other been redirected -not that it was an easy task- one can begin to weigh how much this adventure into the past, and one also aiming at the future, has meant for us all. It has in fact sort of established a before and an afterwards. To those of us who had never before performed on stage, to those others who had limited their singing aspirations to the restricted dimensions of the shower, discovering what the gifted professional guidance of Hernán and Carina could achieve, came close to an earthly miracle. But this wonder would not have been possible if the old facrecteans who gathered for the event had not possessed to a high degree the spirit and the principles our school was built on, one brick at a time, as one of the songs in our play went. It is, let me say in retrospect, that unique blend that is at the bottom of the “miracle” we were part of and so many of you witnessed. And to that spirit and to those principles I pay my tribute through these lines, a tribute to our lasting legacy: fac recte! But in so doing let me also pay a tribute to Life, having had so much fun as we did through those demanding rehearsals and those heart-stirring performances.