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| Rebecca Stewart & Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C. |
While my grandmother and mother were very good teachers I believe my inspiration came from one man who was the biggest influence in my life. From Brother Edwin Reggio, C.S.C., I learned to think and to teach those thoughts in ways that others would understand.
I do believe in miracles. I met Brother Edwin in Austin, Texas at a Roman Catholic boarding school, St. Edward’s in 1958 and yet Brother Edwin met my two granddaughters many times as he did my Rosemary before he died.
Brother
Edwin forced me into learning to play the alto saxophone and taught me to read
music. He had two master degrees, one was in music and the other in
mathematics. He had a way of teaching that went around hard facts and straight into our young minds.
His
religion classes (only later I figured out that they would have been properly
called theology classes) were often interrupted by our inclination to waste
time by asking him what we thought were dumb questions. He answered all of them
and kept the words God at a minimum. He knew what was afoot and used the opportunity to shovel Catholic Doctrine into us without seeming to be indoctrination.
One day, a few days before Easter ,he asked us, “Whence did the Easter Rabbit come from?” We had no clue. Here is his wonderful explanation that must be taken with a grain of salt and yet you can see how he brought information from the New Testament into his explanation.
He told us how driving at night in the Texas countryside you might spot a couple of bright eyes. You stop your car and you recognize a wild rabbit. Then he scurries away and appears in another place. This happens a few times until he is gone.
From there he told us that after Christ’s resurrection his appearances seemed to be random. Thomas the Apostle (henceforth called Doubting Thomas) did not believe in the resurrection. He stated he would have to put his fingers in Christ’s wounds. We know this did happen. We were then to understand that the appearing and disappearing Christ is why we have the Easter Rabbit.
While in Mexico I taught at a high school for foreign students, at a Jesuit University and at a school that sent us to teach English at Mexico based American companies (which is how I met my Rosemary).
In Vancouver I taught at Emily Carr and at Emily Carr’s Outreach Program and at Focal Point (a photography school on 10th Avenue). If I am to take credit for having quite a few student fans I must state unequivocally that the credit must lie on Brother Edwin and the rest of the competent Brothers of Holy Cross who gave me an education that I could not possibly lose.
In fact after that sombre and sad Good Friday and Holy Saturday I can quote Brother Edwin who told us, “Had Christ not resurrected everything before him would have been a sham. This is why Easter Sunday is more important than Christmas."
Taking Brother Edwin’s cue, I believe that come Easter Sunday, I will resurrect myself, and try to be a new man who sees in the short future dazzling opportunities to impart what is in my head to others.
