Life Lessons

January 14, 2022 - The boys waited along the shoreline for Mr. Spitz, their AP Spanish teacher.?He told them that he would meet them after school to surf before sunset.?Mr. Spitz recognized that surfing was a great opportunity to mentor some of the seniors as they prepared for graduation and college.?The boys watched as Mr. Spitz approached them and motioned out to the ocean, “Great break today, are you ready to do this?”

The sun was setting as the three surfers came onto the beach and walked back up to their cars.?Mr. Spitz asked them what their plans were for the long weekend.?He shared with them that he was going free climbing up at Joshua Tree on Sunday.?Mr. Spitz kidded with the boys and told them, “If I am not in class on Tuesday, you will know something happened to me.”?They all laughed and said their goodbyes and drove off.

The second bell rang on Tuesday morning and the students in AP Spanish were at their desks, talking to each while they waited for Mr. Spitz.?At 8:10 one of the administrators from the school came into the classroom and told the students that this morning’s class time would be used as a study hall.?

The bell rang and the students moved to their second period class.?By now rumors started about what might have happened to Mr. Spitz.?The two boys that he surfed with on Friday now remembered his comments about free climbing over the weekend.?At the end of the second period, the head of the school had upper school student assemble in the gymnasium.?He told the students that Mr. Spitz had fallen on Sunday while he was free climbing and had died.?He then cancelled school for the remainder of the day and all after school activities. There were counselors and teachers there in the gym if anyone needed to talk, but most of the students left and just went home.

I was standing outside when my one daughter drove up.?I asked if she was skipping school.?She said “No”, and then shared with me what had happened to Mr. Spitz.?She had not taken AP Spanish but her twin sister had taken the class last year and really like Mr. Spitz.?“Olivia is really upset”, Lana told me.?I asked her where she was and Lana said she stayed at school to talk to the Dean of Students.???

I was on the phone when Olivia arrived home.?She was in tears and burst into my office and threw a parking ticket on my desk.?“I cannot believe that they would give me a parking ticket when I went to talk to Mr. Siciliano about Mr. Spitz.?This is just so stupid.” Oliva yelled out.?I tried to calm her down, but she left my office and went down into her bedroom.

I called to her and her sister that it was time to eat.?They both came up and we talked about what had happened.?Olivia was still much more upset than her sister since she had Mr. Spitz the entire junior year for AP Spanish.?“I don’t understand why things like this happen”, Olivia said.?“It just doesn’t make any sense at all.?Mr. Spitz was a great teacher; he mentored the boys at the school and he did mission work in the summer when he wasn’t teaching.”?I could tell that she was not ready to be counseled, so I just sat and listened to her share with me about the many other things that Mr. Spitz had done.

As I was getting ready for bed, Olivia knocked on my bedroom door. “Can I come in?”, she asked.?I said, “Sure” and she sat down on the bed.?“I wrote a poem for Mr. Spitz this evening, do you want to hear it?”, I told her yes and she read to me:

Life is often called a gift,

And maybe we all take that gift for granted.

But in the midst of desolation,

When sorrow seeps into our skin,

And grief enters in,

We remember the gift we possess.

The gift we are all given,

The gift that gives.

Sometimes we acknowledge that this gift can be stolen,

That we can be robbed.

So we hold on tight, we guard that gift for dear life.

Other times,

We are careless.

We neglect the present that lies in our laps.

We close our eyes, leave the doors unlocked, and cover our ears.

When others are robbed of their own gift,

We hold ours a little tighter.

We open our eyes,

Lock every door,

And Listen.

We grieve what was lost,

And acknowledge what we still have,

And forever be grateful we were given the gift.

Tragedy seems to awaken our reality of the gift that we all have been given.??We recognize that we have only twenty fours each day. This time becomes more valuable even though just yesterday had the same number of hours.

I choose to spend my time changing the world.?I don’t want to settle for just existing, I want to make a difference.?I want my gift to be that my children see that I approach each day with a purpose to make this world a better place to live.?I want them to see me pull my wife close and tell her every day how much I love her.?I want them to see that I am grateful for what I have been given, the gift.

Paddle-Out: Mr. Spitz’s family and friends have extended an invite to the Santa Fe Christian School community to join for a special paddle-out! It will be on Tuesday, January 25 at 4:15pm at Powerhouse Beach in Del Mar.