Annual School Motto

In keeping with school tradition, rising LCHS seniors compose an annual motto before the start of the school year.  The effort is typically led by the School Captains.  In crafting its motto, each incoming senior class aspires to foster a unifying sense of family for the whole of Liberty Common School spanning grades k-12.   The annual motto is embraced by the faculty and administration.  Copies of the motto are posted in every classroom and meeting space on all campuses.

 

By the time seniors cross their graduation stage, they have spent a full school year animating their noble theme.  Thusly, when printed on their graduation-announcement cards and commencement-ceremony programs, the motto fittingly captures the true character of the class and sums the quality of an entire school year for all Liberty scholars and the school’s greater community of parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends. 

 

Lambent mottos inspire when applied elegantly to those capable of breathing life into hopeful words.  Tightly aligned, they become fixed like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for a blessed family.  Setting common virtue to poetry, mottos define the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of the origin of these things. 

 

Please see below Headmaster Schaffer’s guidelines for composing Liberty’s annual class mottos.

In 2012, American music artist Jason Mraz made a visit to Myanmar to head a concert and engage in some philanthropic work directed toward ending human trafficking.  While there, he met a Buddhist monk who offered him a simple blessing:  “Tashi delek.”  The phrase is often used as a simple greeting, similar to saying “hello,” but what stuck with Mraz was the rough English translation:  “May you have auspiciousness and causes of success.”  He used those words to open his 2018 hit song “Have It All,” hoping to bring a small taste of joy to an often dark world.  If you have never heard it, we strongly encourage you to listen to it before reading the rest of this message.

 

“Have It All” is more than a song; it is a challenge and a blessing.  It is an invitation to have “no possessions though immeasurable wealth,” to give life your best “educated guesses,” and to change the lives of the people around you.  See, to Jason Mraz, to “Have It All” does not mean “Own Everything.”  To him, having it all is living a life full of community, hard work, and purpose. 

 

This is the spirit we emphasize with our motto this year.  After some significant deliberation, we settled on “Vitam Abundantius,” which translates to “Life in Abundance” in English.  The words are drawn directly from the Latin Vulgate text of the Christian Bible, from John 10:10, in which Jesus draws a striking contrast between the thief, who comes to plunder and destroy, and himself, who comes that people might have life more abundantly.  “Vitam” refers to a life of spiritual richness, purpose, and joy.  It is left in the accusative case (something all Liberty students understand) to imply the verb “have,” making the motto not a noun but a verb, not static but dynamic, not an abstract thing that we cannot be but a concrete thing we can actually do.  “Abundantius” is a translation of the Greek “perisson,” which means an overflow, a superabundance, or a quantity which is far more than necessary. 

 

Just like Mraz’s song, “Vitam Abundantius” is more than words posted around the school; it is a challenge and a blessing.  We hope the motto will encourage and push students to invest themselves in their education, recognizing that the myriad of disciplines pursued at Liberty reflect the balance found in a full life.  Working through mathematics, history, language, science, and the arts will provide an intellectual foundation which can be used later in life to search for purpose and joy.  We hope “Life in Abundance” serves as a reminder to get a gold star on that next test so that later students can win prizes shining like diamonds, illuminating their souls. 

 

Additionally, the motto is meant to be a blessing.  Jesus certainly meant it to be.  The words are written as an offer of life in contrast with the threat of death.  “Vitam Abundantius” extends hope to the Liberty community, reminding the people that their lives could be overflowing with spiritual richness and that the best of their todays could truly be the worst of their tomorrows. 

 

Besides being a beautiful idea with a strong background, “Life in Abundance” also strongly reflects the mighty Class of 2027 and Liberty Common School as a whole.  Our senior class is tight and strong.  We have learned to love one another in friendships that are wise and pure.  We each add a little bit of joy and hope to our peers’ lives, filling each other’s cups to overflowing.  We are grateful, more than anything else, for the true friends we have found in this Class, and “Vitam Abundantius” serves as a testament to the abundance of love and purpose which has touched each of our lives.  Further, the motto is a representation of the school’s mission.  By supporting high-level virtue education, athletics, academics, and leadership for all students of all backgrounds, Liberty Common proves itself determined to give those students every means to live happy, healthy lives.  This effort has allowed us to have not just an abundance of things in life, but a true abundance of life, complete in virtue and ordered to what is true, good, and beautiful. 

 

Please join us in raising a glass (filled with non-alcoholic beverages, of course) to toast a school year in which we are encouraged to have joy, to have it all, and to have Life in Abundance. 

 

- LCS School Captains Lily LeDuc (’27) and Gabe McDanald (’27)

It is important the considerations going into selecting annual mottos ensure the annual motto is meaningful, timeless, mature, and aspirational – in other words classical. The motto should resonate clearly when stated in Latin or Greek, as well as English; and, it should reflect well the character of the Senior Class.  It should attempt to inspire all others in the school.  From my standpoint, the better mottos are simple, powerful, motivating, classical, etc.  I’d like for subsequent LCHS classes to shoot for mottos of similar caliber and economy of words.  Lyrics from popular songs, for example, should be ruled out of the question.  The mottos chosen must be as meaningful and impressive at the 40-year class reunions as they are upon graduation. 

 

Selecting these mottos earlier gives us (on behalf of students) a chance to fold the motto into class recognitions – for example, yearbook pages, class t-shirts, class rings, patches for letter jackets, locker decorations, and other school artwork.   If the motto is confined to a few words, we could even consider having it printed upon graduation stoles similar to “First Graduating Class” which we had applied upon the stoles for the Class of 2013. 

 

Each year, the motto of the Senior Class will become LCS’s annual school motto.  In this way, the school will be able to utilize the motto on documents, publications, electronic displays, and other materials upon the beginning of each school year. 

 

Bob Schaffer, Headmaster