Dream the Light
How a high school changed the world
by John Paul Lederach

Alumni News (PDF — new window)

See Fall 2001 issue

Alumni & Parent Relations office

Dream
the Light

Ten days after the Sept. 11 attacks, singer Herm Weaver (of the EMU psychology faculty) and storyteller John Paul Lederach (of the Conflict Transformation Program) were scheduled to host the "variety show" at their church's annual retreat. They knew they had to address the disaster and its aftermath.

So Weaver and Lederach developed a music and story presentation. In the following weeks, they repeated it at the Mennonite Secondary Educators Conference, at Eastern Mennonite High School and at EMU.

At first, Weaver sang Peter, Paul & Mary's "Weave Me the Sunshine." But when he and Lederach produced a compact disc in November, Weaver wrote his own song, "A Dream of the Light."

Here are Lederach's story and Weaver's song (in italics).