Two Greylock Talks, one for the high school and another for the middle school, entertained the school last Thursday the November 19. Chaplain Rick Spalding from Williams College spoke at the high school talk. Spalding discussed defining communities and how to expand them to avoid conflict. Spalding used a Jewish creation tale as a metaphor for why we are not one large community, but fractured. The tale describes God filling the vessels of life with His glory, but the glory was too much and they fractured. These fragments created the world and can represent the divisions of people. Spalding explained that sharing stories can connect to people who we have not connected to before and stretch our groups further,  “One story at a time,” he said. Spalding ended the talk by asking everyone to try to expand their communities and think about what that means. Cameron Castonguay appreciated the talk, “It left me with different opinions about religion and people in general.”

Alex Huang, a student at Williams, presented new approaches to becoming happier proven by scientific research, tagged Positive Psychology. Positive Psychology proves that when you show signs of gratitude to someone else, both parties feel happier. Charlie McWeeny enjoyed the talk, “It was cool and interesting. It was a lot about how people perceive different things.” The talk tied in nicely to the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday.