Till We Have Faces

by Susie Brooks, Founder and President

“How can [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces?”

This line by Psyche’s older sister Orual inspired C.S. Lewis to title his 1956 novel “Till We Have Faces” after his editor rejected his original title “Bareface.” As I look at current events, my thoughts go back to this great novel that has inspired readers to examine themselves and what they believe to be true, not only of themselves, but of God also. What falsehoods do we tell ourselves? Is the love we have for those around us and for God, a selfish sort of love, or genuine love? Do we truly know who we are? And as Lewis asked, what does it look like when we speak with our own voice (not one of our borrowed voices), expressing our actual desires (not what we imagine we desire), being for good or ill itself, not any mask?

In 2020, “bareface” can mean a face without a mask. And Minnesotans and others across the globe long for a time when we will “have faces” again. But did we really have faces before COVID?

As we welcomed new families at Veritas this school year I reflected on the last five years since we opened our doors. As I looked at what had changed over the years, one thing that stood out is our tag line. When the concept of Veritas was born in 2012, we were a relevant classical Christian education in a digital era. We recognized that even though technology is rarely on the front burner in a classical school, our students were born digital, and we needed to show that we understood their brains were impacted by tools that were still slightly foreign to older generation. But by the time our doors actually opened in 2015, we had shifted our focus to moral character and civic virtue, adopting the tag line: moral character and civic virtue in the making. But still, this represented only a fraction of who we are.

Lewis’ novel challenges us to consider what falsehoods we tell ourselves, and while our tag lines spoke of some truth about us as a school, it wasn’t the whole truth. We are not just about technology, and we certainly are not just about morals and our civic responsibility. Shortly before COVID changed the world, our team spent a couple of days asking key questions about our true identity and our mission. We knew that we were not trying to be just another school, and we knew that our success in our mission would never result from speaking through borrowed voices. In fact, by identifying ourselves by what we thought the world was looking for, our true value and identity remained hidden. And so, as we listened to our families describe why they chose Veritas and what their experience was, and as we examined our day to day practices and our strategic goals, we understood that our tag line still needed work. And in February, at the end of a consultant-led process, it became clear that we were cultivating young minds to build strong nations. Even though the manifestation of our vision is still unfolding, we have clarity on our mission and purpose, and we are able to bring into our fold, those who are traveling towards the same destination while wishing others well as they pursue other directions.

Lewis’ novel Till We Have Faces challenges the reader to ponder the question: “How can [the gods] meet us face to face till we have faces?” It is an invitation to become truly us. As 2020 draws to an end, there is hope that the COVID masks that have brought out the worst in us will soon come off. But figuratively speaking, are we strong enough to live without the protective masks of other people’s ideas of who we ought to be? Till we have faces, our stories will remain untold.