School is fast approaching once again. The spring term brings with it new courses and a bright consideration of possibility. I watched an adaptation of Agee's A Death in the Family which was a powerful film. Its focus, the death of a highly respected man, leaves his remaining family bereft at what appears to have been an accident. His wife, a bright and competent woman, must face raising two children on her own. What struck me about this production was the elevated dignity people maintained as they received the news and dealt with the news and faced death squarely. Nobody became self-indulgent, nobody devolved into hysterics. Instead, the film offered me a different way of being in times of difficulty. I do not mean to suggest that people did not suffer nor did people avoid shedding a tear. Dignity is not about oppressive restraint but a recognition that something like death, which can come upon people unexpectedly, is not something for which one can prepare. But people can exercise a self-awareness that leaves the remaining family able to continue long after one's beloved has gone. Strength is a virtue because it reassures those who are uncertain that authentic pain can exist without making it an exhibition. This sentiment might be lost to a culture which prefers raw emotion but Agee's story refuses to give in to this notion. Instead, the people behind the film wanted us to consider a time in which men could still look one another in the eye and women could act out of courage born out of a deep faith.