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Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Fri 7/30/2004 5:20 AM
Random Thought: Galatians 6:9
Well, it's 4:55 a.m. I walked this morning with a warm feeling
enveloping me. It wasn't because the sun had bathed me in its rays,
although I felt I was being sun-baked in the pre-dawn darkness. It was
not really because of the steamy humidity that made my body feel as if I
had been blanched. My warmth was an inner glow emanating from an
unexpected message I had received the other day. Coming out of the blue
from a student whom I'll call Joel, it made me think today of tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Sounds like a singing Little Orphan Annie, doesn't it. It's a
good word to include in my Dictionary of Good Teaching for Kenny, but
today I'll refer to another book. This is why.
"You probably don't remember me, but I remember. I always
remember," read the opening line of Joel's message. "You helped me help
me to save my tomorrows and the tomorrows of my daughter. Thank you!"
read his second sentence. "I remember you used to always say as I screwed
up in class you can't climb mountains if you only practice on mole hills.
Guess what. I literally did just that. I have climbed and road marched
for miles and miles over mountains with about 75 lbs on my back, a promask
strap to my leg, kevlar, LCE, and a M16 A2 rifle." Then, he sent his
Jewish guy scrambling to a copy of the New Testament when he wrote, "I
came across Galatians 6:9 in my Bible one night and said to myself,
'That's Schmier. I want to be that too.'"
That passage reads: "Be not weary in well doing, for in due
season we shall reap if we faint not." Now, I'm no Bible thumper, but
what a heck of a guiding passage for any teacher!
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
There is no end to invigorating beauty for the teacher to discover
each day who is aware. On the streets this morning, at the end of my
walk, focusing on Joel's words, my senses noticed the cracks in the
asphalt street. I got down on my haunches, leaned over, and gently
touched them. At first glance they seem so ugly. Unwanted imperfections.
At first touch they seemed so rough. Undesirable faults. Yet, if we had
the artist's eye, we'd see something extraordinary in the supposed faulty
mundane, something far from unsightly and untouchable. If we had the
artist's eye and were to take snapshots of those cracks and blow up the
photographs, we'd realize that the street's supposed ugly spider veins are
geometric patterns of amazing beauty and that we walk on unnoticed
elegance, grandness, and splendor every day.
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
We teachers should never forget that; we should always think about
that, be aware of that, be sensitive to that. It means that each today we
are what I'll call "tomorrow-ers." It means each student is a tomorrow of
this country. It means we surely do not know today what the tomorrows
before us hold. It means we don't know today who holds the tomorrows!
It means that the choices we make today make the changes and affect the
transformations that create the tomorrows for both ourselves and others.
It means the choices we make and live today make the changes and
transformations that create the tomorrows. It means if we get our act
together each today, if don't squander today's opportunities, if we keep
on working, if we keep on believing, tomorrow will bring wonders. It
means, then, today we hold tomorrow in our hands, we hold hands with each
tomorrow, and we had best tend that responsibility very, very carefully.
"You were right to get in my face. What you said was mostly right
on. Boy, you threw some hard questions at me about me," he went on to
write. "I didn't want to hear them at the time. But, you were right.
You do have to sweat. You've got to give all you've got. You've got to
leave it all on the playing field or the battlefield, everywhere. Hard
and challenging is what makes anything important you told me over and over
again. I've thought about that during all my training and have learned
that it's when you struggle that you get stronger to reach your potential
and accomplished impossible things. Gosh, so many of your words for the
day are coming back. Like there's a difference between hard and
impossible or impossible things are done everyday or don't try, just do
or keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole. Now I'm going to climb
the most challenging mountain when I get custody of my daughter and am
responsible for her tomorrows and it's my turn to teach her like you
taught me by living what Paul wrote."
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
I vaguely remember Joel. I don't really remember our
conversations in detail. It has been a long time and many students ago.
I do know this. It would have been so easy to have thrown away this
tomorrow. It would have been easy to say that it wasn't my job to deal
with issues other than the subject material that were affecting his
performance inside and outside class. It doesn't take any time or energy
or effort to let someone go unloved by ignoring him or her, to make
someone feel unworthy by not noticing him or her, to make someone feel
unwanted by not caring about him or her.
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
Joel has reminded me if we don't reach out to touch a student
every today, if we don't struggle to help a student transform, we're
guaranteed of throwing away a bunch of tomorrows. Sure, that takes a lot
of sweat-time. Sure, there will be the aches and pains. Sure, challenges
will arise. Sure, problems will appear. Sure, there'll be resistance.
Sure, there won't always be success. Sure, we'll make mistakes. Sure,
there'll be rejections. Sure, we'll get dejected. Sure, there'll be the
naysayers. Sure, there'll be detractors. Sure, there'll be lies and
cheating. Sure, fear will nip at our heels. Sure, we'll get tired.
Sure, we'll get disappointed. Sure, you may not be appreciated. Sure,
you'll get frustrated. Sure, we'll get upset. Sure, there are no
guarantees things are going to go the way we planned and hoped. Sure,
there are all these challenges and risks, but, then again, there are all
those Joels out there, all those tomorrows whose sun is waiting and
wanting to rise, who make it all worthwhile.
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
I have discovered that I won't throw away that tomorrow,
especially those who are most in need unless I don't have a vision or
sense of purpose, or I lose sight of the vision I have, or I forget the
purpose which I avow, or I ignore my credo, or I allow myself to get
distracted, or I let myself get thrown off-course, or I submit to the
pressure of naysayers, or I lose my passion, or I stop practicing
compassion, or I stop loving, or I stop believing, or I lose hope, or I
get my priorities confused, or I have a faint heart, or I tire in my
effort, or I let disappointments and frustrations go to and control my
head and heart.
"....in due season we shall reap if we faint not."
It means it's all me. It means it's all my choosing. It means
making "whenever possible" always possible. It means always seeing the
beauty and sacredness and richness in each and every today to open
tomorrow's golden treasures. It means heeding the call, as Viktor Frankl
might say, from each student of a potential meaningfulness waiting to be
fulfilled. It mean hanging on. It means staying the course. It means
never surrendering. It means weathering whatever inner or outer storms
come up. It means screw pessimism, doubt, fatigue, fear, and routine. It
means the hell with all those restricting, constricting, paralyzing
negatives what swell up from inside and are hurled from outside. It means
grabbing tightly on to belief, hope, faith, and love. It means never
letting any of them go and letting them go to and control your head and
heart.
"Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we
faint not."
Joel said he's coming back to VSU this Fall. I invited him to
break a doughnut with me.
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