Students are “supposed to” dread the beginning of school. This is a part of the American culture, like baseball and apple pie. But I’m not buying it. I don’t think most children have wonderful summers. I think mostly they’re bored. I know there are lots of families who go on grand vacations and do picnics every week and all that. But I suspect the majority of our kids are sitting at home, bored out of their minds. Many parents get…
I never slept the night before school started. Not as a student; not as a teacher. I was too excited. The beginning of a brand-new school year stretched before me, magical and unknown. What treasures would the next nine months hold? What rewards, what fun? Teaching was my calling. I was put here to teach. I realized that in third grade, in Muscogee County Elementary School, in Columbus, Georgia, in the classroom of Mrs. Mabel Howard. She loved children and…
I finally figured it out. The real reason I weigh So Much. It’s my perennial allergy to bites from Evil Plants. I’ve had the itchy, blotchy agony of the sinister Leaves of Three probably a dozen times in my life. I’ve pretty much learned to recognize it from a thousand feet away. I like to replicate that last scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I see it, pointing and screaming loudly. And I’m happy to say that I…
My sis and I took a road trip a couple of weeks ago. The impetus was her granddaughter’s high school graduation, but we took the occasion to revisit several places and people we’ve known over the years. One such place was the small brick home we lived in in Columbus, Georgia. The area was probably a modern development when we lived there, built for the great influx of babies in the post-World War II boom, when, so happy that the…
“We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment.” Jim Rohn You know how sometimes you can hear the same words for a hundred years and not be impressed at all, and then one day, for some reason, they hit you in the head like an anvil? That’s what this Jim Rohn quote did to me when I found it in an online course I’m taking. It’s a lesson that…
DISCLAIMER: She wasn’t awful every minute. There were good days and good times. She taught me a lot and we had several common interests. I didn’t live in Hell. One day I’ll feel led to write about the good parts of having her for my Mother. But for whatever reason, tonight I’m sad and empty, thinking of her. I remember being afraid of her, when I was little. I don’t have many very early memories, but I remember one night,…
They say that coffee is good for you. It can add years to your life. No, they say that coffee causes all kinds of health problems. They say a dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s, so you should let them lick your face and clean your wounds. No, they say a dog’s mouth is terribly nasty; how could it not be? They lick their butts. I have finally figured out who the biggest liar in the world is. It’s…
I remember visiting my dad and stepmother’s house years ago, and opening a kitchen cabinet and finding four plates, four glasses and four coffee cups in it. That’s it. Just four plates, four glasses and four coffee cups. “Strange,” I thought. In the bathroom cabinet, there were only a few basic items: denture-cleaning paraphernalia, hemorrhoid cream, a bar of soap, and a toilet-paper four-pack. “Stranger,” I thought, and then, “Eeww!” This incident was in the late nineties, and Sarge and…
My family was initiated this week into a club no one wants to join: those who’ve lost a family member to suicide. It honors those for whom living with their demons has brought too great a pain, and death seems the only possible way to end the suffering. A young man with great promise, with character, with the support of an amazing, loving family and hundreds of friends, decided that he could no longer face his life. Someone who lived surrounded…
THERE ISN’T TIME There isn’t time, there isn’t time To do the things I want to do. With all the mountain-tops to climb, And all the woods to wander through. And all the seas to sail upon, And everywhere there is to go, And all the people, every one Who lives upon the Earth, to know. There’s only time, there’s only time To know a few, and do a few, And then sit down and make a rhyme About the…