Love, Choice & Opportunity: A Strong Web



When I wrote it, Week 37 felt like the most controversial essay of the whole book. I wonder if you agree? I wrote it to both the educator within us and to Humanity.

Yes, I was drawing an analogy. Wherever I used “squirrel”, insert “person” or “student”. Yes, the story of the squirrel follows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. None of us can think big if we can’t get beyond fulfilling our basic needs.

The fundamental notion that we need to dramatically address our social contracts (not just the ones teachers have with students) has grown in my mind over the intervening time. Since I penned this essay, I’ve learned more about the different struggles that students face in their daily lives. My view on how incredibly broad the range of experiences is among the youth of today has become more clear. In many ways, that scope is the result of how our social contracts have been written and practiced across the board. I have spoken with adults across the United States and around the world, who deservedly complain of this flaw of perception that I’m not alone in having. 

In truth, we are all blind to someone else’s suffering, even if we see much. The person suffering from unfair rental practices probably doesn’t “get” another’s inability to pay for their needed medicine. The student who struggles with reading doesn’t see why another student can’t do a “simple” math problem. The fact of misperception do not lessen our need to try every day to do more with and see more of our real web of connections, as depicted in my cover shot. We need to offer more chances to each other to catch more in that web.

As I said in the essay, 

“Every single one of us needs a continuous flow of opportunity. All the free choice in the world means nothing without it.”. 

The good thing about contracts is that we can rewrite them. We can choose to support the flow of opportunities, but that “we” can’t just be the “we” of education. It’s all of us. With opportunities, I believe we’ll be amazed at the choices our youth will make. It won’t be perfect, and some may feel “hurt”, but we will be better off. We must bravely step ahead as many groups have done so over time.

Now, as a school year is ending and we (and our world) have all evolved since I originally wrote it, I want to review the first essay I wrote introducing this weekly newsletter- fittingly enough, posted exactly 9 months ago to the day! It fits perfectly with this week’s essay on social contracts, providing the big WHY. I believed it when I wrote it, but this idea is now a conviction of mine:

We need each other in broad terms. We need to reach out to each other in equally broad terms. Love builds strength and resolve. Love builds courage and weakens fear. Love = opportunity.


From: Sunday, August 20, 2017


We’re at the beginning. We feel like our love can conquer all.

For that to be true, the flow of love must be a complete circuit, like the wires that lead from the battery to the bulb and back again.

Let’s look at the second part of this Lao Tzu quote first. We love our students deeply. We pour our entire beings into the craft that is education because our love emboldens us to do so.

The backside of that is the first part of the quote. Where do we get our strength? We need multiple sources. The students’ gratitude and love is one. However, we need more. Family, friends, religion, pets, coworkers, bosses. How about from ourselves? We show ourselves love by taking time for food, exercise, music...these are only a few. Without input, our potential output is diminished.

It’s time now to affirm who loves us and actively receive their gifts of love at every opportunity we can so we can strengthen ourselves. As we send our love out, let’s have the courage to affirm that we deserve an equal measure in return.

Best wishes to you this week!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Heart Within

Image
I just finished writing a big essay on my main blog, called Spring and the Death of Denial . It was in response to a fantastic conversation on a philosophical radio program called On Being. Now, I’m hopping back into Dear Teachers , and am struck by how this week’s essay, the last of the April focus on what’s really there, connects to that. When we don’t want people to see who and what we really are, we throw up defenses. When we don’t trust the people that surround us, we again build barriers. Within those walls, we are one thing. Outside of those walls, we are something else. To grow, we first have to admit the walls exist within all of us. They come from our families and traditions. From our own pasts. From our own needs. From our own fears. In this week’s essay, the image from Marlene that I chose was a close-up of a lily in full bloom. The center of that flower is bright yellow, while the outer edges are a deep red, trimmed in that same golden hue. We don’t get t...
Read more

Life's Sweetness When We Look

Image
I slid 2 poems into Dear Teachers. Week 22 is the first. (Week 32 is the second, if you’re keeping track.) Overall, my writing style has become more poem-like as I’ve grown older. Shorter and more lean. However, I felt the need for lines here. Why? Marlene’s image is very linear. The vertical grass texture is amazing and I found myself relaxing with the rhythm of it. To me, it almost hums in quiet anticipation. While you can’t see its legs, you feel this deer is standing completely still and its legs are as straight up and down as its neck and ears are. Lines. Timelines. Lines start. Lines stop. This deer has stopped. Let’s stop. I said before that February’s thoughts would touch on before and after the Now of January. When we stop, we can experience both the moment and what’s hidden. What’s hidden can be what has happened in the past- what’s gotten us here until today. Which leads to the heart of this poem. It shares a subject with a piece that’s way at the ...
Read more

The Heart of Living

Image
Please take a minute (or two, or three) to simply stare at the point on the horizon in this picture where the trail disappears. Find a relaxation music channel & hit play. Breathe in and out, looking at that path- going, going into...somewhere. Hakim Sanai was a Persian poet. I learned of him as I was seeking quotes to connect with this image. He influenced another, more popular, spiritual mystic poet, Rumi . His words I quoted in Dear Teachers this week are almost 1000 years old: “When the path ignites the soul, there’s no remaining in place. The foot touches ground, but not for long.” The Persian mystics were also dervishes. I recall the phrase, “whirling dervishes”. They danced in joyous exultation as part of their faith; their feet literally touched the ground but for moments. To me, this quote’s message is that if we’re engaged in life, we’re going to always be transitioning. Living is not stagnant. I may be in the foreground of that photo, but I am crawl...
Read more