It was toasty yesterday morning: 81 degrees, humidity 64%, heat index
89. And that was at 6:30 am before the sun came up! Stinging salty sweat
flowed over my headband and dipped into my eyes. My vision soon blurred as if
I was looking under water, as I was. Salt stalagmite quickly formed on my
eyelids and nose. My body was glistening in the dawn's early light and feeling
increasingly cakey with salt residue. I could hear my shoes sloshing louder
and louder. With every step I was getting an inkling of what Lot's wife must
have felt like. Anyway, on the return leg of my 7 mile fast walk, I heard a
car honking. Without looking, I waved an acknowledging and kept on walking.
The car passed me, turned down the side street in front of me and stopped. Out
hopped the driver.
"Hey, Dr. Schmier, I'm John (not his real name), you probably don't
remember me. It was a long while back that we were in class together, almost
twenty years It's really weird how this chance meeting happened. I was
visiting and now I'm on my way back north. I've reading your inspiring Random
Thoughts all these years. Anyway, I just got your new Ebook on teaching
(Faith, Hope, Love: The Spirit of Education). I love your introduction, but
the rest of the book with the anthology of all those selected Random Thoughts
of yours is long."
"Yeah, I know," I answered. "I was taking a chance on doing it that
way rather than breaking it up into two volumes. Besides it's not like it's
heavy and cumbersome to carry around, and it's cheaper this way."
"Well, you talk about each Random Though in the book being reduced to a
word. So, can you give me a head's up and compress your entire collection to
word?"
"One word?!?!?" I asked in surprise.
Before I could protest even more, he exclaimed, "Remember 'The Chair!'"
"Damn," thought to myself as we went to sit on the curbside. After a
few seconds, I asked, "One word? How about two or three separate words?"
"Sure," he smirked.
"Alchemy! That's the first," I told him.
"Alchemy? You making gold from lead?" he came back.
"Remember what other profs thought of your chances? So, yes, lead to
gold."
I told him that "alchemy" means for me a transformation of the moral
encasing of attitude, of emotion, of purpose, of meaning, of heart. It's
creating a noble elixir of faith, hope, kindness, respect, and love. I think
all good people have blindspots, hidden or implicit biases, in the classroom
that they carry outside, and vica versa. So, they're about having the courage
and strength to ask the single 'beautiful question' from which all things flow:
"Am I the teacher, the person, I myself want to be?' They're about the
getting to the hard, honest answer: "No." It's a way of admitting to being
lost and of the conscious need to find the way. I mean if I hadn't admitted
that I was lost when I had my epiphany in 1991, I would never have looked for a
better way; a way to better myself, to help others better themselves, to create
a better classroom. So, it's a way of cutting loose from the traditional way
of thinking and do, and reach for a better self and others. That generates the
next two 'beautiful questions': "How do I cope with this?' "How do I strive
for my own unique potential?" They're about bringing the inner emotion that
has been discarded and ignored back into favor and into the classroom along
side the rational and intellectual; they're about inner reflection, uncovering
those biases, acknowledging them, and dealing with them, and changing according
what you do and how you treat people both in and beyond the classroom. They're
about finding purpose, meaning, and joy in the everyday rhythms of the
classroom. They're about self-improvement and helping others to help
themselves become better persons. They're demanding that each student's
humanity be recognized unconditionally as sacred, noble, unique, and valuable.
"And, the second word describing the 'Random Thoughts?'"
"'Witnessing.' Bearing witness."
"To what?"
"To the generosity and gravity of compassion, empathy, and kindness," I
answered. I explained that they're reflections on my experiences and
reflections that forced me to squirm, to go back and hard, to notice others, to
see that those 'beautiful questions' need to be asked and answers need to be
sought. They are evidence to how we all live inside out, of the truth that
first comes with unconditional faith, hope, and love in each student; first
comes what I call the "charting 'WHY,'" the vision to be the person who is
there to unconditionally help each student help herself and himself to become
the person she or he is capable of becoming. Then, comes the applying "HOW"
and "WHAT" methodology and technology to apply those values in the betterment
of one's self and others. It's a testament to what makes teaching worth doing.
It's a testament to my story that plants me in myself, my listening to me, my
sacred voice, my "thank you" to those who have had an enormous and profound
influence on my life, the sweep of my life, my side of a conversation I rarely
get to have, my intimate and honest recorded record of my life's continuing
journey.
I went on to explain that "alchemy" and "witnessing" are about
realizing that our well-being is tightly linked to others. They're about
close-up looks at both my life and distant lives, about listening to both my
voice and distant voices. They are about opening my heart to others. They are
about how I used my past hurts as a healing balm for both myself and others.
They're about proclaiming, "Enjoy! Enough with fighting against what you're
doing!! Let faith, hope, and love begin!!" They show a transformation of a
desolate landscape into a beautiful Eden. They represent an empowerment that
comes from............They stand against those who would ridicule the place of
deeply inner rooted faith, hope, and love in all aspects--bar none--of our
lives. They're my thinking and feeling out loud, my open reflections on my
experiences, my searching a for meaning and purpose, my quest for my unique
potential and the creation of my own life. I've had various and various kinds
of hardship, life sharpening and life appreciating hardships, in my life. I
think the view from the edge, from the rim peering over the precipice, into the
abyss is wonderful because it is much clearer than most of us have. So, I'm
sharing lessons--as acts of love-- I've learned on those edges of life.
They're who I was, am, and hope to become; they're what I've come to appreciate
and what I am grateful; they're for what I wish to be remembered.
"And what did you learn the most?"
"To listen. That's my third word, 'listen,'" I answered, "to deeply and
sincerely and carefully listen with both my ears and eyes." I told John that
to listen is to pay attention, to be concerned. It is to be mindful of where
you are, who you are with, and your purpose. To listen is to connect; to
welcome, accept, respect, to value, to be kind. Kindness and mindfulness are
values that are faith, hope, and love in action. How we treat others, as well
as ourselves, gives us meaning. And, that to be a listener is not easy. It
takes grits; it takes focus, work, commitment; it takes strength and courage.
Above all it is an act of faith, hope, and love. In return it breeds the
deepest of kindness, generosity, empathy, and compassion. It says you matter;
I notice you; I hear you. It is living my Teacher's Oath. Listening nourishes
others and is nourishing for me. And, you catch yourself being a human being.
We talk some more both what each of us has been doing over the past
decades, hugged each other, and promised to keep in touch. Then, we went our
separate ways.
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
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/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ / \ /\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
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