Taking another break from my China Diary, and yeah, I know, I just shared a scattered page from the diary. In my defense, it's the reflective, sharing time of the Jewish High Holidays, and I am in a reflective and sharing mood. So, please bear with me. As I was in synagogue last week for Rosh Hashonah, what's called "the Jewish New Year," I engage it and let it challenge me to revisit my life. I felt myself getting into me, drifting inexplicably from my head to my heart and down into my soul. I am not a ritualist; I am not a ceremonialist. Yet, in my way these times are stirring, living, and breathing, for I am more the spiritualist who struggles to live the words of Micah 6:8. Now, some say these holidays are a somber time, a time of high anxiety, a time of shivering and quaking. Not for me. Sure, we're perhaps more serious, more aware of ourselves at this time of the year than at any other. Why not. It's a time that calls for deeper reflection; it's a time that asks for taking a values inventory; and, it's a time when we're challenged to come up with questions that we would use to survey and measure the value of our life. For me, this time takes me back to my cerebral hemorrhage when I was and still am confronted with my mortality, that death is a part of the life cycle, the LIFE cycle. And, I acknowledge that I might keel over at any minute as I almost did that yesterday a few years ago. These "Days of Awe" remind me of the awesome power I have to affirm life and decide how I wish to live. It's a time of a greater opportunity to see whether the choices I've made and will make, whether the courses of actions I've taken and will take infuse life into my life or drain life from my life, that is, whether I have filled and will fill my days with meaning, purpose, significance, and service.
That makes the High Holidays for me a metaphor for how I should live as a teacher. By that I mean we hear a lot about how the Divine "sits in judgement." Some tremble in fear of that image. I'm don't. Whether you're a believer or not, is not the idea. It's the idea of it all. For me, it says that the Divine, with all that's going on in the great universe, notices and cares about each and every one of us, cares enough to notice, cares about who we each are, cares about how we live, cares about whether we are striving for and actualizing our individual potential. Think about it. The creator of the universe actually cares about “little ole me.” Now is that awesome or not! It transforms me from an insignificant speck into an "important ole me!" It is really a remarkably empowering and life-giving idea. If nothing else, it should goad us to say, "what does the Divine see in me that I don't but should?" Should we, as teachers, do no less? Shouldn't we say to each student, as Abraham and God said to each other, "Here I am for you?" Shouldn't we be focused on each student rather than fretting about lost research time or the texts and e-mails we have to read and answer? Shouldn't we include the student when we say, "I'm so busy" or "I have no time?" I am not a devotee of that modern day scam called "multi-tasking." It's an excuse, a rationale, for not respecting, concentrating, paying attention, listening, seeing, and noticing. It is we, not the technology, that allows all that business and busyness to cause us to miss the only thing we truly have: "now." And, when we miss the gift of presence, we miss the call. Having lain in neuro-ICU for a week, and miraculously having survived unscathed, don't I know that! We are told that these High Holy Days are a blessing. In Hebrew "holy" and "blessing" have the same word root. They both mean "to set apart." And yet, they're both about making connections. They mean to detach us from the ordinary distractions of day-to-day life that keep us from being connected, deeply connected, to what matters most. Susan is what really matters in my life. When I am alone with my Susan, when I am sipping that wine with her, when I am being impishly childish with her, when I am playing board games with her, when I am pecking at her cheek, when I am staring deep into her eyes, deeper into her soul, a wave of intense awareness and otherness sweeps over me that shuts out the noise and shuts down the "overwhelming-ness" around us. I feel a deep connection, a feeling of wholeness, and an enveloping serenity. I am totally present; and, our togetherness becomes holy and blessed. That's about as holy as it gets. Should there be any less holiness and blessing in the classroom? Should our heart pound less? When we are in the classroom, shouldn't we be obligated to be there? Shouldn't we feel its sweetness, exhilaration, satisfaction, fulfillment, and even fun? If we are life-affirming, shouldn't we be firmly and fully present for each life in that classroom? Shouldn't we firmly and unconditionally affirm the value of each life in that classroom? Shouldn't we live that affirmation in our feelings, thoughts, and actions? Shouldn't notice each life? Shouldn't we get to know and care about each and every one of the students in that classroom. Shouldn't we make decisions based on their needs instead of sacrificing them to ours? When we do, students realize that we care about each of them as a sacred, invaluable individual; when we are sincerely caring, I assure you, it is a remarkably empowering and energizing feeling for each of them. Shouldn't the students have a claim on our time and busyness, ask something of us? We should never feel any of that is too much to ask, never be disconnected, never be uninvolved, and we should never say "I'm too busy to see you." After all, life as a whole and its parts are not divided into disconnected segments. We teach for the same reason there are the High Holidays. We want to say and do something that will inspire those around us to become something more than better informed students. We want them to become better people; we want to help them help themselves to come closer to the person each is capable of becoming, to change the way they think and act and what they value, and bring them closer to the source of the meaning of life; we want to create sustaining classroom experiences that will become sacred memories. In a world of supposed uncertainty, of this I am certain, when we embrace both the present and each student, we will see sights we have never before seen, hear sounds we have never before heard, have feelings we have never before felt, connect as we have never connected have before. And so, the more we bless today, the more we bless each student, the more our lives and those around us will be a blessing. That's about as holy as it gets. Susan and I would like to wish our Jewish friends a guten yontif and may your days in the coming new year be as sweet as honey. And, to our Moslem friends, who have just finished celebrating Ramadan, we wish you a belated but no less sincere Eid Mubarak. -Louis- Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org<http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org/> Department of History http://www.therandomthoughts.com<http://www.therandomthoughts.com/> Valdosta State University Valdosta, Georgia 31698 /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ (O) 229-333-5947 /^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__ / \ / \ (C) 229-630-0821 / \/ \_ \/ / \/ /\/ / \ / /\ \ //\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/ \_/__\ \ /\"If you want to climb mountains,\ /\ _ / \ don't practice on mole hills" - / \_ --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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