Chalk It Up

flickr image by Francis Bourgouin

I'm reading My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. He writes about a teacher that influenced his life and I've thought about the teachers who have influenced me.

Mrs. Albertson, my kindergarten teacher. I loved playing with a large cloth doll in her classroom. I was fascinated zipping its zippers and buttoning its buttons and tying its shoes. I'm sure her kindness was a good influence and a good start to a life of learning. Mrs. Gravett, my 4th grade teacher, who always made sure her students had hugs. Mr. Beeler, who was a great algebra and geometry teacher and always had a joke and a smile. Mr. Housman, history, who snarled when I corrected his spelling (an editor in the making back then). And Mr. Ogden, my typing teacher, influenced me as I type this today.

There was Professor Green who, to my surprise, read my paper out loud in class. I rode on eagles wings that day when I heard the words I'd written being read aloud by him. (Later Robert congratulated me for this honor. Good ol' Roberto, where's my beach friend?) Professor Green was an encouragement to me as I had yet to declare a major. I'll never be the kind of author I dreamed I would be writing from the garret. Some dreams are tender to remember.

Good writing is one of the forms that hard labor takes. It is neither roadhouse nor weigh station, but much more like some unnameable station of the cross.
—Pat Conroy

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.—Karl Menninger

And then there are those that confuse me as to why they chose that path and I drop them from any speck of influence. She had the audacity to raise her hand to slap me and later that afternoon did a psychological "artist" exercise for us to draw our feelings on paper. And being the good little student, I drew all red and black scribbles as tears streamed down my face. Her psychological exercise wasn't lost on me. He was a poor teacher who picked me out of class to read a letter that was passed back to me. Up until that time I rather liked math.

I'm sure there's some forgiveness lesson in here, and I'm not forgettin'. It's a great story.

In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part.
(Matthew 6:14,15 MSG)

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

(Psalm 139:23)

Seize the J