What is Cool

Waylon Jennings began a song with, "The only two things in life that make it worth livin'..."

So this got me to thinking the posts have been kind of heavy lately, maybe it's a good time to lighten things up...

So here's an incomplete list that will always be open to revision...

Kids' Happy Laughter
Sunsets
Family (most of the time, anyway)
Watching An Athletic Woman Move
The Smell of Mountain Hemlock and Heather
The Feel of Granite
The 400m Relay
Catching a Bright Fish On a Fly Rod
Good Movies and Music
Waking Up In a Warm Sleeping Bag On a Cool Morning
Fall Sunshine On Aspens
Dirty Jokes
The Sound of a Small Alpine Creek Running Through a Meadow
A Driftwood Fire On an Ocean Beach With No One Else Around
Watching Bears
The Taste of Fresh Barbequed King Salmon
A Conversation That Makes Me Think
Naps In the Sun

To be continued.

You Learn Something New...

My dad has never been much of an imparter of wisdom.  He's always been more of a doer than a talker.  He is remarkable in many ways, but that's a topic for another day.  The reason I brought him up is that one of the things he did used to say from time to time when I was growing up was, "You Learn Something New Every Day."  Today, I discovered this gem for the first time...

George Catlin’s Creed

• I love a people that have always made me welcome to the very best that they had.
• I love a people who are honest without laws, who have no jails and no poorhouses.
• I love a people who keep the commandments without ever having read or heard them preached from the pulpit.
• I love a people who never swear or take the name of God in vain.
• I love a people “who love their neighbors as they love themselves”
• I love a people who worship God without a Bible, for I believe that God loves them also.
• I love a people whose religion is all the same, and who are free from religious animosities.
• I love a people who have never raised a hand against me, or stolen my property, when there was no law to punish either.
• I love and don’t fear mankind where God has made and left them, for they are his children.
• I love a people who have never fought a battle with the white man, except on their own ground.
• I love a people who live and keep what is their own without lock and keys.
• I love a people who do the best they can. And oh how I love a people who don’t live for the love of money.

Gatlin was a painter and writer who traveled and lived among various indian tribes in the 1800s.
Sometimes I still think I was born 200 years too late.  Not too late to live by this creed to as great a degree as possible.

Not A Straight Line

Been doin' some thinkin' lately and one thing that popped up is that life for me has not been linear.  There used to be this drawing toy, I think it was called a Spirograph.  With the Spirograph you could draw these little circles all over the place.  I was thinking today that life has been more like one of those Spirograph drawings - going off in a direction but constantly circling back on itself.  I've been doing a lot of that circling back lately for one reason or another.

Keep circling back to past experiences or lessons or interests, but still kind of moving forward at the same time.  I've lately been trying to figure out why I've been pushing so hard against all of the recent trends in education in my own teaching and my own philosophy regarding education.  It's all been such a monumental mountain of crap lately.  Yet I've been pulled strongly back to my roots of environmental education, and putting so damn much time and effort into an educational endeavor that is running completely counter to what it seems like everybody else has been embracing(assessment and data analysis).  I know the kids don't give a rat's ass about assessment and analysis, and neither have I.

Ya, sure, you have to play the game if you want to stay employed, but my heart has been into taking the curriculum and winding it up as much as possible with the outdoors for these kids.  Why?  Well I came across this old video of Floyd Red Crow Westerman talking.  The whole thing is good, and definitely worth watching, but the part that hit me where it counts is at about the 7:36 mark, entitled "Corrupting the Children."  This is it.  This is why.

So Far Away...

What made you do it?  The guy definitely looked creepy on T.V.  But to shoot him?  At least you didn't kill him.  God you must be hurting!

I remember when your sister was killed.  How they found her baby still alive, clinging to her lifeless body.  How devastating it was for you and your family.  How numb you all looked.  So many memories coming flooding back, like it was only a couple of years since, not over a quarter century.

It was heartbreaking to see you handcuffed on the news.  Your athletic grace has not left you.  I still have a few slides from our time out in the islands.  The ex threw away your letters long ago.

So much has come flooding back tonight.  The music, your apartment, watching you pitch, the sunsets at Redondo, how you looked in that dress when I talked you into dressing up and going out.  The frustration, confusion, and the feelings of helplessness have all returned, as well.

How much pain have you been carrying?  They said you have been even worse off lately.  I so wished I could have helped you then.   I sadly wish someone could have helped you now. 

I also wish I could say I have become a huge success, but here I am writing to someone I haven't seen in over 25 years who will never read it.  Yes, I'm still working with kids, 25 years into the teaching career I began back then.  With that part of life I have no regrets, it's even more rewarding now than then.  Now, 25 years later, watching you on T.V., I feel just as alone as I did in those days driving back to Ellensburg.

I wish you well, Chief.  I have thought of you now and then over the years.  You will be in my prayers once again.  I hope they don't punish you too harshly.  I hope you can get the help you need and some much-deserved relief from your agonizing pain.

Love,
Boss

Mitt's Lament

"How dare those minorities want health care! Don't they know their place? If there were only more rich white guys like me in this country. I can hardly wait until my 42 grandchildren can all vote."

"Why were those 47 percenters so sensitive? Don't all of those men and women in the service, police officers, firefighters, teachers, air traffic controllers, forest service workers, and government pension planners know what a drain they are on this country's economy? Why don't they all go out and get real jobs?"

"Can't believe I lost that darned election! Ann, go get me a Pepsi!"