Not All Who Wander Are Lost

Life is sad
Life is a bust,
All you can do is
Do what you must.
You do what you must
And you do it well.
I do it for you honey baby
Can't you tell?

I've partnered with all ten seventh grade science classes for three day research and project jam sessions. Contracted to take in tech-assisted students for next week's statewide testing. Committed every lunchtime for full-blown panic-level yearbook development just 13 days to a final deadline with not a single finished page in sight.

Meanwhile, I've still got three classes a day to teach, technology to frame for the upcoming budget thaw free-for-all, progress towards a waived certification to document.

Life comes to a crisis point. I come home drained. This afternoon -- after five classes, a lunch meeting, and an hour of crunch-time yearbook advisorship after school -- I drove home in a fog, hugged my kids, swigged a glass of cold coffee, and promptly crashed out on the bed until supper.

I want to do more.

I went into this because I thought it fed the soul to be the know-it-all, the eye of the storm, the conductor of lives and knowledge. But I go back every day to bellows the spark in each and every one of them.

Because the rest is all paint, really. It is that glow -- the student, not the teacher -- which is the true sheer joy and awe of the teaching profession.

To do it right takes precision. And precision takes it all, right now.

I could do it half-assed, but that's not me. So instead, I'm officially taking the week off from blogging.

I know -- a week is a long time, and it's hard to get back on the horse. But need is need; every wanderer hits a long patch, steep in the dark once in a while.

If you miss me in the midst of radio silence, listen to these two covers of the song that's been stuck in my head for days, and know that this, too, shall pass.

Buckets of Rain (David Gray)

Buckets of Rain (Neko Case)

Ah, Dylan. Can't stand the voice, but the truth shall set you free.

Respective thanks to mp3bloggers Heather and Kevin for the tunes. I'd have posted versions by Jeffrey Foucault and Vic Chestnut, too, but I really have to move on about now.

Happy Spring, everybloggy. May the sun warm us all, and bring us peace in the whirlwind.

Comments:

dylan... nothing more to say on that

have you listened to joe henry? particularly his album The Kindness of the World... check it out if you feel so inclined

damien rice is another

# posted by

Jericho : 8:48 AM, March 24, 2006

What's with the picture of the guy holding the giant mothball?

# posted by

Shaw Israel Izikson : 6:34 PM, March 24, 2006

Man - that's one heavy mothball - that poor guy up there has been holding it for soooo long

# posted by

Shaw Israel Izikson : 1:30 AM, March 28, 2006