 22 June 2019 The desks are scrubbed and stacked, the brick-a-brac is stored away in cabinets or boxes, and I am officially home for the summer break. This means I'm currently as unbusy as I could possibly be since the beginning of 2019, and yet...I wonder if my students are getting enough to eat and if they're safe, happy. I watch more news, read more social articles (probably not a smart move) and I'm more frustrated than ever at the state of the world that we're leaving for our youth. I am angry at the actions of so many in charge who seem to be playing a personal game of greed and self-promoting agendas at the expense of so many lives, leaving thousands struggling day to day. And, like, who cares? People are living their lives, fighting their own battles. Who has time to invest in a system, a process, where little seems to change and circumstances continue to deteriorate? Climate change? Look, I've got to pay my car payment, my power bill. I can't be worrying about what Mother Nature is going to do (or big business, or government...). I've got to keep food on the table. State Legislators underpaying teachers, getting kick-backs from big business products created for the classroom, Health Care cuts piggybacked onto other laws people with self-serving agendas are trying to push through, what can any of us do about these things? Hell, I should be on a float in my pool right now listening to the birds, watching the clouds float lazily by while my biggest worry is what I'm cooking for dinner. I mean, it IS my summer break and honestly I worked my tail off the last school year going full-throttle doing the multitude things that teachers do, much of which happens outside of a classroom. Instead, these social issues are heavy on my mind (including what I, personally, am doing or not doing about them). I come back to the question, "Who cares?" And I swear it's true, if you look for the negative, you will certainly, easily find it...but the alternate is also true. When you look for the positives, you'll find those, too; a news story on "60 Minutes" about a group of kids who are suing the US Government for their role in climate change; hundreds of thousands of teachers marching on their home state Capitals, advocating for the children and their colleagues on issues that should have been "fixed" by sub-standard Legislators long ago; Law Enforcement around the country taking part in programs like the Lip-Sync Challenge in order to help build stronger relationships with their communities. And then there are people like Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow who started a foundation called "Mary's Meals" that feeds children around the world (see video below) and is making such an impact in these precious young lives. My three-year-old grandson and I love the movie Zootopia. One of my favorite lines from Judy Bunny is, "Ready to go out and make the world a better place?" I'm not always sure of what my role for doing that is, or if what I am doing is enough, but it's certainly something I am often thinking about. The answers are as elusive as those lightning bugs my grandson likes to chase, but like him, I am not easily deterred. For now I'll keep using my voice, teaching tiny humans, and pondering other ways to use my "powers" for good.
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About The Author
I grew up in rural North Carolina. When I was only nineteen, I moved away and became a military wife. My only aspiration at that tender time in my life was to create an adult life that "fixed" all of the "injustices" of my childhood. Secretly, however, I wanted to reach for the sky! I wanted to be a writer and find ways to "save the world" (my mother used to say, "You have Save the World Syndrome".). Mostly, I wanted to matter. Archives
August 2021
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