A Letter That Means Everything

Today I met with a former student of mine.
She gave me an anthology and a letter.

The letter made me feel so good.

In her second paragraph, she wrote,

If my writing does show any of those qualities, I want to thank you for it.  Your writing class really taught me a lot and got me started on my "writing career."  I learned so much from your enthusiasm for beautiful words and meaningful stories. Plus, you were the most fun teacher I've ever had.  

Wow.

Just wow.

My Man

My man wears holey shirts.
My man hates Walmart.
My man is a creator, not a consumer.
My man just invented the craziest contraption.

I love my man.

Sudan

"Do you want to know me? Do you want to know me?"
Sweet children singing in sweet voices
on an internet that brings there here.

I do want to know them
But not really
Because they live there
and it is much darker than here

There is so dark I might drown in it
there the violence is unimaginable
the fear is too much
the evil is a dark fog that hangs over the continent

I want to help
But I don't know how
I am supposed to forgive and not hate
the leader who initiates so much suffering
But it is hard.

I am supposed to love the children
without choking on despair
But it is hard.

The Geckos

The gecko ate a cricket.
It twisted and chewed and chomped at the insect that was almost as large as it was.
The insect was half in and half out of it's mouth and then I just couldn't watch anymore.

Meanwhile, another gecko sat regally on our tree, puffing it's red neck out and in.

Mama Dove

She sat on the branch
Foreman of the construction of her nest
Her mate brought back twigs and stuff
He climbed on her back to reach the nest.

She sat on her nest
and sat
and sat
and sat.

Her baby birds hatched
They grew
She fluffed and walked about on the branch
They fluffed and walked about, too.

Today
The babies were gone
But she was there
Sitting
I don't know why
Maybe she just got used to it there.

Trey

Broken body
Broken heart
Gentle, crooked smile
An expression that said, "I know...it's all kind of crazy, isn't it?"

I am sorry you felt hopeless.

I am sorry your family has lost you.

I hope you are at peace now.

Standing On The Shoulders of Katie Wood Ray

I am learning so much from this teacher/author. I have four of her books and I am currently rereading two of them. Last night I was lying in bed, thinking about the ups and downs (and I mean DOWNS), of my first year of teaching, and I wished that she had been my mentor teacher.  But I wonder if I was ready, at that point, to learn from her...I think I would have been!  Those poor kids that we force-fed TAAS to, constantly giving them writing prompts and evaluating them in such a non-helpful way...

But what if...?  What if Katie Wood Ray didn't like me?  What if she thought I was a crappy, hopeless teacher?

Naaaahhh....I think she sees the best in everyone.

Hell

"All my forefathers have passed away into darkness without knowing anything of what was to befall them; how is it that your forefathers knowing all these things, did not send word to my forefathers sooner?" African chief to Missionary David Livingstone

This quote was attached to a letter from an old friend of ours who is going to Africa as a missionary...along with some other quotes about hell...and I am struck with a sinking feeling that he is on a quest to save as many people as he can from the fiery darkness that they would otherwise be headed to if he didn't tell them the "Good News"...

What good news?  That they might get to go to heaven but their parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and all who came before them and didn't hear the "good news" will be in darkness forever? Like Rob Bell said, how is that good news?  How is that a good God?