Back to Basics

Over the past two weeks or so I have had a busy, but fully amazing time.  I always start of winter break with grandiose plans of spending a great deal of time reflecting, tweaking and planning the "2nd half of the school year."  Usually, I do less than what I think I should, but this year was very different.  I purposely chose to spend time with family and friends and think about my whole life, not just my teaching life.

This was my plan:

1) Try to stay away from my school computer.  I was pretty successful with this goal.  I only checked my school email twice over break.

2) Try to avoid conversations about school.  For the most part, this was very successful, especially considering my wife is a teacher and nearly the first question all my other relatives and friends ask is, "How is school going."  This question always makes me wonder if teaching is the only relevant thing about me.  I often wonder how non educators would start a conversation with me if I was a motorcycle mechanic (how's the shop treatin' ya?), a chef (how's the restaurant?) or a tax accountant (how's the IRS these days?)

3) Try not too feel guilty about taking a break.  This one was a little more difficult, but I think felling guilty about not doing everything I can is in my DNA.  But I only felt a little guilty.  Let's just say I slept very soundly over break.

So instead of working, talking about work and feeling guilty about not working, I read, played games with my family, watched some bad tv, exercised (wowie!), cooked some fabulous meals, became more of an expert at Angry Birds and did lots and lots of thinking about my life in general.  

When I get into super reflective mode about my personally life I tend to get a little religious.  One thing that I have resisted sharing in my online life is the role that my ongoing realtionship with faith and doubt has in my life.  Unfortunately religion can be a very polarizing concept and I think there are too many things out there that divide us, so I have stayed away from the topic of faith.  I am not going to delve too deep here because I am not a Biblical expert by any means, but I do need to share a small epiphany I had over break.  I need to get back to some basics.  Some really old school basics.  Like some Old Testament basics if you will.

My lifelong struggle with faith and doubt has been rewarding and tumultuous.  For me faith has been uplifting and confusing, but faith  wins over doubt because of the inspiration that faith has given me over the years.  My faith is based on the idea that I am here to do good things, faith gives me purpose.  Doubt, as important as it is, does not really give me a purpose.

So while I was doing some reading over break, I went back to the book of Michah and reread this over and over:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Pretty simple and challening at the same time.  It has given me a lot to think about and will frame my goals for 2011 in all phases of my life, including the teaching part.  Here is my short list of things to do in 2011.

1) Do justice:  There are many ways to look at this idea, but I am determined to be more of an advocate for just causes.  The enormity of injustice in our world is probably too much for me to take on personally, but I am going to become a stronger advocate for two causes.  One local, the Dublin Food Pantry and one global, 1 Goal.  Both of these organizations need help and have worthy goals.

2) Love kindness:  This is a hard one.  It seems simple enough, but if I were to fully embrace the concept of loving kindness, I need to become more aware of how not addressing the lack of kindness directly might be the same as fostering of love of cruelty or intolerance.  I do think I am a kind person, but I also know that I tend to become quiet when others are becoming cruel or intolerant.  I may need to step up and rock the boat a little more.

3) Walk humbly:  For those who know me well, I have had no problem with sharing why things suck.  However, I never really stop to think about how a different point of view may look at the ideas I share as being equally lousy.  I am not too sure how I am going to fix this issue, but if I can be successful at 'walking humbly' I am convinced I will be a better person.

Over the next few weeks I will try to explore how this short list relates to my teaching life, since the purpose of this space is to share stories and thinking about my life as a teacher.

Later,

Tony

Comments

[Katiedicesare]

Tony your post hits home as I sometimes struggle to share what I am feeling without digging deep into faith. I completely loved reading your reflections and thoughts for the upcoming year. I am taking this quote with me, thanks for sharing. And, I am looking forward to reading about how all of this spills into the classroom. I have to say, many of my personal close moments with God often involve a conversation or gesture of a child or student.

[Tony Keefer]

Katie,
I agree completely with seeing God in the acts of children. One of my favorite religious thinkers is a Marcus Borg. He talks about "thin places" where a veil seems to lift and we are experiencing things beyond our comprehension. Many, many times in my life I have felt like I was in a "thin place" when I have been working or playing with kids.