The Prologue Part 6: These Three Dreams of Inspiration & Hope

Life is full of singular moments whose roots are like rocky springs, seeping out from hidden places. Like mountain streams, these events tumble downhill, building momentum. Along the way, they collect insights and epiphanies, gathering solutions to various problems. Saturated with wisdom, and bursting with energy, they flow forward, seeking open, flat land where the soil thirsts for resolution and relief. 

No matter how parched you are, if you have prepared yourself well, and stand at the ready, the oncoming flood can be channeled together and diverted into pools. The experiences that coalesced into rivers and creeks can be collected, harvested into reservoirs of memories, to be used against future droughts.  

The Prologue (Part 5): Embracing Dreams and the Opportunities they May Bring...

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the
Continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by
The sea,
Europe is the less,
As well as if a promontory
Were.
As well as if a manor of they
Friend’s 
Or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes
Me,
Because I am involved in
Mankind;
And therefore never send to
Know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.”
~John Donne, excerpt from “Meditation 17”

In last week’s post, I talked about embarrassment and humiliation. For most of my life, whenever I had made a mistake, my mind automatically treated it as an humiliating event. From that mental glitch arose my social anxiety. That struggle undermined my actions, reinforced my inaction, and sabotaged a lot of of my relationships. How this all developed is a discussion for another day. Instead, I want to focus on something positive: a series of decisions I made that inspired me to transition from a life of always feeling humiliated whenever I had made a mistake, to one of feeling embarrassed first. 

(Then doing the mature thing and negotiating with the other person on where to go from there.)

The Prologue (Part 4): About a Map that Inspired a Dream...

“I am sorry. I am sorry because I have failed to give you what you have the right to demand of me as your teacher: sympathy, encouragement, and humanity… by so doing I have degraded the noblest calling that man can follow—the care and molding of the young.”

          ~ Andrew Crocker-Harris' final speech, The Browning Version (1951)

This is not a post about the school I taught at.

Nor a post about how I became a teacher.

      (There will be time for those things.)

It is instead a post about two forces

     That kept me from giving up on being one again.

The Prologue (Part 3): On Lighthouses, both tall and small...

“Two bright eyes awake all night
             To the fierce moods of the sea;
Eyes that only close when light
             Dawns on lonely hill and tree.
O kind watchers! teach us, too,
             Steadfast courage, sufferance long!
Where an eye is turned to you,
            Should a human heart grow strong.”

~ last stanza of Lucy Larcom’s poem The Light-houses

There is something about a lighthouse : 
  solid, sturdy, guiding. 
A check against uncertainty and disaster; 
a path to safe harbor; 
a testament to fortitude and the value of service. 

The Prologue (Part 2): Of Lighthouses, Maps, and Dreams…

“In the eye of a hurricane
There is quiet
For just a moment
A yellow sky”
~ “Hurricane”,  from the musical, Hamilton

There is something about a lighthouse: 
    solid, sturdy, guiding. 
A check against uncertainty and disaster; 
a path to safe harbor; 
a testament to fortitude and the value of service.
There is something about a map: 
informative, reassuring. 
An insurance against ignorance; 
a reminder of one’s place.
There is something about a dream: 
inspiring. 
A flame chasing away shadows to reveal what lies within.

The Prologue (Part 1): Sucking at This Thing Called Writing…

“Then a hurricane came, and devastation reigned

Our man saw his future drip, dripping down the drain

Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain

And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain”

~ “Alexander Hamilton”, from the musical, Hamilton

Yes, I referenced the award winning musical, Hamilton, when describing myself.

No, I was not referring to his skill or fame,

But rather, to the power and influence of a man’s own hurricane.