Are you a teacher?
I am not sure if any of you have ever read Harold Kushner's books, but he is absolutely amazing. He wrote "When Bad Things Happen To Good People." I have actually never read that particular book, but I have read "How Good Do We Have To Be," which addresses guilt and is one of those books that you keep at your bedside and pull out at particular times. Anyway not to long ago I was in the bookstore and came across a fairly new book he had written, "Overcoming Life's Disappointments," in which he discusses Moses' life. Particularly he talks about how even though Moses had this incredible life, he had many disappointments.
Please don't start psychoanalyzing me, but we all have disappointments. I will tell you that I am sort of developing a complex while reading this book because the first couple of chapters deal with being disappointed with the way your life has turned out. I have no grand vision for my life, I have no five, ten, or fifteen year plan. I have a friend that is on the "one year at a time plan". It makes a lot of sense to me right now in life. In fact the job that I really want is only a one year commitment. What I am saying is I have no grand vision of what my life should be, I just pray that God will lead me where he wants me, and that I have faith to follow, and faith that he will provide. (I realize that sentence was grammatically incorrect, get over it.) Honestly, this is so counter to every person in law school, or most every person in law school. They have all these plans to work at this firm, or that firm and be partner by a certain time. I have even heard rumors that one person has cards printed up that say "____ President 2028". Yeah, no comment. Anyway, that is totally not the point of this post.
The real portion of this book I want to discuss is his advice to people who never had children, or really wanted children and never had them. I must say though, as I was reading this I thought "this should be taken to heart by all people who have children, and all of us that benefited from people that aren't our parents who are willing to teach and love us." Yeah, I know there is some little saying about the only thing that matters is the difference you make in a child's life. But I am not talking about the difference you make in a child's life, I am talking about the difference you can make in every one's life.
Kushner writes: When someone teaches a child the purpose of life and shapes his soul, it is as if he or she had given birth to him. Our biological parents give us life in this world; our teachers give us life in time to come. Many people will achieve immortality by having children and grandchildren to bear their name. Others will have an impact beyond their years on earth through the goodness and friendship they shared with those they leave behind. Still others will achieve their immortality, like the victims of the Holocaust, by leaving behind memories of love, courage, and accomplishment in the face of adversity.
I can honestly say that I have had many many teachers through the years that have given me life. Teachers that had children, didn't have children, and some were even children. I have no idea if I will have children, please see paragraph above about not having a grand plan, but I hope that I can provide goodness and friendship to others.
Several of my friends have commented that they will send their kids to me to teach them bad things, well not bad things, but things that as parents they can't teach them. I had people growing up that taught me this kind of stuff. Like throwing water balloons, skinny dipping (my grandmother's best friend taught me how to do that, remember Anna?), the importance of eating ice cream once a week, making a screwdriver, good music and how to dance! Okay, well I recognize that I should probably be teaching them Bible verses, and things such as that. (Just so you know I am trying to figure out how to change the word's to Hank William's "Kaw-Liga" to "Elijah" to teach my Sunday School class.)
The point is we should all "look for people to love," because when we do that, I, Katie Bradshaw, think that we start providing goodness and friendship in a real way. I personally think we all have more to give others than we realize, but we are afraid that people will take advantage of us. But just imagine if the teachers in your life had not actually taken the time to give you life. I challenge you to not be afraid that people will take advantage of you, be a teacher to the people that surround you, it will mean more than you know.
Please don't start psychoanalyzing me, but we all have disappointments. I will tell you that I am sort of developing a complex while reading this book because the first couple of chapters deal with being disappointed with the way your life has turned out. I have no grand vision for my life, I have no five, ten, or fifteen year plan. I have a friend that is on the "one year at a time plan". It makes a lot of sense to me right now in life. In fact the job that I really want is only a one year commitment. What I am saying is I have no grand vision of what my life should be, I just pray that God will lead me where he wants me, and that I have faith to follow, and faith that he will provide. (I realize that sentence was grammatically incorrect, get over it.) Honestly, this is so counter to every person in law school, or most every person in law school. They have all these plans to work at this firm, or that firm and be partner by a certain time. I have even heard rumors that one person has cards printed up that say "____ President 2028". Yeah, no comment. Anyway, that is totally not the point of this post.
The real portion of this book I want to discuss is his advice to people who never had children, or really wanted children and never had them. I must say though, as I was reading this I thought "this should be taken to heart by all people who have children, and all of us that benefited from people that aren't our parents who are willing to teach and love us." Yeah, I know there is some little saying about the only thing that matters is the difference you make in a child's life. But I am not talking about the difference you make in a child's life, I am talking about the difference you can make in every one's life.
Kushner writes: When someone teaches a child the purpose of life and shapes his soul, it is as if he or she had given birth to him. Our biological parents give us life in this world; our teachers give us life in time to come. Many people will achieve immortality by having children and grandchildren to bear their name. Others will have an impact beyond their years on earth through the goodness and friendship they shared with those they leave behind. Still others will achieve their immortality, like the victims of the Holocaust, by leaving behind memories of love, courage, and accomplishment in the face of adversity.
I can honestly say that I have had many many teachers through the years that have given me life. Teachers that had children, didn't have children, and some were even children. I have no idea if I will have children, please see paragraph above about not having a grand plan, but I hope that I can provide goodness and friendship to others.
Several of my friends have commented that they will send their kids to me to teach them bad things, well not bad things, but things that as parents they can't teach them. I had people growing up that taught me this kind of stuff. Like throwing water balloons, skinny dipping (my grandmother's best friend taught me how to do that, remember Anna?), the importance of eating ice cream once a week, making a screwdriver, good music and how to dance! Okay, well I recognize that I should probably be teaching them Bible verses, and things such as that. (Just so you know I am trying to figure out how to change the word's to Hank William's "Kaw-Liga" to "Elijah" to teach my Sunday School class.)
The point is we should all "look for people to love," because when we do that, I, Katie Bradshaw, think that we start providing goodness and friendship in a real way. I personally think we all have more to give others than we realize, but we are afraid that people will take advantage of us. But just imagine if the teachers in your life had not actually taken the time to give you life. I challenge you to not be afraid that people will take advantage of you, be a teacher to the people that surround you, it will mean more than you know.
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-Jillian Scott