Joy in growing another kind of world

How is it with you? Where do you live?
What do you love? Will you please show me.

“Mrs. Lee?” came the plaintive voice, “Can you explain something to me?”  And I knew what was coming. This is Current Events class after all.

“Why are we bombing Iran?”

Most of the students’ heads swiveled to make eye contact with me.  Only one student, the one who’d been a folk life music festival over the weekend, hadn’t heard and was shocked into sputtering, “We what?!”

For 20 minutes I gave them a brief history lesson, going back to the time my grandfather was a helicopter instructor under the Shah in the ‘70’s.  We talked about repression, we talked about nuclear armament, Israel, Obama’s deal, the brutal killings of earlier this year where number estimates range from six to thirty thousand citizens, and we made our way to Geniva where all the world leaders sat last week talking peace before we dropped bombs. 

They were dead silent and listening closely, wondering if it was at all constitutional. (No, but that doesn't seem to stop any president, now does it?) It was intense. I left out the part about the girl's school, I didn't think they needed that piece, they were reeling enough around 500 anonymous dead. They asked very thought filled questions and held the space as sacred.

I had a couple poems queued up, and they were just the balm we needed for today. The students dug into the words, sitting with both the meaning and the style. We remembered that Iran holds “creators where civilizations began,” and named the importance of having meals together. We all laughed when I said we were supposed to talk about the electoral college now and together we decided to ditch those plans.

My Dread-Pirate-Robert, instead, gave a follow up on one of his stories from last week, where his City Hall was shut down. As you read the story it becomes apparent that City Hall was shut down because they found "an explosive device." (I taught them the term "burying the lede.") He had tracked the rest of the story down, and, it turns out, a vet had brought in various bits of memorabilia to share with the police department, including what was recognized as live munition, which led to the bomb squad being called and the entire City Hall evacuating--because even if the munition hadn't blown its top in 80 years, you knew today would be the day. Talk about a small-town story. It was a good release for the class.

The student who started the whole discussion was in jeans ripped big enough that she needed to tuck her knees all up in her oversized football jersey shirt to keep them warm. looking like a gremlin in her chair all the while fully engaged. So much so, that when she had a VERY pressing question her hand shot up, with her leg attached--straight into the air like a cheer move. It took a beat before she even realized what she'd done, and she lowered her leg sheepishly. Later the yearbook photographer came in to get candid’s of the class. I looked back at said student, who now had struck this "serious student" pose with her hand and forefinger framing her face in concentration. I burst out laughing. The photographer said, this is what she looks like in all the yearbook photos. I said she should have been in here where she raised her foot instead of her hand to answer a question. Said student smirked, chagrined, "Hey now, my mom doesn't need to know about that!"

The photographer left and we all looked at each other, knowing that the world is hurting, and that we can still laugh at ourselves, and hold the pain together in our living.

Kim Stafford writes,

Give good words to the child, give good
power to the man, give the nation forgiveness—

even if we cannot solve all the problems right away.
It’s when we hurry we kill.
It is when we are afraid that we ripen a child
for shouting, for needing a gun, wanting a bomb.

So we are growing another kind of world:
wise children learning to say at every meeting,
How is it with you? Where do you live?
What do you love? Will you please show me.

And these students are doing just that.

We can’t change what our President is doing, but we can begin to shape the world around us to be filled with people who can hold gravitas and humor side-by-side asking, “What do you love?”

#joyasresistance