Hello, again by GJ

I’m back…today at least?

Stayed away for a month+ and find that I miss it. The posting gives me an early morning purpose. The occasional comments give me some human contact. A friend e-mailed that he, too, missed it!

My latest thoughts keep returning to the idea of “ships that pass in the night.”

I’m fascinated by an idea that people can be substituted for ships! The clearest image is of former students. Just taking my 30 years of full-time teaching, I suppose my ship has passed approximately 4500 “ships” in the classroom, each of whom required 7 and ½ days to pass mine. (180 day/hours divided by 24.)

How is it that some of those ships stick in my mind?

Is there a link to the concept of kindred spirits? I think I’ll start a series of these ships and see what happens. As for student/ships, one goes back 57 years. Nameless and faceless, yes. But not formless, for I think that in the case of students, the link is one of emotion, a form of sorts. A desire to know more about that ship. Where is she headed? (All ships are called she, of course.) Who else is aboard? Will our paths ever cross again?

“57” was a freshman girl my first year of teaching. She had a slight speech problem that classmates snickered about. She was terribly shy and seemingly lonely. I was not a speech therapist, but I was required to have some hours in the rudiments of speech “correction.” I had to do some review and study, but we did make some progress. As I look back, it wasn’t the work, but the caring that probably helped the most. She responded to a ship that stopped all engines and paused to pay genuine attention. She sailed away at year’s end equipped just a little better with a tool or two to fend off the snickering.