- Apr 6, 2022
- 4 min read
“Your beliefs are your actions. What you say is just what you think.”
Embrace the Within.
In case you haven’t noticed or maybe it’s your first time reading through what I post, I have recently decided to only share the Personal Meditations on Facebook. The other blog posts are up on my wix site and archived there in case you want to know what’s going on in the Be the Change posts or the Embrace the Words posts that are coming soon as I annotate my way through the whole Bible including the parts in the Ethiopian version in order over the next however many months. Currently I am slowly making my way through Genesis and,as always, taking notes to share in this new series of posts.
BUT today I want to reflect on courage and how it relates to the beginning quote and a quote that helped me through the first part of the fourteen days, “Courage is choosing to change”, which I wrote about a lot as my current phase in the journey of life began. Recently in my classroom I have encountered a problem that I have never encountered before and that is the problem with thievery. Kids were stealing candy from my box of Friday. So, let me set this up in context. Every Friday after the students complete their assignments, I break out the box of Friday that has a variety of snack and candy options for them to choose for celebrating and rewarding their completion of the day’s work and to end the week on a high note. I, of course, yell about the act of smelling the Friday and make it into an elaborate thing that encourages students to smell the Friday and enjoy the end of the school week. I keep the box of Friday behind my desk during the remainder of the week. I often get asked if we can smell other days of the week and I respond with how disgusting it sounds to smell that particular day of the week and that we only smell the Friday. This year I have been noticing that the Friday keeps looking smaller and smaller as the week goes on, however, I am not one to become paranoid and suspect the worst. Last week that all changed when I restocked the Friday on Monday and the Friday was quite empty on Tuesday. I explained the situation to my classes about the Friday and taking from the Friday when it wasn’t Friday. And I was extremely disappointed that no one came forward with the courage to admit they had some responsibility. Well, as middle school goes, I quickly found out some of the responsible parties and the only two things I asked from this situation was that they apologize for their part in the stealing of Friday and that they decide to stop taking the Friday in the future. I just want ownership. What is even more daunting is the fact that there were bystanders after months of study about the Holocaust and discussions about the role of the bystander and the perpetrator.
I know other folks would demand some sort of punishment and want all sorts of crazy things to occur that really don’t change anything. Can I ever get the Friday back? Can I ever fully trust those students again? Can I ever look at the box of Friday the same way? I could always lie to myself and think that we can truly repair those things immediately BUT I know the only thing that will repair those problems is time. I could always hold a grudge against those students and treat them differently for making poor choices BUT where is the value in that as well? What is the good in behaving like this was about me? What benefit does the student get in changing their behavior if I keep remembering that behavior and using those past actions against them?
I think a lot of times we make situations too much about us. I did not decide to steal nor did I choose to remain silent about the situation. I think we like to own things that are not ours to own. There are a lot of situations that just happen to us. And we get to choose how we react to them. BUT we don’t have to own them. I am certain that most folks in teaching wouldn’t react the way I did to this situation. I hope they might, though. I am also aware that the message about not being a bystander is one that can not be taught once and left alone. I still have students that believe that being a bystander is okay. And I guess we all have seen that over the past fourteen days and beyond. The idea that it’s not my problem. And that is exactly the problem.
It is all my problem. What have I said for the past fourteen days repeatedly that, “It may not be your fault BUT it is still your problem”? It is always my problem. It’s not my fault that people make poor choices BUT it is still my problem to point out those choices and hope they choose better. Whether it’s taking candy, dropping litter, making a mess, forgetting to take their dishes to the sink, finishing their homework, enlisting in the military, voting for politicians, being a consumer, recruiting for cults, acting out of hate, trusting the government, doing what you’re told, accepting authority, etc ad nauseam. The list continues . . . . It is still my problem because I care about my community. I want to enact change so I do. And that all starts with my choices. It doesn’t start with your choices. It’s all about our personal choices first.
I can’t ask you to change if I am going to not. I can’t say something and not act on that belief. We have too many of those people already. Too many folks that are not the guardians of their brother, their sister, their parents, their children, their neighbor, their community. Too many folks that do not love their neighbor or their self. Too many folks saying one thing and acting in complete misalignment. Can you get more aligned today? Can you be a guardian? Can you act on your beliefs?
Have the day you want. I hope you find whatever you’re looking for.