September is proving to be a lot.
September usually proves to be a lot for a humble educator, and I remain a humble educator.
Summer turns to fall. Brand new shoes, walking blues, climb the fence, books and pens.
***
Not only am I humble educator, I am a seasoned one as well. I’ve been at the teaching and learning game for twenty-five years. High school classrooms blur with college classrooms. I’ve moved through the alotness of summer turning to fall many times. The alotness doesn’t get easier, but it doesn’t not get easier. Teaching is hard. Learning too. Being alive is a lot.
And here I’d like to point out that WordPress is not impressed with my use of the word alotness. They’ve underlined it in red three times on my end. Were I a cleaner writer, I’d probably take their suggestion to find a better word. AI be damned, I write the way I write, and the way I write is a lot. The way I live is a lot. The way I teach and learn is a lot.
I hope the way you live is a lot. Being alive is a lot, and we shouldn’t run from it. And I hate when authors use the royal we, but I’m not cleaning anything up here. Moving with the alotness of being alive requires us to make peace with our many messes. AI would clean up my writing, I’ll leave it a mess.
Microsoft Co-Pilot has many suggestions about how to make my literary memoir about Dad more marketable to literary agents or publishers. I’m sure the book could be more marketable, but I didn’t write it to address a market need. I wrote it to address a soul need. Sam is Sam, Dad is Dad, and God is God is a necessary step in learning how to be in relationship with myself, Dad, and God. And it has something to offer a reader who is learning how to love people more even when they like people less. It has something to offer anyone who is learning how to be at peace in the alotness of being alive.
I hope I can figure out how to put it into the world, but I’m not gonna to make it less a lot to address market needs.
***
Iowa City is beautiful this fall. I love when a cool breeze starts to blow. The leaves will change colors soon.
Being 46 in Iowa City is beautiful this fall. I play farm flag-football on Sunday mornings. I walk through a campus brimming with life. Surrounded by young people making their way in their many worlds.
Being a department chair at a major university is beautiful. Most of my day is filled with unsolvable problems and complicated messes. What a challenge to move through these things with care.
Learning to love and be loved is beautiful. I don’t need to like people to love them. I do need to continue acknowledging, accepting, and moving with the alotness that comes with people being people in our many complicated worlds. Good things await down that road. I don’t know what they are, but I know they exist.
