The words came out of my mouth today, and I wish I could
amend them – “It has been a bad week.” For
background, let me summarize the events.
On Wednesday, I listened to, cried with, and prayed for a
student in my office about 2 unrelated situations that had both scared her and
pricked her heart. I hope sharing with
me lessened her burden.
On Thursday, I started the day with the homeschool version
of a parent- school administrator conference. When I got to work, I had students share a concern about the way another
classmate was speaking to them. This may
not seem big, but seemed to be bordering on bullying. I told them I would pray about it and let
them know what the next step should be.
The day kept getting more interesting when I ended up helping make the
decision that we needed to call 911 to take a student to the ER.
On Friday, I learned that the child who had been discussed and
defended at the conference on Thursday had completely made a liar of me. That night, my husband and I made a decision
to go down a path with this kid that we have decided against for many
years. This is scary on a lot of levels –
and maybe someday I will be ready to articulate that.
On Saturday, I was unable to block some negative or
less-than-supportive comments from other parents about my youngest child’s
football team and their coaches (who include my husband). This led to me expressing my displeasure –
although I think I was not rude or inappropriate – and I am a bit embarrassed that
I couldn’t just ignore the negativity.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon when my beloved alma
mater, the University of Tennessee, played one of my 2 least favorite teams,
the University of Florida. I have been
confident that we would win this game – breaking the streak, moving down the
path to an SEC East title, returning to national importance. We celebrated the excitement of the game and
then showed that our team has basically forgotten how to win – we play just
good enough to lose.
All I could think was, “After the week I have had, why couldn't ONE good thing have happened? Winning
this game would have made the week so much better!” I saw the various posts of Facebook friends
discussing the game – supporting either of the teams. I was greatly annoyed.
And then it hit me – why would a GAME between people I have
NEVER MET have made anything from the previous 3 days any better? Does a Tennessee win mend the breaking heart
of my student, improve the health of another student, resolve the relationship
issues of other students, ‘fix’ the academic issues of my child? Of course not! But that was where my heart
and mind looked for ‘relief’ from the heart ache of my week.
We are living in a Brave New World – where pain is medicated
by food and sports and trivial things.
Where everything is supposed to be easy or you are doing it wrong or
shouldn’t do it at all. Where real life –
which is hard – is BAD.
No – I want to go back.
My week was HARD, but it was GOOD.
I was given the privilege of sharing the burden of multiple students, of
helping to make hard choices with other students, of observing real community
between many of the young people I interact with on a daily basis, of
celebrating milestones with my children, of getting to have new and hard
discussions with my husband about how we parent our children.
So that’s what I wish I had said this morning – “My week has
been hard, but good.” May we all come
out of the Brave New World and be real again – sharing our joys and sorrows
without shirking away from the real life we have been given.
PS – If you have not read the book, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, you really should check it out
from your library or buy it from your favorite book source. I believe it is a shame that I only just read
this book over the summer.
