Sunday, August 25, 2013

Today I choose to be optomistic

Sometimes the world pours in and overwhelms. It would be so easy to despair, to throw your arms up in hopeless surrender. North Carolina legislators have got to be some of the dumbest, most malicious, self-absorbed idiots on the face of the planets----thank God for Texas! Voter ID, women's rights to their own bodies, anti-education, etc etc
But that's not the subject for today. It is fall, a crispness in the air, and time for school to start again. For the last seven years I have had the privilege of working with high school sophmores in a program called Early College that is a collaboration of AB Tech and Buncombe County Schools. I teach World Religions every fall. Can you imagine that!! World religion taught in public school! It is possible and legal. Of course, there are guidelines, e.g. I CANNOT prosylitize (sp) and I never would. These kids are bright, thirsty, and energetic. Their enthusiasm is contagious. It is an awesome responsibility to invite and encourage these young minds to enter, explore, consider, accept the beauty and integrity of other traditions. The rewards are not always immediate. There are some, but I swell with pride when next year or years down the road, a former student stops me to say, "Remember me? You taught me World Religions. It was a great course!"
Young, enthusiastic, eager, open----they are the future, full of hope. The future is in good hands!

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