|
| |
the_teacher
|
|
|
John
|
There's only one rule in this class: no rules. So, of course, you're welcome to come along -- any time you like.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
What about tuition?
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
John
|
You've already paid it.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
What previous educational experience have you had?
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
Finishing school.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Dear God.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
I survived.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
I must warn you that John and I are not finishers. Nobody leaves us with a smooth surface. We rough up the consciousness, scrape the moss off of young minds.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
Please..go back to your students. I've interrupted.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Of course you have. Every creative event that ever happened in the world was an interruption. Unexpected. Unplanned for. The only people who ever get anyplace interesting are the people who get lost. That's why the planets are so much better company than the stars -- they keep wandering back and forth across the sky and you never know where you're going to find them.
Our text books are to be found in Heywood's Meadow. Approved by the Almighty, if not by the School Committee.
In this single pasture, there are three hundred distinct and separate varieties of grass. I know; I have catalogued them myself. You look down and you say: "That's grass. Grass is grass." Ridiculous. You have missed the splendid variety of the show. There's camel grass, candy grass, cloud grass, cow-quake, mouse-barley, fox-tail, Londonlace, devil's knitting needle, feather top buffalo grass, timothy and barnyard grass and clovers enough to sweeten the bellies of all of the lambs since creation.
And John..what's this..another variety. What would you say it is?
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
John
|
I've never seen it before.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
It's Coix Lacryma-jobi, which means Job's Tears. I've never seen a specimen here. Students, I beg your pardon. We are in the midst of three-hundred and ONE varieties of God-made grasses.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Excuse me, Ellen. Are you WRITING again?
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
Just "Job's Tears."
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Why?
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
When you go to school, you're supposed to write things down, so you remember what you've been taught.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Then it's the notebook that does the remembering, not you.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
YOU keep a notebook.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
I also wear a ridiculous straw hat. That doesn't mean that YOU should wear a ridiculous hat. You'd look ridiculous in it. Nature didn't stuff this meadow full of identical blades of grass, each an imitation of the other. They're all DIFFERENT! Follow-the-leader is not the game we're playing here! Young lady, BE YOUR OWN MAN!
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
John
|
Henry, don't shout at her.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Ellen
|
I won't take notes. I promise you. Not one.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Why not? If you want to take notes, go ahead. But not because I'm doing it, or because I told you so. Ellen, I want you to be yourself -- not your idea of what you think is somebody else's idea of yourself.
|
080927
|
| |
... |
|
|
Henry
|
Perhaps, students, Miss Sewell's interruption has given us the essence of the textbook we call Heywood's Meadow. The multiple grasses beneath our feet. The infinity of the sky above us.
And if I have jotted down a note about a cloud-flame, or about sunlight on a bird-wings, don;t you write, just because I am writing. Don't ape me, or copy me. If you wish merely to LISTEN to the sky, or SMELL the sky, or FEEL the sky with your finger-tips, do that, too!
Because I think there should be as many different persons in the world as possible. So -- EACH OF YOU -- be very careful to find out and pursue your own way!
|
080927
|
