Yesterday, I was in a curious mood, starting to dive deep into me, as I sipped a slowly latte at the University Union yesterday. A colleague sat down with me.   

	"You look like you're way off somewhere," she observed and kind of jogged me.

	"Just getting on my spiritual 'game face," I soberly replied.  
	
	She had a curious look on her face.  I think the word, "spiritual" raised her eyebrows.  "'Game face?'" she asked.

	I told I was getting in the mood, into my groove, as I always do, to present a couple of sessions with a friend of mine at the Lilly conference on teaching around the whats, hows, and whys of my "Teacher's Oath."   Then, I told her how I was also "feeling" more than "thinking" about how some of the reactions of students in the Holocaust class who were obviously were really touched by the presentation of a child of a survivor.   

	"But, will those feelings last and have a lasting impact on the students?" she asked.  It was obvious she had something on her mind.

	"Don't know," I slowly said.  I paused.  Then, I said, "You want me not to try?  You know, from nothing comes nothing.  Anyway, if we don't reach out to effect lives, what the heck are we here for?  Just to coldly transmit information in those new 350 seat corrals we call 'lecture halls' where we treat students blandly like a herd of nameless cattle?  Not much 'fun,' or meaning, in that."

	Then, out of the blue, she said, "You always talk of it being enough to just touch one student, but I can't believe it does much."

	"It does a heck of a lot to that one student," I softly answered, thinking about the story of the man and the stranded starfish on the beach.

	"Still, I can't believe it's really worth all that time and effort without knowing.  The odds are so against you."

	I felt like saying, "As Yoda might say, 'And that is why you don't.'  But, I held off.  Instead, I told her, "Look, odds don't determine anything, especially when I rig my game."

	"What you mean, 'rig my game?"

	"My, your thoughts, actions, words, focus, commitment and persistence are what create the results we get.  When things are not working out, double down with being positive. I don't base anything I do on how things have been, or even how they presently are.  I base everything on how I would like things to be.  I also roll my dice weighted by a little joy and a lot of significiance. After all, we're much more effective when we're enjoying the moment we're in and believing how crucial it is.  Negative thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and assumptions create negative experiences, positive ones create positive experiences.  What you see depends on what you're looking for.  Assumptions guide your perceptions, and your perceptions determine the way you feel and think, how you feel and think determine how you respond to each situation and person. You just have to have an intense awareness to make sure those assumptions are not working against you and others.  Get a new set of assumptions like I started doing after my epiphany in '91 and the same old situation looks completely different. I suddenly saw and still see a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities.  It was like starting a series of spiritual botox treatments that began to take out all the wrinkles in my soul.  I found myself changing how I feel about teaching, how I think about students, and the things I do in class.  I stopped "doing to" students and started "doing with" and "doing for" them.  I started to learn who each was.  And, as I let go of my old assumption and perceptions, I felt more purposeful, meaningful, and empowered as I chose new ones.  I impishly say, I evolved from a pontificating professor to a loving teacher."  

	"But what about all of my colleagues who tell me that I'm wasting my time and ridicule you behind your back for wasting your time?  They say that a lot of things you talk about aren't our job?"

	"I think it is my job.  I don't let them set rules for me that satisfies them.  They have an agenda, and it's their agenda!  I don't let them impose it on me and make it mine.  That's why I'll never walk into one of those super pr super-duper classrooms.  They're so uneducational, so archaic, and so contrary to all we're learning about how we learn.  I just think that people who say you're not doing much should get out of the way of what you're struggling to accomplish or even accomplishing.  Safety isn't the name of the game.  Security isn't the name of the game.  Meaningfulness means taking risks.  And, it's worth it.  Significance and making a positive difference are the names of the game."

	"That sounds so inefficient."

	"Ah, you sound like a factory manager.  This University is not a factory.  We're not mass producing tin cans. Well, we are, but we shouldn't.  It's effectiveness, not efficiency, that counts.  I know, it's not cost effective.  But, we're not a factory."
	
	"Come on.  Do you really think you've changed and altered all that much?  It seems so senseless and useless, so meaningless, and so futile.  I mean how much do you really think you do?"

	"Starts a ripple, if nothing else.  You want only earthquakes?  Go to Indonesia.  You know, the ground does not have to quiver to do something that's earthshaking.  You want guaranteed guarantees?  Buy a refrigerator.  The Talmud says that if you save a life it is as saving the world.  So, I say:  touch one--just one--and you ultimately touch all; change one thing and you eventually change everything.  It's chaos theory's butterfly effect.  It may not be immediate, dramatic, obvious, remembered, or even visible and known; but, we each touch and shape so many lives of so many around us in so many hidden, unexpected, and ways.  Don't get frustrated with what might be slowness or smallness; be frustrated if you don't have an impact on anyone.  But, of course you do, whether for better or worse.  That's my gripe with all these teaching evaluations.  We're futurists!  We're in the 'really don't know' business.  The reality is that if I plant an acorn today, knowingly or not, someone will get the shade from the mighty oak long after I'm dead.  What we do is a continuation of chain reactions of feelings, attitudes, values, actions that started long ago.  You know, I am today the direct result of all those paths, often countless and hidden words and gestures and actions, I crossed during my 70 years of yesterdays.  Senseless?  Useless?  Meaningless?  Futile?  Not on your life!  I load my dice with positive words "purposeful," "meaningful," "marvelous," "significant."  I rig my actions with believing, caring, hopeful, faithful, loving.  Touch one student and you're one of those paths impacting on someone's tomorrows.  Touch one student near you and you will touch others far beyond you in time and space.  Touch one student, just one, and you've changed the world and altered the future.  Now, that is earthshaking.  That's shattering.  'Spiritual botox!'  I like that term.  I think I'll use it at Lilly this weekend."  

Go whomever Sunday!  

Make it a good day.

      --Louis--


Louis Schmier                                http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Department of History                    http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org               
Valdosta State University             
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