Omaha, Montgomery, and the Mississippi Delta

"Hey mister if you're gonna walk on water, could you drop a line my way"
(sounds like a statement, not a question)

The counting crows set the background for the end of today, which is in turn the end of teacher corps summer training- many of us are leaving tommorow or have already left. Guess this is the end of the beginning. I've heard several people comment that they will miss the group, the proximity. I know what they mean.

Breakfast this morning was wonderful. Bottle tree. The food was delicious. The atmosphere even more so; I soaked in the company greedily. Really, really nice. Thanks guys.

I never really understand what draws us together and pulls us apart. The only obvious thing is that we are affected. We'll see each other after this summer, of course, but in a slightly different mode, different situation. And of course everything will keep changing.

I moved most of my things into our house today, which meant about half a day of packing, an hour of unloading, and five and a half hours of driving alone through the Delta. "I've never been so alone, and I've never been so alive"-3EB. I left in a rush, stressing out. The Delta lulled me. There's definitely an elegance to it, a special character. I glanced down at a map while driving in some vague attempt to trace my progress, and chanced upon Montogery county. Made me remember "Angels from Montgomery", a memory from a differnet world of a song about possibly this very place. I wonder how a place like the Delta affects someone who spends all of their time there, how it affects them and how they are part of it or vise versa, if they are.

I stopped for directions at a gas station. I was looking for route 6 and wanted to make sure I hadn't passed it yet. The gentlemen who gave me directions commented "Its a loooong" way from here...about 36 miles." What different paradigms we have. I have an admission; I'm not sure what the appropriate attitude toward that issue is. Instinctively, a difference is always a curiousity, something to be learned, the world from a different perspective. But at the same time, it is difficult not to judge, not to see some kind of tradgedgy there. Teaching seems to assume authority, though. If we are teaching, are we teaching only our subject areas? It would seem that much more is required. Insight, perspective, ideas, inspiration if we can pull it off. But does that mean assuming that our way is better, that our ideas are more valid. We will each do our best, and hope its the right thing... "the crumbling difference between wrong and right."-CC

I drove back through sunset. Spectacular.

I alternated between listening to music and listening to the silence.

"I'm sure there's something in a shade of gray or something in between." Perfect.
If only I could find it. There never seem to be right words or clear answers. Maybe it's true "there's always more than one way to exactly what you mean to say"-Fastball. Maybe there's no right way at all.

So if summer training is over, that means we have all the training we will have as teacher's when we start school. That thought has been on random repeat, along with a number of other selections, in the back of my mind for several days now. I'm feeling okay about it. I have a sketch, a rough idea of how the first days will go, how my classroom will run, how the lessons will go- the training gave us some ideas to choose from, and now the details are slowly solidifying as I try not to focus in on any one detail, but look at the big picture and let ideas fall into place. Despite the un-reality of it, TEAM was really helpful. Something clicked, I think, in the midst of trying to write the perfect lesson plan for each day. Maybe because we focused so much energy on only five lessons, and they still weren't perfect, I became comfortable with the ideas that plans are always changing, that there is no absolute ideal, and that you have to trust your judement if you want creativity to flow.

Hope the coming days are full of delicious moments for everyone...

"We roll by just like water..."