Surrounded By Miracles

I was up in the cave reading when Lynn called me down for dinner. As I reached the top of the stairs, I could smell what she was cooking and once again said "Oh, Boy", as I began my slow descent down the stairs toward the kitchen table.

Apparently she had heard "oh Boy" one too many times and told me to stop saying that because it sounded like she was doing something miraculous when all she was doing was making dinner. I reminded her that with my skill set, making dinner was a kind of miracle to which she responded that with my skill set almost anything that anybody does must be like a miracle.

She was right.

That's why to this day, I believe in people and I believe in miracles.

When I was a child, I wanted to be a major league baseball player as did most of my friends. I hustled and read and worked and played with as much joy and committment to my dream as anyone that I knew. After high school, it became painfully apparent that no matter how hard I tried, I could not compete with other guys who could do everything that I could better do only with less effort.

Although I wasn't an outstanding ballplayer, I was good with baseball cards. I loved the photography in each card. I loved the way that every card summed up the career of each player. I had a head start in photography because my Aunt Rose worked at Kodak camera works and always equipped me with the latest versions of Brownie cameras.

My biggest head start was in reading.

I can read with greater comprehension and speed than many others because it seems easy to me. I didn't recognize it as a particular gift because I figured that if I could do it, than anybody could do it. Yeah, I could read but I couldn't hit. When they gave us aptitude tests on reading comprehension, I always scored in the 99 percentile. When I was in first grade they sent me to read for the eighth graders. BFD. I wanted to play ball with them and beat them there in something that mattered.

Eventually, I sorted things out. I realized that being able to read with greater comprehension and speed than others can be a valuable asset in many fields, including academia, business, and personal development.

I am not motivated or interested in some of the most essential tasks of daily living. This is why I spent 55 years in an institution more favorable to my interests.

It took me a long time to realize that reading was in fact legitimate work and deserving of my time. To my wife and many others, I read too much and don't know shit about anything else. While I labored to maximize my natural ability, I appeared to be neglecting other areas which I have come to realize is true. Those folks who worked on those other areas, (mechanics, plumbing, gardening, cooking, home repair, and many many other areas including sports) while I was reading and writing  always seemed like geniuses to me.

I became an English teacher, a writer, a photographer and a reader. I recieved tenure after three years and permanent certification K-12 after five years. In my graduate work, I majored in Creative Writing while studying at grad schools stetching from Buffalo to Bozeman, Montana to California all during the summer.

After 11 years in the classroom, I began to feel stifled. I knew there was somethng else for me but I didn't know what. I had pretty good organizational vision and could spot a lot of vaccums in the education system.

With my interest in career development thanks to baseball cards, I received a professional growth fellowship from my school district. I used the fellowship to earn a Masters Degree in Career and Human Resource Development from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

It was at RIT that I became fascinated with aptitude and the theory of least effort.

Upon returning to my institution, I applied what I had learned about career development and wrote a grant. I found that writing the grant came easily to me.

My first grant was funded under the Career Education Act which aimed at linking school with life after school. The grant was for $250,000.

I left the classroom and started the process of bringing career information into curriculum through internships, guest speakers, in-service courses for teachers, individual career counseling, resume writing and everything else I could think of. In this process, my career was developing as well.

It all seemed so natural.

Everything was coming together.

I became very good at identifying the strengths of everybody with whom I came in contact. I loved and continue to love catching people doing something right and letting them know that I caught them

Eventually, I needed to return to the classroom. I had discovered in student teaching that instruction also was natural for me and I missed it. I love learning and when you teach you learn. I settled back into the classroom, writing the occasional grant, teaching twelfth grade and instituting a course in Cinematic Literacy.

I retired at the top of my game. In retirement I have had to face my lack of capability outside the institution.

It has required a lot of effort.

I'm still struggling and dreaming of the next miracle which I expect any minute now.

In the meantime, I read and write and snap.