Choosing

"When my friend Matilda lay dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, she said that she had been prepared all of her life to choose between good and evil. What no one had prepared her for, she lamented, was to choose between the good, the better and the best -- and yet this capacity turned out to be the one she most needed as she watched the sands of her life run out." Barbara Brown Taylor, p. 46, Leaving Church, A memoir of faith.

"Good is the enemy of GREAT" – according to Jim Collins.

Many (most?) of my choices seem to be made by default. I resist being responsible for my own circumstances, often preferring to be able to blame someone else for the predicament I'm in.

Leaving Church details Taylor's move away from preaching at a small town church to teaching at a nearby college. I'm jealous. The Georgia property she describes sounds beautiful (my ancestors once lived in Habersham County, GA). And I enjoyed teaching at the college level.

Pun-dering Teachers, Good and Bad.

Miriam Cohen's book, No Good in Art, celebrates good teachers. But it opens with a discouraging one, Jim's kindergarten art teacher, who was quick to criticize. Without her help Jim may never have known that his grass was too thick or that his people had no necks. By drawing her own images on Jim's paper our instructor instantly taught Jim that he was "no good in art." In contrast, the encourager who taught Jim's first grade class helped convince him that he might indeed, become an artist.

The system is filled with both kinds.

First graders aren't expected to have the maturity to handle authorities who squelch. But adults don't seem to be any better at handling such mistreatment.