I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


Comments Welcome!

Sunday, September 17, 2017

School has become people again


September 17, 1968  (I was 23)

         School has become people again, and once more
I have developed that blanket tickle that grips the top of my
stomach –a cancerous excitement.  The teacher orientation
week before the start of the school year is deflating to say
the least.  I arrived the first morning wanting to teach, but
after the first administrivia meeting I was ready to quit.
         The first day came and went and the clean little
animals had hardly littered the cages.  Their keepers had
scrubbed and polished until they all looked alike.
         But the second day, the second day they had changed.
They were no longer units or students or what have you.
They resembled (it always amazes me) me.  it was good to
see them alive, because I am a vampire –I need to suck out
their enthusiasm to keep alive.  They give it so willingly and
they have so much.
         I have remembered the absolute law of survival at
the zoo.  All keepers (in loco parentis) take heed:
         IGNORE THE CRAP
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