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How to Insult Your Pastor

I guess how I became a member of St. Paul Lutheran Church in the heart of San Antonio needs mention as it is indeed relevant to why decades later I’m still in association. I won’t mention my previous church, mostly due to the good people I knew there who were, unfortunately, unable to alter its mission which was, for far too many, to simply attend a Sunday service and then go home thinking they were safe in the knowledge God was on their side, the rest of the wider world not really important.

To go a bit deeper, the congregation was known to higher church authorities as one with lots of problems, so many that when our long suffering pastor, who also saw what I just described, finally retired, we could not attract another as the word was out we were best avoided if a successful church mission was desired. Finally, Synod recommend we consider a lay minister and that’s how I came to know John Castor, a truck driver by trade and as good of a Christian as I’ve ever known. Continue reading “How to Insult Your Pastor”

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A Democrat’s Praise for Republicans

I’m not sure how many of you caught this, but Mitch McConnell took a stand yesterday I hope indicates sanity could begin to prevail in Washington. The fact that I’m praising this man surprises me as I fervently abhor his politics in general, but I think we need to separate character from political opinions, and Mitch just showed a lot of character. He also knows his words could do him much political damage with voters he needs for support, but spoke the truth even when it could and probably will hurt him. He did this because he obviously took our country’s welfare over his own, the true mark of a leader deserving respect, something we’ve had darn little of the past four years in American politics. In reference to Trump darling, the newly elected congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mitch said the following:

“Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality,” He called Greene as he saw her “looney.” Continue reading “A Democrat’s Praise for Republicans”

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Woody and the Wrestler

As we approach Thanksgiving in a year often offering more grief than joy, we can still all find things to be thankful for; one for me was the opportunity to play in the CCS band, especially when it was under the direction of Harwood Strobeck. Adult friends called Mr. Strobeck Woody, but kids didn’t, unless they wanted to make a normally easy going man mad, something I saw once during a drum lesson, and no, this time I wasn’t the one who crossed the line, but did witness the consequences.

I wonder how many people realize how difficult and time consuming it is to be a high school band director. In terms of required skills and effort, I can’t think of a more challenging position in any school situation. Instruction across the huge musical spectrum is a daunting task alone, and interacting with teenagers prone to all sorts of nonsense without alienating them creates a most trying job along an often emotional high wire. And believe me, Mr. Strobeck had more than a handful of volatile teen musicians to keep in line as he taught skills that went far beyond music. Continue reading “Woody and the Wrestler”

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Pedagogical Purgatory

The room’s vague perimeter swirled in mists of gray and green enclosing countless classroom desks that apparently survived WWII, but just barely. Not seeing any other interesting distinctions, I traced a finger over names carved along with other messages into the deeply scarred desktop before me. Some inscriptions were clear, brazen, and creatively vulgar, others only faint etchings, small cries for attention. “I donated my brain to science” and “There is no gravity-school sucks” competed with many more, racing up, down, over each other, sometimes shrinking as they reached the edges, or just stopping abruptly for reasons I didn’t know.

After a while, I grew increasingly pensive reading epitaphs and instead earnestly scanned the room again. Above to my right, covered in dust and hovering without visible support, a clock floated over a small speaker. The round white and black clock clicked softly but failed to advance, except for the moving secondhand that didn’t advance the minute and hour hands. I took it to be a taunting decoy circling around for some unknown advantage.

I stood up then but almost fell when challenged. Continue reading “Pedagogical Purgatory”

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White on Black: RIP James Charles

Just this past month America lost a great man who wasn’t famous nationally although I know locally he was well known and highly respected. I share his memory now with a wider audience because he epitomized what great leadership is all about. I think, especially during these troubling times, it’s important to know we do indeed have people who can lead us to better ways. James Charles, who died May 20 after a long career serving others, was one of them.

Mr. Charles was my principal for two years during one of the most difficult times of my life and enormously influential in shaping my vision of the world around me. Mr. Charles didn’t just teach me about how a school should be directed and improved, he taught me how to be a better man, and did so mostly by example. Continue reading “White on Black: RIP James Charles”

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Little Richard Cures Covid-19

So I’m pushing a cart in Walmart while wearing a mask made out of a blue shop towel and two red rubber bands. Had I added a splash of white I’d have been downright patriotic. I feel like I’m on some sort of dangerous safari, surrounded by masked men and women with fear in their eyes, at least the smarter ones look this way. The usual clueless boobs who seem to live in Walmarts all across America are here as well, oblivious as always. It’s about at this juncture it suddenly occurs to me I’m actually enjoying the fear factor some.

Yeah, I know I’m weird, as off kilter as the 350-pound woman who almost runs me over with a motorized cart apparently reserved for the morbidly obese. Usually, I hate to be inside of Walmart and left this odious chore to Mary, but these are unusual times and a person with a compromised immune system has no business being here. Me? Just another masked man looking for toilet paper.

I just read bandits now take advantage of the mask thing. When this all started I told Mary it would be a great time to rob a bank, and she just shook her head and made the usual expression she has for me when I say something dumb, which I do many times a day, but some of it’s funny, so she puts up with it, or at at least she has for the past 40 years, a pretty good run for a guy like me. Continue reading “Little Richard Cures Covid-19”

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Understanding COVID-19 and Why it’s Such a Big Deal

By now, we have all read ad nauseam about the novel strain of coronavirus that has changed our lives forever, SARS-CoV-2. This is the name of the virus while COVID-19 refers to the illness or disease caused by the virus. Y’all probably know that too. But you have probably wondered why we are treating this virus so different from influenza. After all, we have never shut down entire cities of businesses, schools and workplaces over the flu. Fundamentally, all viruses work the same way to make us sick; they use our own healthy cells, invade them and use the cell’s resources to reproduce hundreds more viruses. As more and more of our healthy cells are taken over, our bodies start to feel the distress. A major difference is influenza viruses replicate in our upper respiratory tract, while SARS-CoV-2 replicates in our lower respiratory tract. Continue reading “Understanding COVID-19 and Why it’s Such a Big Deal”

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April Fools in the Face of Danger

Just read another excellent column by Theresa Vargas who writes for the Washington Post. She reflected on the virus fear that surrounds us all, its actual and potential impact on her family, and the fact that she has yet to write a will. I know Theresa well because I was blessed to have her as a student, and not at all surprised she was more concerned for others today, a selflessness I much appreciated when she was an effervescent teenager out to save the world. As far as her heart goes, she obviously hasn’t changed a bit, and has grown into an adult worthy of emulation. Even during dark times like this I know America has a bright future because we have people like Theresa in it who will see us through to the other side.

The biggest problem I had with Theresa when we spent much time together in the 90s was remembering she was still an adolescent and not a colleague. She was far from the only student who provided this difficulty. Through chance and just good fortune, I found myself surrounded by a group of teenagers at Highlands High School who were so bright, introspective and caring I’d often forget myself and speak unguardedly as I would to an adult. I did this because these young people were so often far superior in every way from many of us (me, for one) and able to understand and reason on levels I still find amazing. Continue reading “April Fools in the Face of Danger”

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Economics and Morality on the Bayou

By the end of my second teaching year, I’d gone from being the biggest boob on campus to one most popular with students and peers. I found my rapid rise in status enjoyable, but illusory as far as being a skilled teacher went, and I was absolutely clueless about this, and many other things as well. Much of my popularity stemmed from my use of a token economy.

Great teacher or not, one of the biggest relationship changes brought about by my first classroom success was with supervisors. After my first principal retired, Assistant Principal Danny Smith became principal and asked me if I’d be interested in developing a token program for school-wide application. Flattered and excited, I went to work almost immediately. Continue reading “Economics and Morality on the Bayou”

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Right by the Throat Education

Maybe my misjudgment is off, but in reviewing physical contact with teachers, no action I experienced as a student was uncalled for, and all amounted to what a former Louisiana principal often said when disciplining a wayward student. “When you’re dumb, you pay” he’d explain before passing sentence, an axiom I find almost universal, except in politics.

While watching a shaky cell phone video on a TV news program, one supposedly showing a teacher’s inappropriate physical action I thought perfectly justified under the circumstances, it occurred to me that I’d been grabbed by the throat three different times by three different CCS teachers. Each one had more than ample justification. I don’t know if this is a record, but I’ll establish a baseline anyway just for future reference and welcome comparisons. Most seriously now and much more important, all of the following incidents imparted critically important lessons quickly and permanently for free, a real bargain any way I look at it today. Continue reading “Right by the Throat Education”