Well, this is the time of year that teachers show up for their end-of-the-school-year tune-up. And I must say I am impressed. When you think about it, teachers have to control and perform all day for an unruly, immature crowd prone to heckling. Talk about performance anxiety and fatigue.
One of my teachers has got the Zen. He has figured out how to live on the teacher salary (!) without taking a summer job. He spends these next few months surfing. I’m really just in charge of his surfing tune-ups.
But another client might be more typical. She’s got head/neck pain radiating from a career spent speaking with her scalenes. Picture her holding the book in front of her, wondering why she gets all the FCA’s in her class (Future Criminals of America) and working on a daily massive thoracic/trapezius headache. Breaking into that pattern just might be my life’s work.
Come to think of it, most of the teachers I see are prime sources of forced inspiration. They may suddenly have to shift from their lecture voice to their damage control scream.
Gripping the book, they try to convey meaning, control other people’s actions with their minds, and remain hyper-vigilant to sudden fits of fighting, narcolepsy and vomiting. It takes a steady hand to do all this and use the diaphragm to breathe, gently massaging the organs and feeling the warmth of the earth’s renewable energy. I’m surprised schools feature faculty lunchrooms instead of emergency massage clinics. Or elephant-gun doses of anti-anxiety medications, such as scotch.
In the big picture, I must say, it is hats-off day to those people, zen or un-zen who can deal with all the “little” people. They are much mightier than I.
