Woody's World meets Walden Workshops

My old friend Laura recently left Tally town to go to one of my old haunts, Charlottesville, Va. I have many memories of C'ville, most pleasant and some painful. It is a wonderful town filled with interesting people and places and Laura will fit right in. In some ways it is like Tallahassee: somewhat rural; major university; good community college; good medical care.

Laura and I met at my university and cemented the relationship on an extended field trip to Nicaragua. She came of age, I think, in those days during and following the trip and blossomed into full glory. During the last few years we hardly bumped into each other, keeping track lately on Facebook.

Laura wrote this in her blog: "For me, it's really a balance of three worlds: my internal world, my external world, and the cyber world. There's a lot of traveling to do in one day."

For most of us that really sums things up. Balancing these three aspects can be a challenge and getting it wrong will not be a pretty sight to behold. Before I retired I was pretty well balanced but for awhile afterword things were pretty wobbly. My external world changed radically and that prompted a change in all things internal. The third world, cyber, has been part of my trinity for some time, but took on a new reality and urgency.

After 2 years balance has been mostly restored with OK internal, external a work in progress and cyber going back to a means rather than an end. I found writing again after years of talking and that is a joy. I found memories again after years of immediacy being at the front of the line.

Too often we think of the teacher as giving and the student as taking. For the right people both grow from the interaction and both learn. Would that it were always so.

Teachers are voyeurs, watching from the sidelines as our students move into life, sometimes wishing we could be there with them to feel the joy of success or the pain of failure. But we can't and so watch and thrill for them and hurt for them and laugh for them and cry for them. And mostly they don't know.

It's rare to see the actualization from beginning to, no, not end, to maturity. Thanks Laura for that. I am proud of you and the path you chose and the way you walk it. And while I can, I will keep watching.

A final note here: Sally has been in on Laura's trek from the beginning with me. This is my writing and my thoughts but I know her mind pretty well and we have talked about Laura from time to time. So these thoughts, I think, reflect hers as well as mind. So from Sally a good English "Well Done".
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