On Teaching: "That the Blind Could See"

“...the multitude wondered, when they saw...that the blind could see.” -- Matthew 15: 31

During my spiritual reading this morning, it suddenly came to me how absolutely lucky I am to be alive in this universe, and – even more – to be a teacher of 42 teenagers. The reality of it really hit me hard, as if I had been blind all these years, and now this morning, quite abruptly, I could see. I felt like a man who had been living in a palace surrounded by untold riches, but he had never actually seen his true situation. Like a person who has been suddenly cured, I felt like walking and leaping and praising God. I guess you could say “I saw the light” this morning. I saw that I am alive in a universe that is just what its name suggests -- one (from the Latin “uni”). I realized that I am part of a reality that is a single all-powerful and harmonious force, in which everything that happens is peaceful and perfect. I saw that all the power in the universe exists in the present moment, and that this power is always healthful and fulfilling. This led me to think about my great good fortune to be a middle school teacher. Somehow, by some miracle, I find myself working in a classroom with 42 wonderful, infinitely blessed young people. For some reason that I am unable to understand, the universe, in its infinite spinnings and turnings, dropped me down in Room 2 at Pine Point School, and it may as well have dropped me into paradise itself.

I almost had to rub my eyes this morning, hardly able to believe the truths I was seeing.