Postcards from the Funny Farm

Official figures have been demystified for me through the years . . .

When I was a kid, even on up into my 20’s, I would feel very stoic in a doctor’s office thinking: “Wow, this is a place of authority.” I never imagined the doctors, or even the people behind the counter, as just slobs like me going through life often times with two different socks on and such. I say that because there was one particular time when I was between jobs and going through what might be described as a quarter life crisis when I went to see a psychologist. She was very intimidating until that one day I looked at her socks and saw that she had one beige and one black sock on. It would be the beginning of a powerful realization that there truly is no authority here on Earth . . . just people.

I think the biggest wake up call on this issue for me was the process I went through of becoming a public school teacher. You enter a system that you believe is handed down by heaven and non-human in its perfection. Year after year dealing with parents and kids and the district (and even the state) you start to see that human beings make these rules . . . some are voted on, but MANY are instituted arbitrarily by people just like me and you.

Sitting in the back of the office eating my lunch today, I heard the secretaries talking and processing things. They made about 3 major decisions regarding students that I could hear while I ate my healthy asparagus, red pepper, garlic french bread pizza and drank my iced tea. I recalled the times as a youngster when I was in that doctor’s office feeling as if I was in the hands of perfect knowledge. I felt that way at school, around cops, any official place . . .

I guess I know now what might seem quite frightening to a child . . . which of course I am not anymore. When it comes to society, there are no absolute authorities . . . just people. In what I do, it brings a sort of fear . . . “Am I doing this right? Will I screw it up?” I don’t think teachers have that much effect on society as compared to doctors, but in some ways we do. That’s scary, exciting, and motivating at the same time. Part of truly growing up is realizing that “we” (all people not just teachers) are the world we live in, we make things go.