March 19, 2010
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The Daily News1 So...Fess Parker walks into a bar...2 Most famous for his role of Davy Crockett, back in the day.
3 Was I a fan?
4 Dude.
5 That's all I have to say.
6 As a kid, I DID wear the proverbial coonskin cap, but really.
7 Someday I'll explain it all.
8 Anyway, another one bites the dust...
9 Moving on, Part the First: Yesterday I began a day that LOOKED like a day from Hell, from the git go.
10 I generally write the DN at night, but yesterday I got attacked in the morning.
11 I stepped into the shower, and saw that one of those shower suction shelves that we all take a gamble on had fallen, and all the shampoo and other shower items were all over the place.
12 Pretty normal, of course.
13 Sidebar number 1: Most anybody who knows me well knows that I LOVE Pert shampoo.
14 Go ahead, beotches, laugh.
15 Truth is, I always loved the name "Pert" because it is so delicate and fragile as am I.
16 AnywayZ...
17 I left the suction shelf to the designers.
18 Dude.
19 All you DO is make shower suction shelves. Do you THINK you might make one that actually works?
20 That being said, I was happy to see when I looked down that my bottle of Pert was sitting solidly on the ledge of the shower, you know how it does.
21 I turned on the shower, my favorite moment of most every day, when I glanced down and saw it shimmy and engage, slowly shuddering and slipping toward the edge of the tub, and the slippery edge. It was definitely targeting my right foot. I stared in horror, lifted it up, replaced it, and it began again...
22 We've all had this happen.
23 At the last moment, I pulled my big ol' WIDE foot out of the way, and the the full bottle of Pert fell with a loud, heavy clunk just to the right of my large toe. Up in the heavens, Venus and Mars rattled their jewelry.
24 Fortunately for me, I had the instincts of Hermes, and danced a swift pirouette away and out of danger.
25 I'm convinced this day that my nimble instincts saved me from suffering a crushed large toe, and was the exact escape I needed to draw all my power to move to a larger destiny.
26 Still...
27 AnywayZ...
28 I lived to move through an awesome day.
29 I won't bother you with all the details, but much of it involved not only teaching, but raising money for this wonderful cause called the Genocide Intervention Network.
30 I won't bore you with the details, but the bottom line was it was a fundraiser to help countries experiencing genocide, and I was invited to play guitar with a swiftly assembled band consisting of three teachers and two students at a lunch assembly that engaged many teachers and students.
31 We simply told our students that we were going to ask them for donations if we would publicly do something fun, or musical, or anything else that would encourage them to contribute money.
32 I had NO idea whether the guys I practiced with were together or not. It was one of those last-minute things.
33 To make a long story short, we went out at lunch, and found that we were the opening act!
34 We wound up bringing a buncha instruments down to the quad, and playing some hardcore rock.
35 I threw all the equipment on the TOOOOOONDRA, and unloaded drum kits, electric guitars, amps, mics, and all the rest. In all honesty, there was a lot of electricity in the air. The ravens gathered on the library rooftop to watch.
36 We had to hustle fast, and got all the equipment up on the stage, and before I knew it, the student in charge turned to me and said, "We're opening with The Wall.."
37 I strapped on Annabel, my beautiful Yamaha acoustic, and next thing I knew, the entire school came down, and we got pumped!
38 WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION, and the festivities began!
39 WE DON'T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL...
40 Three teachers and two students in a band, and it suddenly the whole school had gathered. We rocked the place, and soon, the a good portion of the entire school had come down to watch! Administrators told me later that their job was much easier, because kids weren't trying to ditch school, or cause fights.
41 I looked at the band, and somehow, miraculously, we did it! And what a perfect song to start off the festivities! Education is becoming a huge Wall, and the dooming of the kids who have the most to lose was clear, at least to me. The elimination of tremendously important staff was clear to me. What those staff members mean to kids was clear to me, and clear to everybody.
42 It might have been a small message to the masses, but to those of us in education, it made perfect sense.
43 All in all it's just another brick in the wall. THREE teachers and two students, and it worked.
44 Added to this were eating contests, and a wonderful spoof of Lady Gaga and Beyonce that kicked OUR butts and nailed the whole day! GREAT fun in the noontime sun!
45 By the end of the day, I was pretty jazzed. I had also sung Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon to all my classes, and they responded with still more money for the cause.
46 I don't mean to be overly zealous, but honestly? It turned my entire world upside down, and electrified all of us as we have all often done over the years.
47 GREAT day, and wonderful cause.
48 I could go on that later, Venus and Mars lined up, and a Cheshire Moon smiled down on me last night.
49 And my large toe made it through the day unscathed. Perhaps that was the best part.
50 You all have a wonderful weekend.
51 Peace.
~H~
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