She was extremely discomfited by me, for I was known in our school district as the activist, the one who spoke out often against things that were not right. She would become very uncomfortable if anyone ever brought up issues that dealt with the darker side of life. I could not understand how a person who had lived for at least forty years could be so oblivious to any suffering or evil in life. Her enthusiasm seemed to me childish and at times tedious. The third person was a round, jolly kindergarten teacher who gushed emotionally and continually over the wonderfulness of life. I often wondered how he continued to live through his dreary days. I felt pity for this sad, lonely man who lived alone in a dark, cold house and who was barely noticed by his lively high school students (or anyone else for that matter). His life force was barely noticeable because he had early on given up on life and on people, and now in his fifties, he merely shuffled through his days. I had to strain to hear the few anemic words he would occasionally speak. I often wondered how her fifth-grade students fared with her.Īnother teacher was a quiet, timid man whose body, walk, face, and voice showed tiredness. Every time she opened that mouth to spit out words, I cringed inside, dreading her gloomy judgments on situations and on persons, and I most certainly could not laugh at her sharp, sarcastic dark humor. Her eyes were cold, and her mouth had a permanent snarl. In her younger years, I am sure that she had been a beautiful woman, but in her late fifties, her face had taken on her pessimism. From her perspective, her dreams never panned out and every person she had loved betrayed her. Her philosophy was that people were not to be trusted.
She made fun of everything and everyone, especially anything good and hopeful. One was a woman who was caustic and bitter. Their daily goals were simply to get through the day, unaware of events happening that were not in their immediate vicinity. None of them really felt a sense of responsibility or genuine connection to others, except possibly a superficial relationship with their students and with some acquaintances and family. None of them had any vision of the future, nor did they have a sense of history. They were not religious or spiritual people, and their values were strictly based on the materialism of the dominant culture. What they had in common though was their chronological age and their lack of faith in God. These three individuals were teachers, colleagues of mine, and they were very different from each other. There are three people I knew many years ago when I taught in the public schools who represent three different types of persons in the secular world.
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