Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?
Kurt Vonnegut
I am not bound and gagged. I still probably have something to say. There is another state of being that Kurt Vonnegut may never have suffered—-so many thoughts and ideas swirling –chaos not falling into order. If there is a deadline, this is a pitiable state.
Tonight my mind is full of possibilities and inspiration. I heard writers reading and talking about their work, little stories of greatness in schools still occurring and a review of a first book written by a man in his 80’s, Death by Pastrami by Leonard S. Bernstein.
I thought about the student teachers I will work with tomorrow. Many times, they are full of so many ideas for what to do yet they don’t yet have the structure and experience to organize their ideas into a coherent instructional plan. We help them with organizers for planning, a chance to talk things through with sequential questions to lead to order, a step back from grand plans to what is most essential.
For me as a writer and a teacher, I want to sometimes let the ideas swirl rather than try to force them into order prematurely. Lying my head on a pillow at night with ideas for teaching and writing drifting through my head is a sweet way to end a day–unless, I fall prey to anxiety. Where is my coherent plan? How will I make anything work? Patience is a virtue that I would like to bring back into vogue. Then we might also trust in a process to get us to our desired outcomes if we stick with it.