Coming Up For Air

As summer approaches, there is much to look forward to. There is also a little to temporarily miss in the calendar's turning. Our church's Wednesday night supper runs with the school year . This means that, for a few months, we will miss out on the serendipitous and instructive mixing and remixing that this gathering provides. Sometimes the same faces can present new lessons. In January, my wife and I approached a table to sit with a father and son we did not know. The son, about 10, responded to the approach of my wheelchair by moving a chair out of my way. His dad complimented him out loud on this gracious gesture. He beamed. Fresh from this specific affirmation, the boy responded instantly when his father asked him to move something on the table out of my wife's way. Adult to adult, I went about my usual combination of introduction, interview, and maybe interrogation in order to find out all I could about what the father did for a living. His son tuned in even more in...

Television convention suggests playing cards may be more durable than I thought. The English upper classes of Downton Abbey are trying to hold on to nineteenth century formality, but the writers' introduction of a game of poker lightens the mood. Much of the world with which the ad hoc command of the 4077 on M*A*S*H is familiar may have been left stateside when they were shipped to Korea, but poker offers a reminder of home, and an environment where a corporal without a high school diploma can outsmart a captain with an M.D. When writers want to convey camaraderie extending into the rarefied environment of The West Wing , the playing cards come out along with the trivia questions. Even after centuries of hypothetical progress in pragmatism in the Star Trek universe, the senior officers in Star Trek: The Next Generation find that cards provide a safe space. Insight into the value of a usually serious community at play is much older than the television which borrows its conventions...

It's graduation season. Graduates are about to launch into new environments. They are being exhorted to enter into their next chapter ready to serve, ready to learn from others different than themselves. What they may not realize is college staff are undergoing the same re-acclamation on graduation day, only in a compressed time frame Many of us have left our familiar field, familiar coworkers, familiar habitat for the college-wide remixing that is necessary to support commencement. Such a reshuffle is the reason I got to know Missy from our cosmetology department. Even on such an inspiring day, gentle cynicism is always a safe language to bridge the distances between us. We all have stories of defending the student against the system or defending the necessities of the system against those who unreasonably resist. I warmed up the new huddle with a tale of a parent whose teenage daughter was certain of her lifetime commitment to cosmetology. The parent spent more time arguing ag...

Chris is a firefighter's firefighter.  He is passionate about the equipment. He is passionate about the people he gets to help. He is passionate about the honor of a career in the fire service. He is passionate enough to attend a training to sharpen his skills on his vacation time. When a college kid at the same training referred to firefighting as a hobby, Chris was not passionate in affirming that kind of divided enthusiasm. Would he have my back, Chris questioned? Would he rescue someone on the second floor if doing so involved in some personal risk?   Chris didn't have a chance to ask these questions or confront this attitude during the brief training. Perhaps someone else in a more long-standing relationship with this kid will have the opportunity fo model professionalism and to extend it to confrontation where necessary. If not, the progression is predictable, and extends far beyond firefighting. Observing a similarly nonchalant attitude in a young pitcher, Micha...