Saturday, February 9, 2008

Simplicity

As I crawl through Foster's Celebration of Discipline I'm thinking about simplicity. Yesterday I was substitute teaching sixth grade students and had the chance to think about driving at or under the speed limit.
I didn't tell them my first reason - it's a spiritual excercise to combat two of my character defects. When I obey the law I am letting go of being defiant and arrogant. I do NOT know better than the law makers and I comply with what they would have me do. I didn't tell the kids this because it's personal and more than that, complicated.
My second reason is that it saves petroleum. My mileage is quite good. It was 40 mpg last time I took a long trip. I'd like to do my bit to conserve non-renewable resources and to give my country a little less reason to rationalize war. This I discussed with the kids. I showed them the math.
Another thing that came up with the kids was to respond to "it gets us there faster" with "WHY?" I'd like to bring up the question because it seems we all hurry without any reason.
I found myself doing an Eddie Izzard mime of driving along with the wind in my hair. The kids were in stitches (and I'm pretty sure they've never seen Eddie Izzard.) They probably think I'm just loony. I like to think they think I'm cool. It's possible they just think I'm foolish, but as long as I act like I think they think I'm cool, they suspect I may really be cool.

1 comment:

Christopher said...

Eddie Izzard!?!?!

Wow, you are cool :)

Now on that "I Can't Drive 55" battle... that's so funny, because I was just thinking the same thing myself a few days ago, concerning my "Need for Speed". ;)

Grace and peace be with you, Cathy.