Yesterday’s 4th period Sophomore prayer was one of meaning in the moment.

The assignment: create a prayer for your class centered around something that is unique about you, something that others in the class may not really know about you.

The student who had signed up for prayer yesterday came to see me a few days before as she was not sure how to proceed.  I had overheard that she was Greek, so I got her talking about her culture and about how to share her Greek culture with our class.  I asked if she knew Greek dance;  her face immediately lit up.  Together we decided that she should teach a bit of Greek dance to our class during prayer.

She was in her element.  The other girls certainly enjoyed a happy time together.  And I thought about how we are in the Sixth Mass Extinction, thought about Stephen Hawking telling us this past summer that humans have about one hundred years left on planet earth.  I thought about the hate and violence displayed recently in Charlottesville.  No doubt, these are very serious matters.  But, happiness is a serious matter, too.  And I thought about how happy I am to be teaching in the Department in which I teach, with the adults and students I encounter each day, with the emphasis on meaning in the moment.  Not the past, not the future, but the moment.  Opa!