Coincidence or Serendipity

If You Were Born Today, December 13
You are a very versatile person with an adventurous spirit, yet a very grounded outlook. Material success is likely in your life time, as you are hard-working and proud. As well, you are filled with ideas, and they're usually quite marketable! A true problem solver, you love to find answers and help others to do so as well. 

In what could be a coincidence or serendipity, today is the birthday of two people who have had a big impact on my life.  Heidi was my roommate and friend, and Chuck was my cooperating teacher, principal, and friend.  I met both while in my mid-20’s, a turbulent time for me.  In different ways, they guided me, made me laugh, and offered their unconditional support.    

You just never know who you’re going to meet in the dorm.  I met Heidi through Cheryl, who lived on my floor in Ashton, formerly Rogers Centre, where my parents had met 40 years before.  Ashton consisted of multiple buildings, and I chose this dorm because I wanted a single room.  There were girls on my floor who had wanted a roommate, which seemed like the weirdest thing to me.  Why would you want to share your space? The irony is that Heidi became the only roommate I ever actually enjoyed living with, when we eventually shared two different apartments. During that time, she counseled me through an epic breakup and subsequent relationship with Nels, the man I eventually married. 

I didn’t drink coffee—that is, unless it had hot chocolate mix in it--until I lived with her.  Heidi taught me about the wisdom and joy (not to mention energy) that comes with the smell and taste of strong black coffee, preferably accompanied by fried eggs and hard rolls.  As a German, she also shaped my taste for chocolate.  I would bring home what I thought was a treat—a bag of Hershey Miniatures.  Heidi disdained this offering, and introduced me to chocolate as strong and dark as her coffee.  I am forever grateful, and dark chocolate is still my favorite.    

Along with being a great roommate, Heidi was the first poet I ever met.  She loved books as much as I did, but she was into poetry.  I never appreciated poetry until she introduced me to poets who showed how everyday events and people could become meaningful and beautiful through language.   Even though I only grudgingly went to poetry readings with her (she lured me with the promise of cookies afterward), she also convinced me to take a poetry writing class, where I wrote one good poem and a lot of bad ones.  Now I have two shelves of poetry books and have written several on my own, including a slam poem. 

Heidi also shared her poetry with me.  My favorite was “Women at 40” written for her mom, Ursula.  I’d like to see that poem again now that we are both in our early 40’s.  Heidi wrote this when we were in our 20’s, and 40 couldn’t have seemed any more distant. 

Heidi, thank you for being a terrific roommate and friend.  You were, and no doubt still are, exceedingly generous with your space, food, enthusiasm, and time. 

As I pair teacher candidates with cooperating teachers, I am always reminded of my own fortuitous meeting with Chuck Holloway, who was my cooperating teacher.  When I met him, Chuck was a rollicking 7^th grade teacher at Tri-North Middle School who had previously taught at an alternative school in Colorado.  His sidekick was Suzie McCloud, who taught math next door. They co-taught an English-Math block for the “at-risk” kids.  In the early 90’s, Janet Reno was in the news as the first woman to serve as Attorney General.  Chuck and Suzie, along with special education teacher Connee Headley, thought it was hilarious that I had the same first name as Janet Reno.  As a hazing ritual, they pasted my photo over Reno’s in a newspaper article and posted it all over the school.  The middle school kids didn’t get it, but the teachers thought it was hilarious.  Eventually, I did too. 

 A couple of years later, Chuck became the principal of the new alternative school and hired me as the lone English teacher, along with a math teacher, social studies teacher, and work-study coordinator.  The experience of starting a school—which eventually was named Aurora by the students—is one of the most important of my life.  I learned every single day on the job, and Chuck’s humor and guidance were essential to my personal and professional growth during this time.

The kids who came to Aurora were there because they did not fit into the regular high schools’ social or academic worlds.  Thus, they taught me not only how to teach English, but how to be an advocate.  In the early days especially, I screwed up more than I got right, but they, along with my colleagues and Chuck, put up with me and pushed me gently (and not so gently) to continue to get better. 

I am the teacher I am today because of what I learned from Chuck.  He taught me to appreciate kids as human beings first and students second.  He taught me that schools don’t have to be dictatorial, that students and teachers could have voice in impactful school proceedings, including the gut-wrenching decision to expel students.  He taught me that this kind of pedagogy may be hard, but it’s worth it. 

Chuck, thank you for being my first mentor.  I had no idea what meeting you on that August day 20 years ago would mean, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities you provided and your belief in me. 

Happy birthday to two of my favorite Hoosiers!  Much love to you both.        

Outlaw Country Visits Rhode Island

Steve Earle and Billy Joe Shaver are both grizzled singer songwriters who have influenced scores of performers.  We had the privilege of seeing them both, separately, last week.  Earle played at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, which takes up the third floor of an old warehouse overlooking the river with floor to ceiling windows, wood floors, and an art gallery.  The audience is encouraged to bring picnic baskets and coolers, creating a festive atmosphere.   Billy Joe Shaver was at the Channing Unitarian Church in Newport, built in the 1880’s.  The stone walls, handcrafted wood balustrades, and soaring, painted ceilings were evidence that this was meant to be a holy place, indeed.  Picnic baskets were not welcome here, of course, and the church was all sanctuary, such that if you wanted to go to the bathroom,  you had to go outside and be led to the separate church office via flashlight.   While the Earle show was packed and the Shaver show barely registered 100 people, the crowds were equally fervent.

I was struck by how these two performers were so similar and so different.  They both write from the heart but where Earle is intellectual and political, Billy is strictly a honky tonk guy.  They have both found their dharma in writing, singing and playing with clarity and honesty in a particular genre that has room for both of them. 

Romantic love was not the focus for either performer.  Instead, both talked about love of country, love of God, and love of drugs.  Earle is unabashedly and unrepentantly liberal.  On stage, he said, “Obama is not a socialist. I’m a socialist.”  Because of this statement, conservatives might paint him as unpatriotic, but his point is this:  the promise of the United States is that everyone will have equal opportunity.  Earle’s critiques of the system (and he has many, including the death penalty) does not mean he is against the United States; he just feels we are not living up to the promise of equality and freedom for everyone.

Billy Joe Shaver represents old-school patriotism, claiming in the song “Good Ol’ USA” that he has been around the world, and, pointing vehemently to the ground, the United States is the best place in it.  He didn’t talk about the recent election, like Earle did.  Instead, his loyalty to the U.S., specifically, Texas, was just as unabashed and unrepentant as Earle’s commitment to social justice.   Shaver took care not to alienate anyone in the audience (at least on a patriotic level), unlike Earle.

Both singer songwriters also talked about religion in ways that matched their stance on patriotism.  While Earle didn’t sing the song “God is God” (I believe in God/and God is God) he talked about how the death penalty was a violation of the Ten Commandments.  Because he is a citizen of this country, where the death penalty is legal in many states, he feels that he is implicated.  Therefore he speaks out, in songs, (“Billy Austin” and “Ellis Unit One”) and in outreach to prisoners on death row.  Whatever you want to say about Steve Earle, he follows through on his beliefs. 

Shaver, once again, took a more direct approach.  He said that Jesus was his hero, and thanked God for giving him the gift of songwriting.   Some of his songs have specific mentions of God, and he clearly acknowledged that he was singing in a church.  Both performers have experienced and enjoyed the dark side and told those tales in their music, yet their spirituality was also apparent.  Earle’s approach was finely tuned, whereas for Shaver it’s just not that complicated. 

Going along with the joy of spirituality and surrender to a Divine spirit is what Jung calls the “shadow” side.  Both performers have songs about hell-raising (Earle, “The Week of Living Dangerously” and “Copperhead Road” and Shaver, “Tramp on Your Street” and “The Hottest Thing in Town”) and are not ashamed to talk about it or write about it.  Even as some of their earlier work celebrates a hedonistic lifestyle, and they still sing those songs, they acknowledge the dangers, especially of heroin.  On stage, Earle talked about the powerful force of his own addiction.  He noted that his family members and friends were pretty sure he would die an addict, as was he.  He then launched into “South Nashville Blues” with the lyric “I went downtown just to ease my pain/I took my pistol and a hundred dollar bill/I had everything I needed to get me killed.”

Earle lost years off of his life that he will never get back.  Shaver lost his son Eddy, who played guitar for several famous groups and had also been in Shaver’s band.  In one of the few sobering moments of the show, Shaver dedicated a song to all the people who had either experienced addiction or knew someone who had.  He sang a shaky a capella song while the guys in his band turned around and removed their cowboy hats.  Shaver’s sincerity and sense of loss were as touching as Earle’s matter-of-factness was transfixing.   

Steve Earle is 57 and Billy Joe Shaver is 73.  For both, writing and performing is salvation.  Where Earle is serious and nuanced, Shaver is joyful and straightforward.  Where Earle is troubled, Shaver is delighted.  Both have clearly found their dharma, or their calling, and it was a privilege to see them in action last week.  Their songwriting and performing are exemplars of what the arts can tell us about the human condition, and thus so much more than an evening’s entertainment.