If you can't change your situation

It may sound odd, but I often think of my high school Spanish teacher. Not because I can habla some espanol. (Now don't get me wrong- he was a terrific teacher, but there was more to him than that.) He was deeply committed to making sure that his students fully appreciated their education. Nothing made him more furious than the many kids who were sour and disrespectful. It aggravated him that there were so many students who were squandering the opportunities that they had given (being raised in a well-to-do suburban community).

Unfortunately, he was doomed to continue to encounter them; our school had a language requirement, and so year after year his classroom was filled with students who were completely disinterested in learning what he was so passionate about! And so, as a response, he posted a sign in his classroom- the only thing written in English- which read "If you can't change your situation, you must change your attitude toward it."

I think of that phrase often as I "roll in the waves" of my life. (That's also stolen phrase- from another teacher- my college 18th century lit professor who told us that we needed to "Roll in the waves of Tristram Shandy"- but that's another blog entry.) Anyhow, those students who came into his class, bitter and unwilling, were faced everyday with that truism. And although it wasn't directed at me in that particular situation, I find it to be helpful here in the basket.