letters to my class

Dear Geographers,

I suppose you don’t have to know your 50 states to live a full life in America. But I think it helps. Because you’ll find if you start memorizing facts about states, you’ll start to get a feel for them. They won’t just be random shapes on a map. They’ll mean something to you.

If you know your 50 states, a lot of things will make more sense. That red and blue map on election night, why certain football teams play each other more often, what people do in different places, how they talk, and what they believe. 

All of these things are rooted in place. So if we know the places, it’s like a key to unlock knowledge about all that happens there. 

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

One thing I often have to tell you is don’t use too much Scotch tape. Right now I can hear the ugly screech of tape rapidly unspooling and it makes me shiver. 

Because if you take off a big piece of cellophane tape, it’s just gonna get wrapped up around itself and turn into a useless, unsticky ball. It’s better to take it one small piece at a time. 

Life is the same way. You have a lifetime full of hirings and firings, meets ups and breakups, diagnoses and all clears, windfalls and bad beats ahead of you. And the only way to live through them—to tape them together onto the construction paper that is your life—is one small piece at a time.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Skywatchers,

On Saturday there will be an annular solar eclipse. Annular means ring-shaped. So our Moon will appear slightly smaller than the sun and block it out except for a fiery ring. (Remember: don’t look directly at the sun!)

Before humans could explain what caused eclipses, we gave some pretty wild explanations for them: omens, angry gods, and end times. But now we can explain and predict exactly how, when, and where they will occur.

But I don’t think this has made them any less spectacular. Rather, I think our human powers of explanation, based on millennia of observations and shared meaning making, make the world even more beautiful and more awesome. And maybe even a little more mysterious.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

I was getting low on body wash, so I bought a new bottle a couple weeks ago. And I’ve been excited to use it. Which sounds strange. But when you get older, you start to appreciate the little things like the first squirt of a new bottle of body wash.

And though I’d really like to give that new bottle a prodigious squeeze, I’m using every last drop of the old bottle. And that old bottle seems to be endless. It just keeps giving and giving.

And I think maybe it’s the universe sending me a message (in a bottle): endings are pretty good, too. And they should be cherished just as much as the new beginnings they give way to.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Reckoners,

Knowing about fractions equips us for better living. Because it makes us ask that simple question, “What is the denominator?”

When something bad happens, that’s the numerator. But knowing about fractions allows us to ask that simple and important question, “What’s the denominator?” Meaning, how many times did that bad thing NOT happen.

Now, if you’re in the numerator of bad things happening, a larger denominator doesn’t really make you feel any better. The bad thing still happened.

But one of the worst things that can happen to us is believing the lie that we live in a world where mostly bad things happen. Remembering the denominator keeps us grounded in reality.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

You may have a pantry full of food to protect against hunger. Maybe someday you’ll have a nice little nest egg that makes you look fearlessly towards the future. Or an extra car, so you’re never stranded for long. Or a house that’s paid off and fully yours.

But no matter what you have, someday you’ll find that it’s not enough. It might provide security and protection, but it doesn’t provide what we really need—meaning. For that, the only resource is other people.

Because the food you receive from others will always taste sweeter. And the food you give away will satisfy a deeper hunger.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

I have a poster of the Timeline of Human History. It includes all the empires and dynasties throughout human civilization. Stretching all the way back to the first days of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent to the rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. 

And it’s just a series of lines. Some are longer than others. Some are fatter. But all of those lines either stop or merge into a different line.

When you’re in one of those lines, you think it’s the most important line. The one that all the other lines have been leading up to. But it’s not. It’s just another line. And the people in it are just more people—oblivious to the line that future historians will draw around our lives.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Habit Breakers,

I’ve been a fingernail biter my whole life. But I’ve recently tried to stop. Because people can change.

But it’s not easy. Because I am really good at biting my nails. I can get them exactly how I want with my mastication manicure. 

And clipping my nails is a lot more challenging. First off, I can never find the clippers. And then I struggle to clip my dominant hand with my non-dominant. It takes practice. 

And that’s the truth about habits. We can’t really break them. We can only replace them with others. And it’s hard to replace something you’re good at with something you’re not. You can only do it one day at a time.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Today at 12:22, our phone box will go crazy. The government is sending an emergency alert system. It is a test; it is only a test. But you all have been in a tizzy about this event. I blame the TikTok machine. 

The powerful technologies in our pockets are possible because they’re connected. That’s really what science is—humans connecting in organized ways to share information and debate ideas. And because of it, we’re more tightly connected than ever.

But humans are tribal creatures, tied to specific places. And our technologies and connections make us feel strange. So we make up spectacular stories to make us feel better. But it’s important to remember that these stories are just stories. 

And yes, we’ll still have school tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Thinkers,

I think great thoughts in the shower. Big, earth shaking and insightful thoughts. I’ve never lost an argument in the shower because my ideas are so good.

And then you dry off and go into the real world with your shower thoughts and they are quickly challenged, debunked, and proved much weaker than we thought. Because other people have their own shower thoughts, too. And they do battle against our own.

Our purpose as humans should be to have good ideas about the world. Ideas that reflect truth and beauty. And the only way to make our ideas better is to have them challenged by other people’s ideas. To step out of the shower and put our ideas into the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt