letters to my class

Dear Humans,

I bought a new shirt last weekend and it came with a tiny baggie with two extra buttons. I’m sure I’ve never used the extra buttons that come with a new shirt because by the time a button falls off, I’ve misplaced the extras and just find the closest approximation from the button jar. Or I get rid of the shirt. 

But I think I’d still be a little mad if I bought a new shirt and it didn’t come with that little baggie of extra buttons.

We don’t only do things in life because they’re useful or necessary. Sometimes we do them because we think they ought to be done. We can’t control if other people use it or ignore it; we can only keep providing those little baggies of extra buttons.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

When people are learning to play the guitar, they complain about their fingers hurting. The steel strings really cut them raw. And the only way to make your fingers strong is to keep on playing. 

When people are learning to play the guitar, the people they live with complain about all the racket. Because there is nothing worse than hearing someone mess up the opening riff of “Smoke on the Water” over and over and over. 

A lot of people give up at this point. Because their fingers hurt and their families hate them. But if you want to become a good guitar player, you have to keep going.

Because the only way to be good at something is to get through the being bad part.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

When you left this morning, your family might have told you to work hard and do your best because education will give you a good life. 

And it’s true. If you graduate from high school and continue your education beyond high school, you will probably make more money, live longer, and be healthier and happier.

But it’s really hard to do all of that by yourself. So life surrounds us with groups of people to support us. Our family is one of the most important ones. But our classmates are important too.

So yes, do your best, pay attention, and work hard every day to accomplish your goals. But also remember to help out your classmates. Because each of our futures will be partially determined by what all of us do.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Last weekend my neighbors were happily planting petunias in the ground. In shorts and tank tops while the birds sang and the dirt got under their fingernails.

Last night my neighbors were furiously covering their petunias. Desperately draping blue tarps to protect them from the oncoming late May snow storm. 

We should be thoughtful about the things we can control. It’s good to have a plan. Most years in Colorado, it’s fine to put things in the ground after Mother’s Day. But sometimes mother nature has other plans. And we have to deal.

A small amount of our success in life comes from the things we can control, but most of our success comes from how we respond to the things we cannot.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

The pile of to-be-folded laundry sitting on the couch is daunting. That means it feels insurmountable. That means you just want to walk away from it.

But then you pick up one shirt, grasp it by the shoulder seams, give it two good flaps, and fold it up. And then you do one more. And on and on. One piece at a time as the pile shrinks.

It’s a good thing we live our lives one day at a time, otherwise they might feel daunting and insurmountable as well. So we grab the day by the shoulder seams, give it a few good flaps, and do the best we can. And we do the same thing with every other day in our formerly insurmountable laundry pile.

Except for those unmatched socks. They’re staying on the couch. 

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Yesterday we classified leaves. And even though we learned three different systems of classification, we still had a little trouble figuring out exactly which group to put the leaves in. Is this leaf round, egg-shaped, heart-shaped, or oval?

Because the leaves aren’t in on the classification scheme. Humans created these groups to help us observe and analyze. Nature is oblivious and in no way tries to fit in. Some might even say that our methods of classification say a whole lot more about us than the things we’re trying to understand. 

So we see some overlap. We see some confusion. That’s what always happens when we put things in groups: some things just don’t easily fit inside the lines we’ve drawn.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

On Friday we learned that the founder of Mother’s Day, Anna Jarvis, spent the rest of her life advocating against the holiday. She thought it had become too commercialized. Instead of writing heartfelt notes to their mothers, she saw people buying chocolates, flowers, and Hallmark cards.

So she petitioned to have the holiday ended. She called for boycotts of cardmakers, confectioners, and florists. She even got arrested for disturbing the peace while protesting outside of a candymakers convention.

This is just another example of real history being more complex–and much more interesting–than we might assume. Because history is not the simple story of how we got to now. The present is only a momentary pause in the ongoing churn. Where it goes next is completely up to us.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Fads come and go. You might think the latest pop-it you bought from Amazon.com is the greatest thing in the world. (Some of your toys are pretty cool!) But it will eventually end up in one of those big blue bins behind Goodwill.

I’ve seen pogs, slap bracelets, Silly Bandz, fidget spinners, slime, and squishies. I’ve even bought some of these things myself. One second they seem to be everywhere, and then, all of sudden, they’re gone. These things pass the time, but time quickly leaves them behind. 

Look for the things that last. They’re not really that hard to find: they’re the things without price tags on them. Time with friends and family, meaningful words, and big ideas about the world. These are the things that will never go out of style.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

The other day I had the thought that the less you know about something, the more you will be able to learn about it. But that’s wrong. That’s dead wrong. That’s not how knowledge works.

Because our minds are not bowls that are to be filled up with the waters of knowledge. Knowledge does not sit stagnant in our mind bowls. Our minds are pumps. Our minds move knowledge from one place to another. And you have to prime the pump.

So the more you know, the more you’re capable of knowing. And the more water you can move. And this world is made by the people who can move water around.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Yesterday we talked about data. We collect it, organize it, and analyze it. And if we do those things well, then we gain the magical power of seeing the future. Because what happened in the past will most likely happen in the future. 

Now, that’s not always true. Life would be pretty boring if it was. And *looking around* life is far from that. Plus, some things are pretty difficult to turn into crunchable measurements. Human beings–crooked timber that we are–aren’t too good at creating reliable data.

But there’s still something pretty great about using our systematic observations of the past to figure out what’s going to happen in the future. And if we get really good at it, life starts to make a little more sense.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt