letters to my class

Dear Humans,

I lost my house keys the other night. They fell off the ring that connected them to my car keys and when I got out of my car and walked up to my locked door, I realized they were gone.

So early the next morning I retraced my steps. I went back to the place I was the night before and literally walked my path again. And, just as I gave up and walked back to my car, the clouds parted and a holy light shone down on my keys sitting in the parking lot.

The universe tests us with lost things. When we get to moving too fast, the universe plucks our keys out of our pocket to get us to slow down, hit the rewind button, and think about where we’ve been. 

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

I remember watching figure skating during the Lillehammer Winter Olympics 28 years ago. You didn’t hear the word quadruple very often. You heard a lot of triple–triple toe loop, triple axel–but skaters revolving their bodies 1440 degrees in the air (while on ice skates) was pretty rare.

Yesterday, Nathan Chen won the gold medal by performing five quadruple jumps (some of them combined with triple jumps). He landed them all. Athletes get faster and stronger and better trained. That requires great sacrifices and we’re not always sure if it’s worth it, but greatness doesn’t come easy.

It’s tempting to look around the world and see things getting worse. Some of our oldest stories are about how we used to live in some mythical, vanished paradise. But it’s important to remember the ways the world is getting better as well. 

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

We’ve been reading about the Boston Massacre. And maybe you’re wondering the use of studying a skirmish that took place 252 years ago. Especially since there have been untold skirmishes, battles, tragedies, and events since that snowy day outside the Boston Custom House.

It’s because the most important part of studying history is learning how history is made and remembered. Because the Boston Massacre didn’t become the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770. It took years of remembering and re-remembering (and misremembering) what happened. And that history was put towards certain causes. Because history is often a process of creating heroes and villains and confirming beliefs, not just retelling what happened.

And we still do that history-making today. And we’ll do it far into the future. So it’s important that you know how it’s done. And you see the reasons behind why we remember what happened the way that we do.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

There’s been a lot of news about censorship and book bans. Some school districts are removing books from classrooms and libraries for various reasons.

And it’s understandable. Books are dangerous and scary things. Books have scared the bejeezus out of me. They’ve told me that the way I’ve grown up to see the world is not the only way to see it and sometimes people do ugly things to each other. 

Those are scary things! Especially if you only want the world to be one way. 

But my hope is that you’re not that kind of person. My hope is that you’re up for a little bit of discomfort–the cold water of reality splashed on your face. If so, I’ve got just the books for you.

Dear Humans,

I used to pay $10 each month for a service that would stream nearly any song that’s ever been recorded directly to my phone. And that seemed like a pretty cool thing. Anything I could think to ask for was there at my fingertips.

And though I noticed I was playing a lot of songs, I wasn’t really listening to them. Or at least I wasn’t listening very deeply. They’d play in the background. And if you’re not really listening, music all starts to sound the same. 

So this weekend I ended my subscription and started listening–really listening–to my old CDs.

When things are easier to get they become less valuable. That’s a proposition that has proved pretty hardy throughout human history. And it’s especially true for music and art–things that are best seen as a gift from one person to another, not a commodity.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

This week was the Chinese New Year. So we learned a bit about traditions and we also learned about the Chinese Zodiac. And we wondered if our own Chinese Zodiac animal said anything true about ourselves and our personalities.

This week also had Groundhog Day. A supposedly eternal groundhog emerges from a tree stump and a bunch of dudes in top hats and tuxedos pretend to hear the groundhog’s predictions about the continuation of winter. 

These things require a suspension of disbelief. We know they’re not scientifically true. But it sure is fun to play around with them and make meaning with them. Sometimes we like to think we’re serious people engaged in an eternal search for the truths of nature. And then we find a groundhog whispering in our ear. 

But that too is part of the search.

Dear Humans,

Each day you return your book bins to the counter. And I’m always harping on you to make sure they’re lined up straight and stay within a certain area. But, of course, words don’t usually work with humans once we’re used to doing something a certain way. And the book bins are all in disarray.

So earlier this week I put a single strip of duct tape on the counter. I didn’t tell you anything about it or explain its purpose. And, suddenly, your book bins were lined up the way I’d like them.

Humans need boundaries. The lines on a basketball court. The markers on the road. The invisible lines on our maps. When we let those boundaries solely define us, they become a problem, but if we use them as a tool to be better humans in the world, then we’re doing it right.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

The national Spelling Bee pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly said something interesting in a video I was watching the other day. He said his job is not that difficult because there’s only 44 sounds in the English language. He just has to put them together.

And it’s true, there are only 44 separate sounds (or phonemes) in English. That doesn’t seem like that many. There are 53 players on the Broncos team and there are a lot of people who know their names, stats, and alma maters.

But the thing about sounds is that they work together to create language. So those simple 44 sounds can turn into an unfathomable number of words. Like acorns that grow into massive oaks at the speed of sound.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

You can’t predict the future. But you can prepare for it. Because the things that will be most important in the future are the same things that are most important now: learning about the world, taking care of the people around us, and leaving things better than we found them. 

Of course, we don’t always do those things now. But it’s not because our fear of an uncertain future keeps us from doing it. It’s because we’re humans and we’re far, far from perfect. 

And maybe instead of predicting the future, we ought to be more focused on creating the future. And living our lives towards that future. And doing those things that have served humans (imperfect though we are) well throughout history–learning about their world, taking care of the people around them, and leaving things better than they found them.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt

Dear Humans,

Knowing words and their synonyms is a good thing. It is admirable and agreeable and meritorious and ducky and copacetic. But synonyms are tricky things. Because they obviously don’t mean exactly what other words mean. If they did they wouldn’t be necessary. 

So figuring out just the right word is a whole lot harder than memorizing lists of synonyms. Because words don’t have definitions, words have uses. And the way to learn how to use words is to listen and watch how other humans have used words. It’s to read. And then read some more. And then reread the books you read a long time ago.

The more you read the more you’ll learn, about the world and about the language that makes that world move.

Sincerely,

Mr. Curt