letters to my class

Dear Humans,

I’m here to praise useless knowledge. I’m sure you’ve all heard the question–When are we ever going to use this? But you won’t use most of the things you know, and you won’t know how to do most of the things you do.

I used to know who won the World Series every year since 1903. Talk about useless! I mean, you could just Google who won the 1975 World Series. But unlike Google, my knowledge of the Big Red Machine exists in the context of Astroturf, Watergate, Vietnam, and stagflation.

Knowledge is like a Lego block, but one with connectors on every side. You hook it to other useless knowledge blocks and create big beautiful structures that explain something about the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

My brother has always talked about toasting his oatmeal before he boils it. I thought it seemed like an extra step, extra time, and extra dishes to wash. But during a pandemic, I have a little more time, so I tried it.

Oatmeal isn’t anything to really write home about. The vocabulary word you might use to describe it is pedestrian. Plain, dull, ordinary. So anything you can do to make it a little bit better goes a long way. So now I’ll be toasting my oats before I cook them.

A lot of life is like a morning bowl of oatmeal. Monotonous, boring, unexciting. So the extra steps we take to add some punch can make all the difference.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Teachers,

You’ll know you’re starting to get good at something when you find out that you are your own best teacher. Not to say that other people don’t have things to teach you, but if you think you know what you want and you have a rough idea of how to get it, then you’re in a good place.

Every day when I write these letters, I learn something new. Sometimes it’s something big, like what I think I might believe about learning, and other the times it’s small, like the difference between every day and everyday.

But it takes discipline. And focus. And time and effort. And, most of all, it takes a willingness to mess up, learn from it, and mess up a different way the next day.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

Despite what adults probably tell you all the time about the “real world,” we all spend a lot of time in imaginary worlds. When we think about what we’ve done in the past or worry about what we’ll do in the future, we’re living in an imaginary world.

Humans are storytellers. So much of our “reality” is the story that we tell about ourselves and our world. And here’s the important thing about the story you tell about yourself: you get to be your own hero!

Life is not something that happens to us. No matter our situation, we get to tell our own story. And if we get good enough at telling that story, then it just might become “reality.”

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

I’ve only worn a tux a few times in my life. Only attended a few funerals. Only been in hospitals holding balloons three or four times. Those are the big moments most of us only experience a few times. But life is mostly made of the small moments that we live over and over.

Today is May Day. Not many people celebrate May Day, but it’s a holiday to mark the coming of spring (among other things). Birds singing, buds swelling, tulips opening. These things happen every year. As such, they’re easy to overlook.

Holidays remind us to stop and look a second time. And remember that the little things that happen over and over again are just as important as the big ones.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

I used to get upset when recipes gave unclear directions. They’d say “cook until done” or “bake until golden brown.” Why couldn’t they just tell me how long it took?

Well, the recipe makers didn’t know my elevation, the pan I was using, how hot my oven actually got, and my skill as a baker. So they expected me to use my reason and experience to figure it out.

Variation is the rule in this world. Where we are and what we’re using matter. We like to think our tools and instruments allow us to be accurate and precise. But they only work when paired with the best tool that’s ever been fashioned–that hunk of grey matter inside our skulls.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Creators,

Ms. K made a 5th Grade Talent Show Flipgrid. Get your mugs on there! It’s scary. It’s intimidating. I know.

Just make something. We need more creators and fewer critics. Don’t waste time worrying if your creation is good enough or if someone else’s is better or if anyone will pay attention to it. They might not. But while they’re doing whatever they’re doing, you’re creating something.

Because living is a creative act. I saw a bird stealing stuff out of my neighbor’s flower planter the other day and then dart away. That bird uses creativity to build her home and protect her young. Unlike the bird, we don’t live inside our own creativity. But, we also totally do.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

The other day as I was looking through plaid shirts in my closet, the light burned out. When I was on the stepladder changing the bulb, I noticed that there were actually two lights in the fixture.

And when I replaced both lights and saw how bright it was, I realized that one of those bulbs had been burned out for a long time. I hadn’t noticed because the other bulb gave enough light to see.

I think we humans are equipped with two bulbs in our fixtures. And sometimes one of those lights might be burned out for a while. But the other light keeps shining and gives enough light to get by until we can get to the store to buy another bulb.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Dreamers,

There’s a virtual talent show coming up. You need to submit your videos by Wednesday. This is a chance for you to follow your dreams of being a star on stage.

When I was a kid I spent most of my time dreaming. What I would be, where I would go. And while those dreams weren’t reality and didn’t become reality, they helped shape my reality in many ways. The power of dreams isn’t only in them coming true.

Dreaming is one of children’s greatest powers. When you become an adult, you’ll mostly dream about making money on real estate transactions. It’s way too soon for that. So don’t stop dreaming yet. As Nathaniel Hawthorn says, “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

It’s been interesting (and a little gross) to see those pictures of people sneezing and coughing on the news. The ones where they somehow light up the particles that we send flying through the air to see how far they can really go.

So much of our impact on other people is invisible and easy to overlook. We might like to think we’re independent and rational individuals, but we get up in each others’ business in lots and lots of ways.

And it’s more than just spittle. It’s words. It’s actions. It’s a stone dropped in a pond and rippling out. But not in predictable concentric circles. In complex and unpredictable patterns. And yet we’re still responsible for the harm we cause. That’s what it means to live in the world.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck