Sunday
A young man talked about killing his girlfriend, because she was going out with a male friend. I’m not sure if it was a date. I’m not sure if he actually owned the guns he talked about cleaning the night before. I’m not sure why he wanted to tell me that she had a miscarriage the next week. I don’t know why he wanted my advice about giving or not giving her a Valentine’s Day gift. I’m not sure what I said that drove him to write that poem for her – which was actually good. All I am sure of is that he is calmer than he was the day before.
Another young woman apologized for not making it in. Her grandmother and her auntie were evicted from their home, and all their things were out on the street. So she spent the entire night moving furniture, clothes, and knickknacks downstairs into an Eclipse and a Cutlass. They started at 6PM and finished about 5AM. She told me, “I’m sorry but I just had to get some sleep.” I told her it was all right. But it was the wrong word – nothing was right. Five people had to live in a two bedroom house. Couches had to be beds, beds had to be shared, and what little privacy had also vacated.
There were days when I used to say the right things all the time. I would have made a great politician or lawyer. But these days, I try to not to say things that will make the day even worse, nothing aggravating, irritating, or irrelevant – nothing that stokes the fire. And with that said, it leaves very little to say – is there advice that you can give to people in these situations? They sure as hell didn’t tell me what to say at Bowling Green State University or Baldwin Wallace. When I met up with other teachers and principals, they were impotent, and just send me off to someone else that still had no answers. I remember as a child, I’d look up to adults because somehow they knew the right answers, but now, as an adult, I understand that they are all treading water like the rest of us – hoping to just stay afloat.
Another young woman apologized for not making it in. Her grandmother and her auntie were evicted from their home, and all their things were out on the street. So she spent the entire night moving furniture, clothes, and knickknacks downstairs into an Eclipse and a Cutlass. They started at 6PM and finished about 5AM. She told me, “I’m sorry but I just had to get some sleep.” I told her it was all right. But it was the wrong word – nothing was right. Five people had to live in a two bedroom house. Couches had to be beds, beds had to be shared, and what little privacy had also vacated.
There were days when I used to say the right things all the time. I would have made a great politician or lawyer. But these days, I try to not to say things that will make the day even worse, nothing aggravating, irritating, or irrelevant – nothing that stokes the fire. And with that said, it leaves very little to say – is there advice that you can give to people in these situations? They sure as hell didn’t tell me what to say at Bowling Green State University or Baldwin Wallace. When I met up with other teachers and principals, they were impotent, and just send me off to someone else that still had no answers. I remember as a child, I’d look up to adults because somehow they knew the right answers, but now, as an adult, I understand that they are all treading water like the rest of us – hoping to just stay afloat.
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on Sunday, February 19 at 2:53 PM.
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