MR. HAGEN'S CLASS

I found this poem in the garage today.  It'd been sitting in my briefcase since I quit teaching last fall.  It made me think of the Pope’s suggestion to our current president that Christians should be more concerned with building bridges than walls. “The Bridge Builder” A man going along a long highway Came at end of the evening Cold and gray, To a chasm vast and wide and steep, With water rolling cold and deep. The man he crossed in the twilight dim The sullen stream held no fears for him, But he turned when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide. “Old man,” said a fellow trav’ler near, “You’re wasting your strength With building here. Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again Will pass this way. You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide, Why build you this bridge At eventide?” The builder slowly lifted his head, “Good friend, in the path I’ve come,” he said, “There followeth...

The following list of quotations was compiled in the PG era (pre Google). It's also pre-meme and pre-facebook. They're part of a collection I've been hoarding for years. These days you can't scroll through your social media feed without stumbling over someone trying to sell you on their meaning of life neatly encapsulated in a little hallmark card of profundity. Cat pic + Ben Franklin quip = Wisdom. Baby pic + MLK quote = I"m tolerant. Bald eagle swaddled with a flag flying + pledge of allegiance text = I'm more patriotic than you, wanna fight about it? It reminds me of words Kennedy spoke in 1962 at a dinner honoring a group of Nobel Prize winners, " I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas  Jefferson dined alone ." I hope you enjoy the collection but take your time.  Give each thought the re...

I saw a tv show years ago highlighting people with some mental illness that forces them to swallow objects compulsively.  Doctors found balls of hair, bobby pins, pens, pencils, etc.lodged in the patients' digestive system that could be life threatening and often had to be surgically removed.  Last year’s presidential election left me feeling like I'd been fed such a toxic mix of bullshit I'd choke on it; or like a canary in a coalmine:  the methane produced from all the bullshit just got to me sooner and affected me worse than it did others. There's still an awful lot left inside me but at least this first offering has relieved some of the pressure.  I chose to name it “A Ringside Seat to the Devolution.”   ------------------------------------------------------ “I wish everybody’d just get over it,” the other woman complained to no one in particular.  My wife was having a conversation with the people at her hair salon when another customer chi...