read probably hundreds of essays per
semester and the I don’t mind reading
them but the ones that get on my nerves
are the ones where the students are just
phoning it in we’ve all written those
kind of essays you’re just filling in
space right number of words but what
worries me about that is not that
they’re doing that but that it could be
a sign of something more severe which is
kind of a detachment from life itself
and it’s just an expression of that so
what I decided to do in my classes is to
challenge my students to engage in life
but I think this is just a general
practice in a way of living to challenge
people to engage in life so for example
with my students I have them look at a
car wash yo painting and I say what do
you think and they react about like you
did just now and maybe a few people like
oh I like the red or you know I think
they’re having dinner okay so so there
we are but most people are silent most
people just let other people react and
that worries me a little bit that’s kind
of a disengagement from life so I show
them a video which i’m not going to show
now but a video from John Birchers ways
of seeing where he has school children
look at the same painting and have them
react and they’re talking over each
other the theorizing about the painting
they’re identifying with the characters
and I asked my students I said what
happened to you that you were then
because it isn’t just about growing up
it’s about maintaining some sense of
curiosity and confidence and engagement
in life so to think about this I want to
consider a story a legendary story about
Alexander the Great and he is invading
portions of not modern India but what
they called India at the time and he
passes some philosophers and as he
passes the
first they began to do what you probably
guessed and he stops and he says why are
you doing that and this is what they say
King Alexander each of us only owns as
much land is we’re standing on you’re
only human like all of us but in your
arrogance in your restlessness you make
our laws in your own miserable but soon
you will die it need only enough land to
bury your corpse pretty severe thing to
say so what do you what do you think
they believed about life that enable did
say that the first thing I think they
realized is that we talked about renting
and owning right on your house rent your
house you’re only renting in life period
yes and we don’t even in the end have
our own bodies so what do we actually
have about two square feet of shifting
ground that’s all I can really own and
that’s all I ever will own I took my
children my daughter my son and a French
exchange student to Kentucky’s Red River
Gorge I know if you’d been there it’s
amazing I wanted to find a place that
I’d been to once but I forgot the name
of so we’re driving around with looking
at all different kinds of beautiful
places and every time we like back in
the car this hidden it finally at the
end of the day we got to the place it
was a place called chimney chimney tops
overlooked and he walked out in you’re
looking at one of the largest gorges in
that part of the country as we walked
out over it we all walked out together
and everyone fell into silence my son
was only 11 my daughter was 14 this is
pretty amazing that they fell into
silence and we just stood there looking
over the edge feeling the breeze and
join the site and after a while we
started talking and then everyone is the
sunset we started to go back to the car
but I didn’t I was standing back just
like I don’t leave and my daughter
turned back to me and this is what she
says amazing
she says dad if you hold on to it too
long you lose it and my head to swim
like wow I can’t believe my daughter
just said to me but I think there’s
something in what she’s saying there
that I think to own your two square feet
means to speak your truth she’d
experienced that truth and she was
speaking it to me so the philosophers
and my daughter new speak your truth and
Alexander novels knew what listen when
someone speaks that truth and learn from
them some time ago when I was a child my
sister and I went to a mirror maze I
know if you’ve been to one of those we
were about that age and when we got
inside my sister was just just running
through this thing and I don’t like boom
boom completely lost and she runs back
to me after I’m crying because I’m stuck
in this thing she runs back to me and
all she says to me is look at the floor
if there’s a line there’s glass or a
mirror so just walk where there’s no
I was even more amazed because the word
amazed can mean to get out of amazed you
see what I’m saying okay so life itself
is amazed and as we get through those
mazes we can live an amazing life yes
and also what’s important is we can show
each other the lines in the floor I was
in undergrad and I lived with a gun in
Chris Orndorff and I’ve recently become
reacquainted with him and he’s just as I
should say amazing as ever and he used
to greet me every day with the same
thing hey Keith isn’t it great to be
alive and I reacted like ER reacts to
Winnie the poop all right this guy is an
idiot because for me I was living away
from home for the first time I was very
lonely and isolated and I had been
struggling with staying off of drugs and
staying away from the friends that were
involved in drugs and I was reeling from
losing my first love relationship
through breaking up as you do when you
go to college sometimes so I was about
as disillusioned as a human being could
possibly be and I thought you are
detached from reality dude but every day
he would say that to me so it took it
took a while but you know it became what
they now call a meme in my head and I
began to think about it and I thought
you know the word disillusion means to
get out of an illusion I am pissed
because i was living in an illusion now
I’m out of it ah so the point is it
isn’t light it isn’t whether it’s sunny
like today or raining it’s that I can
experience Sun and rain right and it’s
not whether the glass is half full or
half empty it’s just being astounded
that there’s such a thing as a glass or
water or
me to perceive it do you see what I’m
saying so Chris was not delusional was
awake I think life is not about what we
own it’s about owning life and that’s
what he was showing me and all of its
beauty and all of its madness it’s like
meg Ryan says and the wonderful film Joe
versus the volcano if you want to get a
short version of what i’m trying to say
some way it’s here almost the whole
world is asleep everybody you know
everybody you see everybody you talked
to only a few people are awake and how
do they live they live in a state
constant total amazement so I think
Doppler fee is to live a life of
amazement in the maze of life I think
it’s to learn to let go as well as we
can grasp I think it’s it’s to need to
stamp out my own truth and to listen
when you stamp out your truth and to
change as I hear it I think it’s all of
those things but I think the most
important thing it is is to help each
other find the lines on the floor so
after all it’s better down to square feet now before all we have is 6 so