Kicking Mules

I can honestly say that I love teaching people things. I am delighted when people say "Gee Geoff you are surely knowledgeable about a lot of useless things." Or better yet, "Gee Geoff you sure know much about a few useful things!"

These are good moments in my life. I like learning, I like knowing new things. I love being taught. With this, I like to allow for others to experience the same.

I think for the most part people are intelligent, that they have a desire to learn, to understand, to think different. However I think that, for the most part, people just think that they can't. There is an old saying, you don't learn anything the second time you're kicked by a mule.

Sometimes, people just don't think, they get behind a mule again, and get kicked in the groin, and wonder "What the heck?" I don't think that it's because people are inherently stupid...although there is evidence to the fact. I think it's just that people are forgetful.

They get this amazing revelation of truth, or something new and fantastic, and it changes their life. Then things go back to the same, the way it was. Why? We forget.

As a teacher the most frustrating thing is having to remind people of the facts that seem so plain to me. There are things that are simple for me to understand, others it takes reminder, prodding, pushing until they finally get it. Then 2 years, 2 months, 2 days later you have to remind them again.

The fact of the matter is that as a teacher this is life, and the rewarding part of it all is when it finally clicks, when the planets align the sun is shining, and birds are singing. Then reality sets in and you have to do it all again!

"The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts."
Clive Staples Lewis

We as teachers, preachers, students, seekers of truth need to know that it's not about removing obstacles in peoples way, its about taping into the potential that is in us all, the truth the lies within to make us better people. Planting of seeds, and pulling weeds.

I don't ever want to stop learning, or be lazy in thought. My greatest hope is that I can move people to feel the same. I know I will forget many things that I learn, but hopefully, as I push myself and others, I will learn to forget less. I like donkeys, hopefully they will learn to like me more!