Which way?

Dear Students,

Sometimes I am reminded of Alice’s conversation with Cheshire cat when students are preparing to leave high school, as many of you are. Many of you view school as young Alice views Wonderland – a safe, but confusing and somewhat frustrating place where you can hide out until others figure out who you are, and after that, maybe you will decide to join the world. However, you are impatient for everything to happen according to plan – whatever that plan is. Check out this excerpt from their first conversation:

  `Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name:  however, it only grinned a little wider.  `Come, it's pleased so far,' thought Alice, and she went on.  `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

  `That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

  `I don't much care where--' said Alice.

  `Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

  `--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.

  `Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'

 So many of us are in a hurry to walk somewhere, but we do not think about where we are going. Others many not be in a hurry, but despite their certainty about where they are going, they are wrong. Now I'm not just saying to therefore walk around in circles, although at the moment the idea of a stroll in proper scenery is appealing, nor to just lay down and rest, although some will surely be needed. Rather, don't get too attached to one's walking, or the destination, and remember that things are not always as they seem.

Our course here should be entertaining - but there will also be those confusing and frustrating moments as in the wider theater around it. Yet while we match life we should hope to learn more about it and also to become excellent at it, so that as we walk down our successive paths in life we will have become that much richer for having shared a mutual experience.

Please come to this blog for updates on what's happening in our class, and a good time to do that would be on a sleepy weekend afternoon after I have updated a little schedule note for the following week. We'll be doing lots of reading, I hope, but plenty of speaking, writing, and even having somewhat heated discussions, if things work according to plan.

And speaking of plans.... mine  ....

                                         is......to.......slowly..............

`Well!  I've often seen a cat without a grin,' thought Alice;

`but a grin without a cat!  It's the most curious thing I ever

saw in my life!'

disappear.....

:)