Swordplay

February 4, 2012
                The boys and girls at school often talk about their god and the devil while painting, weaving, cutting or pasting in my art room.  I teach in an elementary public school.  I listen. 

The Swordsman and the Cat from a seventeenth-century master’s book on swordplay:

In the evening, all the cats who had participated in the rat-catching had a grand session at [the Swordsman’s] house, and respectfully asked the great Cat to take the seat of honor.  They made profound bows before her and said:  “We all wish you to divulge your secrets for our benefit.”  The grand old cat answered:  “Teaching is not difficult, listening is not difficult either, but what is truly difficult is to become conscious of what you have in yourself and be able to use it as your own.” 

          And so I take my mandala, signifying my prairie roots with the stars overhead and the snake in the grass, and as my own, I use it to create "Justice."

          The headline of May 2, 2011 Columbia Tribune reads:  JUSTICE HAS BEEN DONE!   

          "U.S. Forces Kill Osama bin Laden in Covert Operation."

           What is justice?



         So, dear great Cat, in the seat of honor, I wonder if finishing this long overdue project truly transforms my difficult teaching moments? Perhaps, I need to contemplate this with my fifth graders in mind.