Dear Teacher Who Notices Sunsets,
I keep revisiting the picture of tonight’s sunset to see if I can drum up an adequate description.
God’s paint brush decorates the evening sky. Hyperbole.
Weeping willows silhouetted against a purple sky. Excessive imagery.
Purple hues fade into a pink reflection of tranquility. Gag.
If I were a more skilled writer who wasn’t brain dead from a day that has robbed me of words, I wouldn’t resort so low as to steal a line from Hank Williams Sr. who was so lonesome he penned one of my all-time favorite lyrics, “The silence of a fallen star lights up a purple sky.”
Maybe the lonesome whippoorwhill he mentions as being too blue to fly is the teacher who’s lost her will to keep teaching on days that have bled together like the purples mixed with pinks in the night sky.
Maybe the night so long when time goes crawling by is the 2020-2021 school year.
And maybe the midnight train that’s whining low is the teacher who doesn’t want to be whiney but can’t resist the urge any longer.
Or maybe, these lyrics are a universal emotion for anyone who’s missing someone or something.
Lonesome is the perfect word to describe teachers who have literally and figuratively lost connectivity.
A circle avatar with a kid’s initials through a computer screen is not the same as recognizing the sadness in his eyes and saying, “Are you okay? What’s going on?”
Like most people, teachers miss normalcy and a pre-pandemic world.
Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, also had some thoughts about the color. According to Shug Avery, who said, “I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don’t notice it,” beauty in nature is meant to be appreciated.
Regardless of the stack of papers, stresses of the day, or deflated feelings, I hope you slowed down long enough to notice the birds too blue to fly. I hope you heard the midnight train whining low, and I hope you saw the color purple in the sky.
Because the truth is if COVID has taught us anything, it’s that none of us is promised another sunrise or sunset. It’s up to us to notice and appreciate the ones we do have.
It’s up to us to quickly point a finger in the sky or dip a pen in ink and yell, “Right there! Right there! Did you see that night sky, that shooting star? Isn't it beautiful?"
-CDB