Dear Lacking Teacher,
I know this game well. I've played it a thousand times. I shuffle the cards, deal a new hand. Every card is a lie, but I still believe it.
I've rolled the dice. The numbers always come up short. Four spaces forward, then two back.
There’s a reason I always pick the iron in Monopoly. I guess the good Lord knows I need to get a few things ironed out in this wrinkled vessel.
You’ve never played this game of lack, have you?
For teachers, the board is decorated in small spaces advertising areas of lack.
- Not enough hours in a day
- Not enough years until retirement
- Not enough patience for “that one”
- Not enough money to take a chance
- Not enough room to get through the aisle
- Not enough talent to be Teacher of the Year
- Not enough stamina to get another degree
- Not enough energy for fourth period
- Not enough Diet Coke to make the day better
- Not enough room for one more thing
The one more thing is the kicker. It’s the one that causes me to load up a few houses and a couple of hotels on the Baltic and Mediterranean bald spots of my life.
And as luck would have it, as soon as I do, wouldn’t you know I’m the only fool to land there?
Go figure. That’s life I suppose. Everybody wants to collect $200, but few want to work to get it. It takes serious effort to make it all the way around the board without falling into a trap.
Someone once called me a closet competitor. I still haven’t figured out if that description was a compliment or an insult, but either way, I know it's accurate.
I don’t like to lose, especially when I'm playing myself. But I have lost. Many, many times, and every single time I’ve lost, the battle was lost when I first believed the lie that I was somehow lacking. Coincidentally, every loss has also landed me in a mental jail where I am desperately trying to roll doubles in order to break free.
Teacher friends, this year has been unkind. There are empty and broken places. That part is true, but lack has never stopped teachers. The best teachers are resourceful. They can do so much with so little.
If you don’t believe it, take a tour of an elementary school when COVID restrictions are lifted. I promise you’ll be thinking the same thing I’m thinking.
"How in the world did those first grade teachers create art out of two pieces of string and an empty milk jug?"
-CDB