Bits O' Wisdom

There is wisdom in everyday life we often miss. These are tiny bits I've gleaned here and there I hope will enrich your life.

1. In the dark of the early morning, when you step out the back door into the pitch darkness, make sure the sweet cat you are talking to in your meow voice and reaching down to pet is actually a cat. It's a different feeling altogether when the large, fuzzy shape rubbing near your leg turns out to be a POSSUM instead of the cat.

2. Realize that when you read a poetry passage to 8th graders that includes the phrase "city shapes", it is all too easy to switch the first sounds of the two words if you are reading rapidly. Your 8th graders will never forget that poem, either.


3. When in a clothing store with your friend, and she picks up a top and makes a very bawdy joke that has something to do with anyone wearing it needing to find employment as a streetwalker, have a convenient hole to crawl into when a third friend walks out from a rack just behind you two and is wearing the same top.

4. It is the twelfth hour of a two day, 12 hour school board workshop on school finance, and you have actually dropped into a quick doze while sitting at the table. Be snappy with the explanation that you were just meditating on the previous point when the presenter asks you for your opinion on the point of law he's just covered. Your fellow school board members will awaken themselves quickly enough to agree with you.


5.  When you are running with your middle school girls' fitness class along the country roads surrounding your school, and you spot a still-wrapped condom on the side of the road,  don't congratulate yourself too quickly when you covertly kick it into the ditch as you run past. Don't be surprised, either, when at the end of your run as you are talking with the principal in the gym, an innocent 6th grader comes up and says, "Ma'am, you dropped this on our run, " and hands you the same condom you kicked into the ditch.


What bits of wisdom do you have for us today? Don't be shy!