“Everybody is a somebody; never–never–treat anybody as a nobody.” I told a couple of professors at the closing wine and dine schmooze session of my two days workshop on teaching at Central Michigan. Unexpectedly I found myself going into a deeper “why” as they probed the “why” of my vision.
“Everybody is a somebody; never–never–treat anybody as a nobody” says it all about what I have learned is the essence of being in the people business of teaching. And, on that bedrock foundation rests my driving vision, my guiding purpose, my focusing intention, my unrelenting responsibility in which I invest my awareness, attention, thoughts, emotions, time, effort, and commitment: to be that person who always is there to help each person help her/himself become the person she or he is capable of becoming. My vision, purpose, intention, and responsibility make me a futurist who confidently sees each student through the clear and dynamic lens of “is becoming” rather than the pessimistic, clouded, and stasis pane of “is,”.
And so, for me, every moment is a golden opportunity blessed with new possibilities, and I “merely” have the challenge of filling it with life; of finding the magnificence in the seemingly mundane, the extraordinary in the apparent ordinary, and the something in the alleged “nothing much.” And, each time I do that, each time I go that too often seldom walked extra mile, I’ll love, live, and make each supposed wasteful “ho hum” moment I teach into the purposeful, magnificent, joyful, satisfying, rewarding, and fulfilling moment it was meant to be.
Before any of you wave me off with a “posh” because you think I am dreamy, remember what Helen Keller said, “No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.”
Yeah, everybody is a somebody, and never–never–treat anybody as a nobody!
Louis