Saturday, October 20, 2007

who is my neighbor?

So I quit my job at the Conservatory, and now I teach ESL at the community college. Talk about a change in demographics. I went from dealing with rich, over-acheiving, white-collar familes to laid-back, dirt-poor field workers. Personally I think I get along with the field workers better. I absolutely love teaching English, and speaking Spanish. My students don't turn in their homework half the time, and they're almost always 10 minutes late to class, but they bring me homemade enchiladas and "cake of three milks" (a kind of gross, soggy white cake) and they laughingly correct my Spanish mistakes and say, "Ay, tee-chair, tee-chair" whenever I ask them a question in class. In the mornings I have a class of 15 women and one lone man. Last week he came up to me during the break and asked "Tee-chair, is worse to say holy crop or holy sheet?" Sometimes it's hard not to laugh.

We live next door to an elderly couple. I'll call them the Harrisons. They both grew up in this area, and are well into their 80's. The week we moved in Mrs. Harrison sent over a delicious nutty, caramelly bundt cake that I'm sure would have made Paula Deen envious. When I went to return the platter (which I filled with my own chocolate chip cookies, even though it was embarrassing to pretend I could bake in front of the woman who made that cake), I ended up staying in their sitting room for most of the afternoon, listening to story after story. If I had the time and skill, I think I would like to write their biographies. Mrs. Harrison said when she was growing up they had the only radio of all the surrounding farms, and she and her sister used to hate Saturday nights because everyone and their cousin came over to listen to the Grand ol' Opry, and they made such a racket 'til she couldn't get a lick of sleep.

The other day I had in interesting thought, which I must credit in part to Madeline L'Engle. What if there was once a perfect language, one that could truly express our deepest thoughts and feelings and humanness? (I'm pretty sure I read such an idea in one of her books) I think we had such a language until Babel, and then all the languages got split up and no one speaks that human language anymore. I think it would be like music, but more specific. Poetry also comes pretty close. What if when the disciples spoke to the crowd in Acts 2, they were actually speaking that perfect language that everyone's soul understands, but everyone's tongue has forgotten how to speak? And what if we speak (or sing) that language in the new earth? I hope we do!

1 comment:

FaithInArts said...

I'm glad to see you doing well Laura. And if my photo doesn't pop up with this, it's Roy M. I know you probably hated giving up the conservatory, but I glad to see you like your new job. ALthough, I can't believe you Called Tres Leches, a "gross soggy white Cake" haha. The three milks are suppose to make the cake sweeter. Oh well. I have good news of my own. If all goes according to plan I'll be moving back toward the 'Creek And back to CU by the End of December. i don't know whether to laugh at this or go what the heck. All I know is I'm grateful at the mere opportunity it gives me to finally finish up, and be able to look on further to an MA in Audio Engineering down in Texas. Anyway if you want anymore details than this give my cell a call. I'll be happy to explain just how this all came about.