What
have we learned?
Hopefully,
something new
every
day, the age-old adage
goes.
Sr. Mary Faith at
Benedictine
College in
Atchison,
Kansas brought
that
belief home to me.
She
had invited a few of
her
fellow sisters to attend
a
poetry reading I was to
give
that day. I was honored
to
read some of my meager
offerings
in the presence of
these
dedicated educators
who
had previously hosted
the
likes of far greater and
more
renown bards such as
Robert
Bly and William
Stafford.
I realized that the
nuns,
before earning their
right
of passage into full
fledged
sisterhood and as
qualified
teachers, had to
graduate
from the novitiate
stage.
I had to ask myself,
why
would they take a precious
hour
out of their busy day to
listen
to what I had to say, me,
a
mere mortal who had achieved
no
ranking or status among the
notable
literary greats? Besides,
my
poetry was fomented from
the
gritty city streets far from the
sacrosanct
reaches of academic
loftiness.
It took me a while to
figure
it out, and I was taken aback
from
this revelation—throughout
their
lives, good teachers continue
to
be curious and attentive students,
ever
learning their lessons each
and
every day even from the most
common
of places.
Chris
Hanch 3-20-19
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