Pull the Plug

Pull the Plug

 

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book

Before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:16.

The entire Psalm is wonderful, but after the death of my son, it became my touchstone.

When and how does a person die?

Those two questions haunted me. How could the children where I taught die?   All in accidents, careless at times, senseless at all times. I was at the funeral home every year.

 I remember a girl driving a car on a back road at the beginning of the school year. Her Bestie got a new car, and said, go ahead and drive. She couldn’t drive, but she wouldn’t tell Bestie that. She drove the car on the pot ridden road too fast and flipped it, rolled it.  Bestie lived, the girl did not.  I remember going through the school pictures that had just been shipped, looking for her picture for the funeral.   It was surreal. Here yesterday, gone forever today.

Then the friend, good church goer; she was helpful at church growing the foundation with dividend paying stocks, while she employed nothing but illegal aliens at her manufacturing plant.  She had just a small tumor, but in the duodenum, but it had spread just a little bit to the liver.  She was wealthy, she could have had a transplant, but the doctors said no.  If there are tumors in two organs we will not do a transplant.

Before the year was over, she was gone.

Why some so suddenly, why some over a period of time.

My opinion.  It is not the disease. One may have a disease, or something physically wrong, but that does not cause death.  We all have an appointment with God that has been set up before we were born.

Why so soon? We all have an appointment with God that has been set up before we were born.

In my family- it is immediate, but we have strong faith in our Lord.  In other situations, maybe the imminent seeming death will make others come to the Lord.

I have found though I see ‘someone’, that God is the only One who can give us Peace when we lose someone we love in death.

Pull my plug. Let the Lord take my last breathe and soul to heaven.

Band directing- a rewarding occupation!

J.W. Pepper, a music publishing and distribution company, does much research into what music is being performed around the nation.  Michigan has an extensive list of music, jazz, concert, marches at the Collegiate AA – A levels.  I am very familiar with that music, having conducted and performed many of the pieces, and certainly have directed all of the composers.

I miss directing. I miss the music, the story the music tells, and the musicians falling in love with the piece.

I love to direct as I can see what everyone is doing with the score, look up and see the students either right on, or pretending to be right on. The notes are right in front of me, so I can see and hear what that are doing.

I stop to help those who are lost, reassure them I will cue them, and then go over the phrases with them. I like to paint a word picture for them, to change the notes into a story to be conveyed to the audience.

Then as the notes come together, the band moves the music forward, and I can see the joy in their body language, and I think, it just doesn’t get any better than this!

 

The Toxic Culture of Education – a TedX Talk

Opt Out Orlando

Joshua Katz is a high school math teacher in Orange County, FL. In his seven years as a teacher, he has worked with 9th – 12th grade students in Algebra and Algebra 2. He has been his school’s Math Teacher of the Year twice and a four-time finalist for Teacher of the Year. He serves on the Faculty Advisory Committee, the Student Placement Committee, and the PTSA. Before working in secondary education, Josh spent eight years working in higher education as well as the non-profit world. He earned his BS in Math Education and his MA in Higher Education from the University of Central Florida. His current passion is exposing the contradictions in the current education reform and its impact on the economy.

Side note: I came to know of Joshua when I saw his TedX video on the Opt Out Orlando group page and realized that he teaches at my…

View original post 3,300 more words