The Key to Life

The key to life can only be used once you find the right door.

Pretty dumb I know, but I think it has a point. How can you know the meaning of life if you do not know where you're going? It doesn't matter if we have a key that lets us into a room full of gold and treasure. We have to find the right door first. The thing to do is to find the right door, and then work really hard to get inside.

Otherwise I don't know if I can tell you what the key to life is. I guess it's to live it the best way you know how and you start by having faith.

My First One

May the life you lead be a life that leads.

I teach -- mostly seniors, college bound -- good kids generally, even though the drama I witness daily is incredible.

Each year about this time I start making up little words of wisdom and posting them on the blackboard for them to read. I don't know if they actually read them but the opportunity is there anyway. I try to make it relevant and inspiring for them. Recently, one of our graduates from a few years ago came back to teach at the school. One of my original sayings was still written in a notebook she had kept from my class. So I guess at least one person found something worthwhile in them.

Basically being smart is more about common sense than it is intelligence. A sad thing that I see every year is students who were big shots in my school getting lost when they go to college. Those that don't have enough faith in themselves -- you know the kind, the kids who must have adulation and adoration from a group, the ones who are the big fishes in the small ponds -- can't seem to adjust when they aren't so big anymore. But that's a story for another day.

I am a writer who has not yet made enough money to quit my day job but still hope to. I recently went to a conference where a writer said that writers need to be bloggers to market themselves. I know just enough about computers to be dangerous. To me, a twitter is something a bird does when it gets upset. But my own common sense -- my common "joe"ness says I have to stay with the times to succeed, so here I am ... blogging ... whether anyone reads it or not.

I'll talk more about my writing later but right now I need to do something else.