There and Back Again

I'm home, I'm tired, and there's not a morsel of food in the house.  The dogs are gnawing loudly on their Nylabones, and the Smithsonian Folkways CD I just finished ripping of Japanese traditional music celebrating the sakura is filling the house with noises not often heard in central Mississippi.  I'm still in that odd, otherworldly place that one inhabits at the end of a profoundly good trip, and I am loath to come out of it.

It's a bit like knowing you have to come out of a warm bed on an ice-cold morning.  There are things to do, obligations to be kept, and sooner or later, you're going to have to throw back the comforter and brace yourself for the shock.  For just a little while longer, though, I'm going to pretend that the world outside my door is filled with glorious things.

This whole weekend was an inspiration because I was surrounded by teachers who know how to dream big and organizations who want to help us achieve those dreams.  I started to believe in what I'm doing again, in its importance, in its power, in the "yes" factor.  It means so much to have a group as powerful as IREX, by which I mean the State Department, really, say that I as a teacher am important enough to do something for.  My own state doesn't do that.  My own state wouldn't spit on me if I were on fire.  IREX is telling me that they will actually help me get cross-cultural exchanges together with classrooms in other countries, help to facilitate on the logistical end.  I thoroughly love these people.

In addition to the promise of better in my class practice, there was also the inspiration of being literally five minutes from the greatest set of museums on Earth.  Today after the last session and lunch I walked down to the Sackler and the Freer and feasted on ancient art from Japan, China, Iran, and more.  I saw pieces of pottery older than my whole country that I would have given fortunes to be able to lay my hands on and feel the textures of, run my fingers across the detail work of, feel the glazes of.  It was wonderful.  I took tons of pictures in the hopes that someday I might do something with them, an art project of some kind or maybe even translate those influences into pottery of my own.

Now I'm back here after wrangling with Delta and the joy that is ATL.  I need to turn up the heat a few degrees and find something edible.  I have a lot to think about, a lot I want to turn over in my mind.  It's amazing how much difference two days and three parts of the Smithsonian can make.....