me as an educator

pull itself together

I often feel I hold at least both sides within myself,
I can be neither one, nor the other,
but somehow I can hold enough of each
so that the world is not split apart
and instead is held together,
though, as in a dance,
someone needs to lead for a time
or you cannot move,

I have a calling to see the whole
that the pieces yearn to rediscover, or to find anew,

I am an educator
for whom teaching is only one of the tools in my kit,
more important than teaching is to see the whole within a person
and to applaud when it asserts itself
and to challenge it to deny the doubting voices within
and work hard to heed the builder at the heart,

for I think nothing is more powerful
than the self pulling itself together,
and, like a catalyst,
at my best I help the reaction, and the action,
I facilitate,
sometimes enable,
and I hope to become dispensable
as soon as possible,
as the miracle of the whole pulls itself together.

by Henry Walker
May 8, ’10