Carrying Excess Baggage

         All of us have situations and circumstances that we cannot completely handle before we must be present somewhere else. You are on your way to work at school on Monday morning as a fifteen-year teaching veteran. Imagine that you have had a very difficult weekend with your spouse, one where you say, “Good Morning, and they act as if you said, “Suck eggs!” You pick up your first piece of “luggage.”

         You park your car and a snowplow crushes the side of the first new car you have had in ten years. You pick up the second bag.

         You enter the building and your boss is waiting for you because you did not complete something she really needed on Friday. She is in a bad mood and you get chewed out.

         You proceed down the hall to your classroom or workspace and say, “Good morning, folks, it’s really good to be here.” They don’t believe you. That is because we brought our baggage with us. They can sense that we are not really present.

         Now imagine asking yourself if the baggage may be parkable, to be dealt with later. Is there anything I can do about my relationship at 7 A.M on Monday morning? Probably not. Knowing that I’ll want to get back to it later, can we leave the relationship at home for the time being? Let’s assume the answer is yes. Occasionally it may be no and we’ll get to that in a minute. After calling the wrecker, the police and the insurance company, is there anything to be done about the car now? Not really. Can we leave the car at the garage? Assume yes. We screwed up and did not complete a piece of work. It can’t be done now; can we leave it alone until later? Assume yes.

         If we can do this, we can remind ourselves of the purpose of school (To assist young people in creating meaningful, productive, contributory, joyous lives and have the tools necessary to do so) and get truly focused, we are far more likely to be present. On those occasions when there are things we cannot let go of, if we acknowledge that, others will be mindful of what is going on with us and we can explain how the process with baggage works. “I’ve got something going on with me. My body is here. I’ll let you know when I get here.” Just saying these words usually allows us to choose to be present.