Teachable Momenst (aka: Liberal Art)

Dear Colleagues on Both Sides of the
Desk whether you walk out of the room
in the middle of discussion to go to
the bathroom  sit politely  until it's
TIME...
 
For nonconformity the world whips you
with its displeasure. And therefore a man
must know how to estimate a sour face.
The by-standers look askance on him
in the public street or in the friend's parlour.
                                        Emerson.
 
Teachable Moments.
 
That phrase indicates some moment
which is probably otherwise
considered disaster, disruptive,
demoralizing.
 
You’re out sailing on Lake Champlain, say,
freezer full of beer, basket full of  burgers,
good breeze, sun shine,  tan going on.

Or you’re scooting up to Connecticut
in a Buick loaded with Xmas gifts,
wife riding shotgun, kids in the back
asleep, Interstate 95 clear of early
morning traffic. 

Hiking Jones Mt with your dog off-leash
no matter what the signs say, walking
over the mast of fallen acorns. nuts and
berries, squirrel-chatter, buzzard circling
in a blue sky.
 
No one refers to those as “teachable moments.”  
 
Why?
 
Only when the clash, collision, bumper-car
cross-roads fender bender and crinkles
crunch as 2 bodies can not occupy the same
space occurs does a “teachable moment”
arise as an emerging phenomenon.

“How come some people are touchy:” was
the question posed last time to inaugurate
the universe of  converse.  That was where
IT began last time.. Tolerant-to-intolerant
ratios among individuals, groups.

Information theorists define INFORMATION
as the Noise-to-News ratios going on in a
closed system at any point of measurement.
 
Every one’s touchy.

Just got to find the spot —Achilles heel, maybe
or total skin surface.  Damaged and damaging
if we do or don’t do,  the damage done is an
ongoing given, of being  alive and conscious,.
true? 

Damnation, so to speak.
It’s the denial, I say,  and
cover-up that generates
the toxic waste.

I’d say can we argue?
But we can not. 
Wounded.
Vulnerable.
The scabs too touchy
to scratch & sniff so
as to heal! heal!
damnit:  heal
I said!