Beyond the Goodies & the Weasels

Beyond Goodies and the Weasels: Some of
my worst students are my best. Sounds
contradictory but it happens with language.
Bend it  like Beckham.  Got  to be talking out
of 3 sides of your mouth. the kind of  foolish
inconsistency that  hob goblins brittle minds. 

Any one with a lifetime in a classroom eventually
grows affection for the slacker, who  sleeps thru
lectures & rises to pee when I’m most profound. 
Late of course, with class and work. Questions
authorization.

Rebel without a because.  Bubba with no  regard
for party permits. Jitterbug multi- tasker who comes
to fix my computer while I  mutter privileged grad-
school information about Hawthorne’s houses and
hidden treasures.  (It’ll be on the test!.)

“The road of excess leads to the palace of  wisdom”
and “if a fool persist in his folly,  he becomes wise.” 
Nevertheless I retard, block, constrain, shape &
structure persistence  in the name of love so that
folly’s attenuated and wisdom shrivels  like reason in
the sun, dreams deferred.

Time management,  handbooks & pre-REQS. regulations,
dead lines, syllabi-a-um, popping  pills & wellness advice,
herbs  and academic massage, early warning intervention:
our anti-folly  devices. 

The  conscientious conform & write first- person
pronouns with small i’s  and circle-dots and the
baddies are given probation and instruction to
sign-up for counseling.  Who gains more?.  No, seriously!
Who would you rather hang with?  Take  a road trip with? 
Sandra Bullock or Jesse James?

No, seriously.  Talking holism here, not your  “damned
moral sense.”  I say  pox on Good & Evil if not  beyond, 
but put a grade-gun to my head & I got to choose: weasel’s
as  good as goodies if not better for stalwart pioneering
& frontiers yet unknown assuming one aims  to get
smart and  smarter and don’t mind cherishing attention
efficiencies.

My worst students are often the best. Closest to  the
“kingdom” if  you know  what I mean. Palace of Wisdom
if  they persist in their folly & withstand the goodies.
But it’s hard. It’s a hard reign. . .