One of the most talked about settings in the book is Tom's whitewashing of 90' of 9' high flat-board fence. Tom was sentenced to painting the fence, on a beautiful summer's day, as punishment for getting in a fight and messing up his clothes. Painting the fence was a deadly prospect for Tom. A young man full of energy and wonderment, the paining of a fence was the last thing on his mind. What's a young boy to do?
When young Jim happened by Tom with a pail of water in his hands, Tom entered into salesman mode and convinced Jim to paint in his stead in return for a view of Tom's injured toe. Upon reflection, Tom hatches a plan to get boys from about town to do some painting. Since the boys weren't sentenced to do the painting they saw it as a fun time. They were quick to trade their worldly goods: orange peels, marbles, a door knob, dog collar, and etc, for a chance to paint a part of the fence. Tom was able to sit and enjoy the day reflecting on his new bounty while the boys happily painted.
At the end of the day Tom was saddened at the shallowness of the human condition. "He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain." (Twain, 1876, p. 13). It's amazing that what I like do for fun is a chore for others who have to do it. What I have to do and what I want to do are not the same thing. Sometimes they seem continents apart, yet at times they are side-by-side. If it's not easy then I want it. If it's right there in front of me I turn away.
This week is a week of coach's meetings for me. Each day we gather to settle all things football for our upcoming season. Daily practice schedules, position coach practice plans, field marking, locker room cleaning and painting, equipment inventory and preparation, and much more are all a part of our daily gatherings. I have been an assistant coach, a coordinator, and a head coach. I've coached on staffs of 3, 7, 6, 4, and 10 coaches. I've coached one-win teams, undefeated teams, state championship teams, playoff teams, and .500 teams. The one constant thing that I covet is working with the kids. I love watching young men win...not just on the scoreboard, but to succeed in that which they are working towards. Sometimes we are victorious, sometimes not, but it's the small victories that pull me back in. When I was the head coach everything was a joy. Cleaning and organizing the equipment room was long and hot, but it gave me peace to have it straight. Whatever amount of hours needed to finish a task were acceptable. As a head coach of an undefeated team I would spend any amount of time to achieve my goal.
Currently I am an assistant coach, and sitting through position meetings can be a hardship. A few years ago my assistant coaches and I cleaned, painted, and straightened our locker room, and even spent time hanging signs on most of our walls. The time spent was great! Today we moved furniture and painted the locker room, and it was almost painful. It's all a matter of perspective it seems. One of our coaches is a young, third-year coach serving as offensive coordinator. This is his first shot at calling the shots, and he is excited and ready to go. Every day he writes on his Facebook page about how excited he is for the season to start. He painted with fervor as a few other assistants ducked in and out of the room looking to find a lighter workload.
As I look forward into the looking glass that is ED 5301 - Research, I see a bunch of busy-ness that is what I have to do. My quest is to find a way to make the work the stuff of want to. I have an issue with bureaucracy, I always have. It's all about jumping through hoops, and I'm sick of jumping. I have a resume, like we all do, and I've done what I've done. They hire me based off of what I've done, but then they want me to do it all again for them to see. Nobody sees what you've done and says, "That's awesome, we are ready to see you do new and amazing things that utilize your natural and acquired skills, meshing perfectly with our personnel and clientele to improvise and synthesize new and amazing ventures." Why do I not trust people? Why am I so frustrated when I have to move through a standardized battery of knowledge that everyone has to complete? Why can't we all just get along? (sorry Rodney King).
In the end it's all about the end. Am I able, willing, to look at the end and find a way to move from today to that place? People always say that the joy is in the journey. True, there are many beautiful vistas and byways to view and experience along life's journey, but the journey is merely the road. We all have a journey to travel, a road to move along as we move to the destination: the end. My joy is who is waiting at the end. As a Christian I am propelled forward by knowledge of saving grace in my life that moves me to do all that I can to help others along their own path. What Twain was saying about attaining something that is hard was at the crux of this rambling: my path IS EXACTLY walking down the road with others, as an educator, friend, musician, pastor, parent, and husband, jumping through hoops and proving myself so that others may see in me what they need to help themselves down their road.
As we painted today one of our young assistants used a can of spray paint to blackout the windows. This helps when we are watching film. We were in there for about two hours painting, and everybody was getting high off of the fumes...so there is the connection between Rush's "Tom Sawyer", Mark Twain's, and this post.
And that is the rest of the story!
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