Bird Droppings February 17, 2025
Getting over the speed bumps

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” Hannah More

Perhaps ahead of her time, Ms. More wrote in abundance in the later 1700’s and early 1800’s. She was writing at a time when women should have been sitting at home according to the customs of the time. She had her goals, and she strived to achieve them daily. Several middle and high schools around the country still bear her name. When I am driving about the countryside, I think back to the days when the wonderful speed bump was purely a southern thing. Sadly, they are now used across the country. Often, we are taken by surprise upon approaching a stop sign or crosswalk, and even sometimes, some grocery stores will mark pedestrian walkways with those wonderful, often unseen obstacles. They are put there to slow us down in our hectic lives.

When Hanna More wrote that line, however, speed bumps were many years ahead, and she was looking more at life metaphorically. As we journey in life, we tend to become complacent and begin to slack, and it is at those times that obstacles become frightful. I used to drive into Atlanta on a regular basis to take things to my son at Georgia Tech before he graduated. There is a stretch on North Avenue where you literally look down the hill and, of course, look up. When in a lazier mood, it is fun to see how fast you can coast down and then see how far up the other side you can go without using the gas pedal. Obviously, I hope all the red lights are green through your free fall and ascent of the hill.

By chance, several months ago, when going downtown to Piedmont Park, I was thinking about how hard it must be to walk up and down that hill. Even in a car, as you begin up the hill after the momentum wears off, you have to increase the pressure on the accelerator. Life is very much the same way, and living can appear more difficult when we lose focus and become bewildered. I was thinking about learning and education as well in my earlier days. I would wander for semesters at a time, losing focus; beyond staying out of the draft, the college had little other meaning for me at the time. I floundered around for several years.

Today, in teaching, I stress context as well as content, which gives meaning to the learning of my students.

“It is not so important to know everything as to know the exact value of everything, to appreciate what we learn, and to arrange what we know.” Hannah More

Ms. More was perhaps more methodical than I am, and even her contemporaries claimed she was a Methodist. Methodist was the word used to describe John Wesley, founder of The Methodist Church, and his friends because they were methodical in their teachings and beliefs. At that time, the word Methodist, which, for The Anglicans, the Church of England, was sometimes a dirty word or one of jest, depending on who they were referring to.
But this second quote, knowing the value of everything and appreciating what we learn, gives that learning context, meaning, and substance. This is what true education should be about, and better yet, when we, as parents and teachers, provide context so that learning lifts us over obstacles and carries us through our lives. It is that extra pressure on the accelerator we need to climb all the hills on North Avenue that we have in life. Please, my friends, provide context and content and keep all in harm’s way in your hearts and on your minds as we go out and about our business today. Always give thanks to namaste. Peace!

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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