intellectual night turns into strange rant

I had a full day at school and the local college. As I walked home at seven pm I planned on writing for my graduate class on IMPERIAL SPAIN all night.

My dad was just going to a lecture about Jewish architecture by a prominent local developer-artist-writer-thinker at the University of Miami.

I AM SO GLAD I WENT! This guy was amazing! He connected the major religions of the world and explained how their development influenced their temples, churches, blahs, blahs. He named numerous examples of religions borrowing from each other.

Even though he’s ‘Jewish’ he explained the whole concept of religion as a human invention. No fundamentalism. No hell talk. No Zionist talk. He referred to prayer as an INVENTION.

I really should embrace my Jewish roots. Too bad my mother wasn’t Jewish- that way I could say I’m Jewish without having to deal with the wierd looks when you say you don’t have a religion. Being Jewish is more of a cultural thing for a whole lot of Jews I meet. Few start yelling about Isaac and Abraham.

I talked with the speaker after his lecture. He seemed so thrilled about my trip through Europe and all the things I saw. He adored the idea of teaching history without having taken any “teacher courses” or “history courses.” It felt nice to be respected.

Then my dad, brother and I ran into a school-board member. She said to me after talking for 10 minutes: “You’re a good teacher. I can tell that.” Once again it feels nice to get a compliment.

It made me feel good whether it’s true or not. But I realized at the meeting: OUT OF ALL THOSE ELDERY JEWS AND ONLY TWO LEFT TO USE THE BATHROOM DURING A TWO HOUR PRESENTATION. SO THOSE LITTLE FUCKERS ARE GOING TO BE HOLDING IT TOMORROW! I WILL NOT BE INTERRUPTED ANYMORE FOR THAT! THEY CAN SHIT THEIR PANTS!

But I am serious about that. They have to learn self control or show me a note from an MD. Or I’ll be cleaning up a messed up seat.

Okay I had a great day.

Check out this fellow teacher’s diary…Teach for america!