On Writing Well

College was an option for me because my Mom made sacrifices to pay the tuition for her son who played more than worked, and spent more than saved.

I was a kid who asked lots of questions, most began and ended with "Why?" A professor at Seattle University required us to answer essay questions with paragraphs memorized from Politics Among Nations, by Hans J. Morgenthau. A poor writer and worse memorizer, I asked "Whyyyy?" His calm, direct answer stayed with me for 24 years longer than the answers to the essay questions and his name. Professor (I don't remember) said, "Until you can write better than Hans J Morgenthau, you will write his words so I don't have to read your words." OK, I could accept that. Should I fail to memorize Morgenthau's words completely or fail to put my own thoughts in logical order, the grade would be the same; less than mediocre and slightly better than total failure. I gave some effort (I know this because I still have the book and the paragraphs are highlighted and underlined) and I have a diploma, somewhere, which makes no mention of Hans J. Morgenthau, Professor ?, or my essay answers.

Eternally grateful to my Mom for my college experience, I didn't give the effort that she gave paying my way. But, I did learn somethings so I better share.

Attention deficit was nothing I knew of in 1977-81. Only with my oldest son did I become aware of ADD and ADHD. Cathy put all of herself into helping Aaron with medication, learning, and being cooperative in class. A mild case of one or the other is what he had, and I have mountains of empathy for parents of children with learning disabilities. Reading is required in all courses so without an ability to focus, the student has no chance.

With the right teachers, they know who they are, Aaron thrived in english, history, literature, and writing course work. In some DeForest class rooms, Mount Bachelor Academy-Oregon, and Horizon High School-Madison, Aaron Meyer learned to love good writing (that includes songs).

He read Walden and "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau, which I picked up to read this week, just to get a little closer to where my son was in his thinking. The first page of the introduction hooked me on why Aaron loved Thoreau's thinking, "Convinced that the less labor a man did, the better for him and the community,...". The next 32 pages are filled with sentences as beautiful and meaningful as any painting. Here are some I highlighted, and may be able to remember, but if not they're in the book.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?

One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels.

We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us!

...I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle.

And what I will think about when I turn out the light tonight:

The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye: but I returned it sharper than I received it.

Aaron, you wrote a note on my laptop last September and it saw it today: "...Remember Pops, Life's a garden, Dig It! Your son, AJ AKA Air Bear. " Henry David Thoreau would agree, that is well written.

Air Bear, from all of us who handled you, as Thoreau an Axe, we know you are one of the apples of God's eye. If we returned you sharper than we received you, it is only by the Grace of God and not by our own exagerated work.

Peace
Honored to be your Pops