Last weekend was one of my favorite times each year when I get the chance to go back to the Osage and visit the places I grew up and more importantly the people who made a difference in my life. Helen Head is four months from turning 90 years on this earth. She was an inspiration to hundreds and probably thousands of students she taught but many she touched in ways you cannot imagine. Today I would like to ask all of you who were touched by her to write a short letter and send it to the Shidler Review to be published over the next few months as Mrs. Head closes in on 90 years. But here is my story about Mrs. Head. I have two favorites but only one I can figure out how to publish and that is another story.
Mrs. Head (College English) seemed to get great joy in coming to class and dropping a bomb of an assignment on us. This one in particular resonates with me over the years. She came to class with a frog attached to an air hose which she sat on her desk then proceeded to compress a small ball pushing air through the small hose which was attached to the frog. The frog would jump forward guided by the escaping air going through its body causing its legs to straighten out pushing the body forward just like a normal frog creating a leaping action. Mrs. Head said very little about this inspiring event other than she demanded we write a story of what we observed.
This type of thing just ticked me off because it had no meaning to me. I thought she had lost her rocker. Well anyway I find myself today thinking that was precisely the type of thing that helped me think "outside the box". I was the type of person that everything had to be logical and make sense and have a purpose I could relate to at that time. I had to see the value in something to deal with it. Well, the great thing I learned is sometimes there is "no right or wrong answer". I learned that my imagination was more important than everything adding up and balancing. In fact this reminds me of the commercial saying America is number 32 in world math skills. I ask myself, thanks to Mrs. Head, is that what is important or just a fact based on someones analysis? What I learned from the frog and Mrs. Head is critical thinking skills and the ability to look beyond the obvious is most important. Show me that America is 32nd in the world where folks want to live and thrive. NOT! America is number 1 and proud of it.
You see that frog helped turn me into a prince. Not in the royalty sort of way but in a person who can think and reason beyond the pundits who say ridiculous things just to score political points. Rather appropriate at this time every four years.
For me I want to be the frog free from its umbilical cord full of air doing what someone else says. I want to be free to be all I can be and think and act freely, as long as it is moral and ethical, to better my situation not at your expense but mine. I want to be a prince responsible for my decisions and actions even if there are consequences I neither anticipated or hoped for. (Mrs. Head would not like that sentence since it ended with "for").
Thank you Mrs. Head for taking frogs and making them into princes and princesses. You are forever loved and appreciated for a magnificent gift.
I can not help but end with "what do you learn in the Osage?".
Mrs. Head (College English) seemed to get great joy in coming to class and dropping a bomb of an assignment on us. This one in particular resonates with me over the years. She came to class with a frog attached to an air hose which she sat on her desk then proceeded to compress a small ball pushing air through the small hose which was attached to the frog. The frog would jump forward guided by the escaping air going through its body causing its legs to straighten out pushing the body forward just like a normal frog creating a leaping action. Mrs. Head said very little about this inspiring event other than she demanded we write a story of what we observed.
This type of thing just ticked me off because it had no meaning to me. I thought she had lost her rocker. Well anyway I find myself today thinking that was precisely the type of thing that helped me think "outside the box". I was the type of person that everything had to be logical and make sense and have a purpose I could relate to at that time. I had to see the value in something to deal with it. Well, the great thing I learned is sometimes there is "no right or wrong answer". I learned that my imagination was more important than everything adding up and balancing. In fact this reminds me of the commercial saying America is number 32 in world math skills. I ask myself, thanks to Mrs. Head, is that what is important or just a fact based on someones analysis? What I learned from the frog and Mrs. Head is critical thinking skills and the ability to look beyond the obvious is most important. Show me that America is 32nd in the world where folks want to live and thrive. NOT! America is number 1 and proud of it.
You see that frog helped turn me into a prince. Not in the royalty sort of way but in a person who can think and reason beyond the pundits who say ridiculous things just to score political points. Rather appropriate at this time every four years.
For me I want to be the frog free from its umbilical cord full of air doing what someone else says. I want to be free to be all I can be and think and act freely, as long as it is moral and ethical, to better my situation not at your expense but mine. I want to be a prince responsible for my decisions and actions even if there are consequences I neither anticipated or hoped for. (Mrs. Head would not like that sentence since it ended with "for").
Thank you Mrs. Head for taking frogs and making them into princes and princesses. You are forever loved and appreciated for a magnificent gift.
I can not help but end with "what do you learn in the Osage?".
- A frog on a string might be one of the greatest gifts you can ever receive
- Life lessons may have strings attached or air hoses
- Growth in life is a decision and sometimes we have to take things we don't like and find the good in them
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
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