This morning my roommate bolted out of his bed and out of the room into the kitchen. I could hear him open the oven and smelt baked potatoes. He cooked them for his lunch. The reason he bolted, because they were in the oven too long. He overslept when he was going to get up to move them. As I thought about this whole action of bolting across the room, I wondered if it was necessary.
I assume that all people do. I know I rush across the room and have watched many do so. Do we need to really bolt across the room when something is burning on the stove or in the oven? I mean, as long as it isn't going to set on fire, does the 5 seconds to bolt, or 15 seconds to walk make that much of a difference? If it's burnt, it's burnt. I think we could just walk. Bolting doesn't allow us to control the situation.
Then I started generalizing the situation. This same principle has bigger consequences in other situations. If you are supposed to be at work and you leave five minutes too late to arrive on time you can lose your job, or get scolded, or your students might be left alone. Speeding in the car won't get you that much faster. If you come five minutes too late for a plane, its gone. These ideas aren't flowing as well as I want. But it's the slice of life I've been thinking about today.
I just talked with a student today who was trying on questions like yours, & trying to make them fit into a personal essay about questioning. I am going to print this out & share it with him. He too was struggling to make things 'fit'. It sounds a lot like philosophy to me, as in "why are we, who are we, where do we belong, etc." I don't know all the exact terms anymore, but loved the pathways your writing took.
ReplyDeleteMy husband bolts around the house every morning and it's not like he is late or putting out fires! He is even up an hour earlier than me! I think he just likes stomping around in the morning... :)
ReplyDelete