You will learn to think critically —
weigh the choices, make rational
decisions, ask who, what, when,
where, why; you will learn to love
the written and well-spoken word;
you will learn to love music and
art and science and history and
philosophy and sports and physical
fitness and yes, even foreign lang-
uages; you will learn of physics
and meta-physics; you will learn
of logic and morals and ethics and
you will learn of the great religions
of the world and you will be free
to choose one or more or none of
those great religions; you will have
passion for what you do and com-
passion for others and you will
continue to learn and ask questions
and value them more than answers;
you will love the out-of-doors
and hiking, biking, swimming, camp-
ing, jogging, backpacking; you will be
a good steward of creation; you will
hold a flower instead of a gun; you
will lay down your life instead of
taking another’s; you will love a
good joke, one that isn’t at the ex-
pense of anyone, except perhaps your-
self and you will laugh often; you
will know how to break up words cor-
rectly at the end of lines, but you won’t
care (see above incorrect “correctly”)
because you will be writing poetry
and if you are lucky, you will under-
stand the subtle difference between
what you are and what a chair is and
you will know that rocks move very,
very slowly and that you are mostly
water, bacteria, fungi and viruses;
you will be in awe of life; you will
be “innocent as a dove and wise as a
serpent”; you will know what “turning
the other cheek” really means; you will
know that “Jesus loves the little child-
ren, all the children of the world —
red and yellow, black and white, they
are precious in his sight”; you will
internalized the sermon on the mount;
you will embrace the four loves – storge,
filia, eros, agape and you will know
that God is love; you will forgive and
accept forgiveness; you will know
how important it is to know how
to cut a board straight, tie a few
knots, change a tire and maybe, just
maybe, if you are really lucky, how
to plant a garden — either flower
or vegetable or both, and if you can’t
have or simply don’t want a garden,
at least you can appreciate a garden
and the work that goes into it, and
nod and have the smarts to tell the
tiller of the soil, thank you or
“That’s lovely”; appreciation is a
sign of a well educated person;
courtesy is too; gratitude is a sign
of a spiritual person; it’s nice
to combine them; they go well
together; and then there is the whole
thing about cooking as a spiritual act-
ivity, not to mention a discussion
on the joy of fly fishing, but that’s
for another time.