Busted

Almost got smoked out of my own classroom last night with incense.  

I got straight-up called out today at school. Yes, it's true, the secret is out, I have been practicing meditation with the middle schoolers.  Yep, the difference between today and the rest of the school year when we've been practicing these awareness exercises, er uh, I mean devil worshiping, is that today, I accidentally said the word. You know the one, the M word (meditation). I don't know what I was thinking, it truly was an accident, and as soon as it slipped out, I knew there was going to be hell to pay. And sure as shit, as soon as school got out I had a meeting with my principal about something, "very important." As soon as I sat down he was like, "guided meditation, are you serious?" To make a long story very short, the least tolerant people on earth, AKA the Baptist, are rampant in the town that I live in. They believe that meditation is praying to yourself and the ONLY person you should be praying to is GOD. So meditation is NOT to be trusted. Proof that they have no idea what meditation is, but that's not really the point. That's what I love about these people, they don't let facts or science get in the way of their belief system.

I went and made my case to the parents, who happen to be teachers at the school (both of them), and happen to be people I like and respect a lot. Armed with the guided meditation book that I was reading from and scientific evidence proving that meditation is good for the brain; I ensured them that I am not trying to indoctrinate their child, that I was simply trying to prime the middle school brain for learning after a long weekend. I also told them that I wouldn't do it anymore, and I'm not going to.

Yeah, I know, I'm going straight to hell. What else is new? I'm actually really upset that people could be so close minded and so disappointed that I let myself become so comfortable that I let my guard down enough to say the word, because truthfully, had I not said it, I probably could have done concentration and brain work with them all year. The lack of tolerance of new ideas will probably drive me out of rural communities. I don't have time for this shit. The worst part about it is that I totally feel like I have label now, but as one my friends pointed out me, I'm kind of transparent, I wasn't really hiding anything to begin with.

In completely unrelated news, I bought a car so I've been able to do lots of cool stuff outside. We've had a fabulous fall. Happs have mostly included hiking and kayaking. Today in fact, I took my US History class kayaking in the Thorne Bay and up the river. It was really fun. 

I'm moving into my new classroom this weekend. It's super small but so pretty! Pictures to follow, I have an awesome view of the bay and a cute waterfall. 

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
 ~ my boy, Thomas Jefferson