A Future Teacher

I walk into the college room, where the seats go up and back so that all the students who were intrigued enough by the fliers that my colleague and I had hung up all over, now loomed above me. Under one arm a very large and heavy alter-fitted Holy Bible. And in my other hand, a large cloth briefcase. I place the briefcase on the ground behind the table at the head of the class room. I pick up the bible from under my arm and seem intrigued with it for a moment. I flick open some pages and seem to be reading. Suddenly I shut it and slam it -hard- onto the table top. Its loud crash making everyone go silent in the wake of its echo. Just as the echo subsides, I shout "Wake up!"

I pull out my briefcase and set out common everyday objects. A portable cd player, a portable DVD player, a cell phone, a few DVDs and CDs and a little television, as well as a few random books. I place these upon the table and put the bible under my arm again.

"This is your mind, right here," I wave my arms above the tabletop "full of materialistic and technological things. It is completely devoid of spiritual attachment to what’s really out there. Now before you religious people speak out, lemme show you your minds.

I remove a bunch of objects and place them on the tabletop along with the other things. These new objects are a few religious icons, crucifixes, chalices, pictures, and the large bible.

"Here," I wave my arms again over the desktop. "Are your minds... still, full of palpable, things you can see and hold. "

"But here’s something that will come as a shock to all of you. You do not need your cell phone." I shove it off the desk. "You do not need your television." And I shove this off the desk "You do not need your DVDs or walkman." I pick them up, examine them a moment and toss them behind me. "And you certainly do not need these: icons" I begin pushing one item at a time off the table as I say what it is. "And scriptures" I throw the book somewhere to the side. "That tell you completely superfluous things. All of these things change with perspective, every, single, one of them. This..." I spread my arms out over the tabletop one last time. "Is all every living creature on this planet needs, and it’s the one thing that binds us to all things living. Both past, present and future. You don’t think that the dinosaurs went to school and jammed out to Godsmack do you? Or that they went home to their favorite TV show and their boyfriend or girlfriend calling them."

"Everything is tainted by perspective, time, and translation, but mostly by perspective. Let me prove this to you very quickly and easily." I walk over and pick up the bible on the floor, propping it against my stomach. I open it to Genesis 1:1

"Genesis 1:1.... ‘In the beginning there was the word... and the word was God.’ See, in the original Aramaic form of the bible the word ‘God’ was actually 'yaweh' or 'jahova' meaning 'light' or 'love'. Now, having this bit of information in your head, let me read this again as it was truly intended. ‘In the beginning there was the word, and the word was Love.’ AT THIS POINT YOU CAN BASICALLY PUT IT DOWN!!!!"