July 20, 2006
in the dark corners
Some people feel doom before it approaches them. Perhaps it's due to life moving funny.
And then there's some people that don't.
Out of no where, a memory placed itself in my mainstream of thoughts. It sorta slammed me up against the wall and pinned me there. Forcefully making me relive the moments of some five or six years ago.
People do strange things to whom they consider friends. Ask them to do things in moments of apparent dread that they would never ask in a normal calm situation.
People do strange things when asked in sudden occurrences of someone else's dread. Not thinking of the awkwardness of the favor.
It was a day... you know... like any other day. The sun rose... the sun fell. Birds sang... birds became silent. Things happened the way some people wanted them to... other things happened to people they pray would never...
Setting: job site - a high school in middle of a few rural communities
person: band teacher
situation: job evaluation
outcome: they weren't going to renew his contract
this boiled down to politics... as a great deal of job loss is in the teaching world. the wrong person doesn't like you... you're suddenly in the wrong place at the wrong time... and they think they should correct that...
...and most of the time they do.
teaching was his life... the kids he taught... nearly his own children
mid twenties... was overweight by several... and i do mean...s e v e r a l pounds...
i just figured his big heart had to expand somewhere...
they told him...
...he came out of the meeting in tears...
heart breaking...
he asked me to call his then fiancee...(now wife and proud mother of a baby boy)
asked me to break the news to her
he was shaken... i was stirred
and i did it.
I think about it now... being a messenger of such news
is not a job i would want full time
i wouldn't make a very good Death.