A Study

I come to work with a bag of books full of thinking on all I have to give them.
They are the confounded, the misguided, the standoffish and bitter – There is a book for each, even the sensitive and closed student who opens to Frankenstein turning the pages she first read in French. They are the unguarded, the naïve, the reflective and candid – the wide-eyed and sincere student who offers a gift with a little bow. “The winter is coming. This scarf will keep you warm,” one says. What I unwrap is all they have to give me – invariably genuine, simple and profound .
Yet I am always surprised as I study them day in and out at their desks peering into books on authenticity, vernacular, and truth. They inhabit the secret gardens, the hobbit holes, the dungeons and the sea portals – and perhaps are learning to consider me just as closely fondly unwrapped and woven. - EJC Nov’07