Teacher

One of the most interesting things about being a teacher is that I am, by proxy, an actor. I don't get paid millions of dollars, but then again I am also not required to be as handsome as those movie star types. I also don't have the pressures to keep up the good looks that I do not possess. Nonetheless, I am an actor everytime I walk on campus. From the moment my left foot plops down on that weather beaten asphalt I put on my game face. I try to speak only when appropriate, and I sure try to say the correct thing. I nod in agreement when I want to call someone a dumbfuck. I might say, "That is surely an interesting perspective on the matter," whe I really want to say, "Go read a goddamned book for once, and after you have seriously thought about the bullshit you just sad, then come back (in ten years maybe) and then let's have a more realistic conversation on the matter." But I don't say those things. I smile. And I nod.  And I allow so many people to utter such nonsense while I look on, eyes half glazed over looking for some alternate universe where those half-thought out words might be adequate.