One heck of a ‘teachable moment’

To the editor:

As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of a new one, I am reminded that so much depends on individual perspective. In “The Prophet,” Khalil Gibran encourages us to become our children, not to try to make them become like us.

When my son was small, he attended the day care center at the university where I was a student and an employee. We tried to leave early enough to beat the arrival of a daily freight train, which seemed endless and made us, and others, late for class and work. Usually we were stuck, along with other lanes of traffic, while the seemingly zillion freight cars rolled slowly along. From the heightened seat in my old Dodge van I could see down into other vehicles.

The other drivers mirrored my own feelings. I saw them pounding steering wheels, throwing up their hands in frustration, pointlessly leaning on horns, craning necks out windows to see if the end of the train was near and cussing with passengers in their cars. I usually sat in frustration wondering if I was going to be admonished for arriving at day care late once again. At one point I asked, “When will this train end?” and realized simultaneously that my preschooler, straining toward the windshield his face alight with excitement had exclaimed, “I hope the train never ends!”

That was one heck of a “teachable moment” long before I ever heard of anyone named Oprah Winfrey; and I have tried to let it guide me through the downs and ups and plateaus of life.

It may be no great loss that I was unable to complete my degree at that college. During the day care center’s annual open house, I saw a college administrator in a suit and tie petting a lamb at the petting zoo. His child was entranced and the man said, “See, honey, it’s a lamb. That’s where daddy’s cotton shirt comes from.”

Carol Neurerman

Palmer