This changes everything July 16, 2021

I got the job. The one teaching at a local high school. Not just any local high school, but the one my daughter attended. The only school in the US to be located in a National Park, and a school with Buddhist precepts, at that. 

Kindly, the associate head of school reached out to me the day before my decision was due to address any concerns I might have. My biggest issue: I wanted to work part-time, specifically, I wanted to teach only Bio 2. I knew that it would be a challenge to adjust to high school teaching, especially at a progressive school, and I wanted to do a good job while still having some freedom. After all, I’ve just turned 68, for God’s sake! 

You could have knocked my socks off (if I wore any), but she found someone to teach the two sections of regular Bio. She asked if I’d like to be the sponsor for the Science Club – are you kidding me? Of course.

What a turn-around this job offer has given me. I feel as though I have a structure and a challenge going forward; I might even have a purpose. I will make some new friends. 

The spillover to the rest of my life has been remarkable. I don’t think it’s just being vaccinated against COVID or seeing my daughter more often that has put a spring in my step. I think it’s knowing there is something that needs me in the near future. 

Max Cowan, the late and exacting vice-president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, seemed to have a fondness for me, possibly because he knew my late husband. He once told me that in life one needs someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. I am still missing the partner, but I suddenly feel less lonely because I feel less despair. I have something to do and something to look forward to. Two out of three ain’t bad.

The home stretch June 20, 2021

Last August I wrote about my 101 Books Project, and I am now on the home stretch. It looks like I will have completed my goal of reading Yann Martel’s 101 recommendations to a Prime Minister within the year. Excepting those books that I couldn’t find at a local library or cheaply online - about a dozen - or those that I had already read and chose not to re-read - another dozen or so -, I will have polished off the remaining few within the week. They are pretty short, and I have nothing else to do. 

I am already sad that this journey is ending. Just within the last few weeks, the books I’ve devoured are explosions of creativity and meaning: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn, Chess Story by Stefan Zweig, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Added to that were three captivating plays, Caligula by Camus, Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello, and Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, and one quirky “novel in verse”, Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson. 

Yet, how I wish that another person would have been game for this literary adventure and savored these books with me. Somewhat understandably, my friends and family pooh-poohed the idea of plowing through someone else’s list of recommendations, but for me, during COVID especially, Martel’s guidance was a godsend. 

One never knows the impact one might have on another, so thank you, Yann Martel for reaching out from Saskatoon to Point Reyes Station. You may not have made a dent on the Prime Minister, but you’ve led me on a book odyssey, and I’m all the better for it.