There's a tendency when hammering out these blog entries to focus on how bad I have it. Poor me, teacher in an urban middle school, drives a bus, blah....blah. But the reality is that I'm rich beyond measure, in wealth (compared to most people in the world), in family, and in my job (of all things!).
All this has been brought home by the tragedy in W. Virginia. People away from the coal mines don't really know how miners and miners' families suffer. Imagine ekeing out a living by carving coal from the ground...hundreds and hundreds of feet away from sunlight, birds chirping, and clean air. Imagine living with knowledge that in a good year, more than 20 people will die doing what you do. Your house probably doesn't resemble a house as much as it does a shack...in a dismal town with dismal skies.
Imagine a life expectancy far shorter than most folks.
No wonder that most coal miners want their sons to do anything in life...except what they do.
Nope, I've got it good.
1 comment:
You are truly blessed. Plus, you have a granddaughter that can't get enough of you.
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