Counting Blessings
Sep 26, 2005 News
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(Painting by J.J. Sletten on dispaly at Northfield Arts Guild Gallery)
Sometimes we have to count our blessings. There is an ancient Chinese curse that goes, “may you always live in interesting times.” We certainly do, with hurricane clouds crashing on the coasts and tornados and winds tearing across our own state. The lives of my students sometimes pain me and sometimes make them difficult to work with. I try to recognize the heroic efforts they make to survive and remember the words my St. Olaf professor George Helling quipped to me: “These are students you must hold in an unqualified high regard. Because if you don’t believe in them no one will.” Sometimes others describe them as “student at risk” – terminology they don’t like much and I don’t use anymore because as New York author Lee Stringer says, “All children are at risk. All children fall down. The question is, ‘Is there anyone there who will pick them up again?’”
