A Lesson Learned in Time…
Teachers. To some the concept is nothing more than childhood memories, to others it is a scar that will forever mark upon their being. On an early winter morning of 1983 the destinies of a few forever changed, the reality of a generation dawned upon them…even though childhood whims of fantasy reigned foremost on our minds.
It would be a lesson learned in time.
We were a group of fourth graders, not understanding the significance of the moment. We had not gone though the suffering, the understanding, and the true 'definition' of war…from the 'space race' to Vietnam, we were a generation lost within the realm of science fiction, later deemed 'Generation X' by the ones who came before. We watched the shuttle Columbia land, just as any other airplane would have upon a runway…
We did not understand.
To him, Mr. Yoder, a teacher nearing retirement, it represented much more than we could ever comprehend. He cried as the wheels touched the pavement. And I watched, watched the tears of a nation pass upon him, a thousand dreams breathing within his hurried breath…we were a classroom of fourth graders unruly and void of emotion in that moment. For first time, the space shuttle 'Columbia' drifted effortlessly to earth. Its wheels met the terra, its crew etched in history, but to us…it was nothing more than any airplane landing on an empty field.
We did not understand.
Children never knowing each tear on our teacher's face represented a lifetime - with the Russians we would only fear in textbooks. A cold war we could only remember through fragments of memory. From the despair of the great depression, to the moments served fighting for our freedoms. A lifetime, his lifetime, spanning from the First World War to that just after the battlefields of the First Desert Gulf.
He told us, "Settle down…someday you will understand." I watched his tears; I didn't understand them two decades ago…gone were the Apollo missions, gone were the voyages to the moon. Today we have set our sights on a red planet more distant, now the dream of living in space is our reality…that moment of history was the beginning of our legacy.
Today we understand.
I sat with my son crying. Watching the news tell the tale of the fated trip. Of seven souls lost like the Challenger years before, but the journey was never in vain. Maybe the loss of the first shuttle was too early for us to understand, we were only middle school students…maybe we needed more time. But today, my child looked upon me with the innocent eyes of a second grader, echoing the same confusion from almost two decades ago. Our time had come.
And all I could say was, "Someday… you will understand."
Today the 'Columbia' has come full circle. In an ironic turn of events - Mr. Yoder has passed on, but his teaching lives within that unruly class of children…
Maybe the greatest gifts teachers can ever teach are the ones that we don't understand. Not for a week, not for a month, not even for a decade…but ones that we only understand when the time is meant for us. For those are the greatest gifts of all.
Mr. Yoder, my teacher…
Yesterday you cried, today we cry with you.