Nonsense

mom put beer in baby bottles when i was a baby and said it helped put me to sleep.

some years later i learned a quarter glass of wine could calm my nerves before a presentation; an unsustainable medicine that got me through many a meeting over the years.

eventually the fear of being an alcoholic sent me to the doctor where i admitted being afraid all the time. there are a billion medicines a person can take to suppress fear but a prescription wasn’t what i needed.

there are classes where i sit down with teenagers and make demands of them that i haven’t even made of myself. their minds are scrambled with snippets of who they are and who they’re expected to be. they irritate me for their occasional lack of respect for authority but i used to be them so don’t get too angry when they fall into moments of entitlement. they say they fear nothing but when i ask them to stand in front of class and be vulnerable it’s fear that surfaces. i ask them to breathe, to take out their writing journals and learn half of them have conveniently forgotten them at home.

i breathe and remember the things i forgot to bring from home.

patience. compassion. restraint.

there’s confidence brewing in all of us that needs to be recognized without the expectation of favorable packaging. the best gifts i’ve ever received were hidden on the outside and graced with excellence from within.

young and old people remind that fear is just one passageway to great things and a glass of wine on occasion seems better than daily suppression of natural temperament, and whatever else puts the crybaby to sleep.