on decisions--- seed catalogs

In my classroom are students who have differing abilities to focus. They range from those with OCD, who can get stuck in search of certainty; and those who have ADD who are quite certain that they may be a bit impulsive. I am more like the latter so while trying to choose a variety of tomato out of the multitude can be difficult, I don't get stuck for long. But does my attention stay there long enough to get the order completed? It is not done yet.

Then today I am sitting in a library examining who got published in the best Short Stories of 1967. Raymond Carver, who my plant ecology professor would introduce me to in 1985 (24 years later I am still hooked on short stories and plant ecology, can we say MENTOR). Joyce Carol Oates, who was in the 1963 anthology (the year I was born), is back again. But I get distracted by a book on my wife's pile. Melons for The Passionate Grower by Amy Goldman. My wife was attracted by the amazing photos. I read the growing tips then page through the amazing photos of heirloom melons while waiting for my wife.

I do not despise melons, but I would not say I am passionate about them. What happened during 2007 still makes me wonder. I left a thriving melon bed to go on an August vacation. I came back to the school to be saddened by the sad state of the bed.

I sit in a library reading and wondering... we could try again. First, I have to stop and focus on the seed order.

It is a call to be in the present moment. Not being obsessed and not being distracted. A place many find hard to find, but a place full of life when we arrive.

On break--- hanging over my head

A friend, who teaches at a local college, recently spoke of being relieved for unlike most years, she had finished grading student papers before the holidays. They were not hanging over her head.

My seed order hangs there. Well not her head, but mine. The catalogs are resting over at the Pathway School where I teach. It is winter break. This weekend I will travel to the school, check the plants, and bring them home where I can sit back with some jazz and make a decision.

The students have helped quite a bit. First by circling photos of flowers and veggies that caught their eye. Then we get serious and narrow it down. I love to hand a seed catalog to a students and say, "read all the descriptions of ________ and then explain to me why I should go with your choice."

I have had more than one student drawn to the extra-large version of vegetables. I don't favor them, so I have rejected most of their requests with ... bigger does not mean better.

But this year a student told me a story. He remembers going to get a monster pumpkin and the trouble of getting it home. Later, after they had found a home for it, the pumpkin rolled and smashed. We do the math... one plant covers 70 square feet. We make a deal, he digs out a new bed, I buy the seeds and let him takeover. I will guide him, but it will be his plot.

Here is a photo my wife took when all the students were home during a summer break. I am a blur, but I love it all the same. Lets call it, "twilight and giants- summer of 2007."