The Breath Between Us: On the Calling to Teach

Plus, tons of juicy stuff coming up at WITD!

I have been teaching since the year 2000—
in sleepy elementary arts schools where the hallways smelled of oatmeal and cinnamon, in windowless prison basements where writers persevere with building beauty from words despite all odds, on remote Pacific beaches where the ocean’s roar is so deafening I had to teach voice exercises so the writers could hear each other, in converted turn-of-the-century ice houses on islands in deep Midwestern lakes, in historic lodges on the rocky shores of the center of my hear—that is, Lake Superior, in state parks a the end of autumn as everything faded into restless decay, in my living room littered with teacups and notebooks, and in the strange luminous space of Zoom.

These settings differ wildly in atmosphere. Yet the feeling of learning in community—the low hum of minds reaching toward one another—never changes.

That low hum is the current of shared curiosity charged with hope, striving, and affection.

John Gardner once said, “A prime function of a lead…