21st Century Technology Allows They Who Lyeth In Bed To Attend Those Who Marry In Louisville. Nice.

I was sitting at home writing and lying still as prescribed when I got to feel the Louisville love.

Technically, I was supposed to be in Louisville this weekend to attend the wedding of Elizabeth Russell, Class of 2001, and Richard Sanford, Oxford University. Liz'bef, aka Bambi, has been working on her doctorate in history for many years (after earning a degree in history from the University of Louisville). Yes, she is part of the graduating class (2 G's and a $1) that had yours truly as their English teacher...for four straight years. Four straight years of Crandall. As they moved up in years, teachers retired and I moved up with them. I ruined them. The poor kids never stood a chance in the world because they had my shenanigans in 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade.

I knew it was going to be a rough to make it to Kentucky this month for the wedding, but the hernia did me in. It became an impossibility. Still, thanks to Meggie Masten and IPhones, I received clips of the ceremony, including this first dance --- another of my babies hit the dance floor in matrimony. Foolish kid. What is she thinking? I'm kidding. I am always happy for any and all who walk down that path (well, aisle) and experience the joy of such a day.  Then, they called. Wow! Bambi looked so beautiful and the Frog is very, very proud.

14 years since they graduated. It took me months to get my head on straight after they left. Actually, that was the summer I was a Fulbright Memorial Scholar in Tokyo -  I needed a distraction and applied so that I'd have a way to move on.

The videos sent of everyone (ha! all in their 30s) made me happy yesterday. They are older now than I was when I was teaching them. They knew me as a 26, 27, 28, and 29 year-old. It is insane to think they have passed the age I was when I had so many memories of them. Eerie.

That decade of my life remains the strongest, most powerful experience to date. There's no scholarly journal, academic book, movie, professional study, or government report that can get anywhere near the influence of that building and its students. I will go to my grave fighting for everything they taught me there.

Brown School and the Universe - 1. Bureaucracies, scholarship, institutions, Common Cores - 0. Give me innovation, the arts, creativity, funk, music, diversity, and originality any day. The rest of it doesn't work (and really doesn't matter).