School Lessons

I've been thinking of all the things I learnt at school. Pythagorean theorem I haven’t needed to find the missing side length of a right triangle to find my way but being taught to be kind and considerate even when it’s hard would have been a useful tool to put in my kit bag ready for physical and emotional exercises.

Also to find courage when you need it most whilst lying to your mother when she is dying but telling her everything is going to be fine. You know I did that for the greater good to ease her pain but was its courage that spoke of my weaknesses to appease. I would have appreciated an A4 piece of paper with all the rules of wrong and right. I mean the Quadratic Equation taught by Mrs Lewis didn’t help me to formulate my inadequacy with the missing words to find the balance of what is appropriate and what is not in different circumstances. You just hope on potluck and your fingers crossed behind your back.

At school they don’t tell you all the ins and outs and how you will stumble in the dark trying to find a perfect life. And mostly they don’t teach those words I am sorry when it’s the most vital thing it’s like CPR to save another’s feelings so they can go on living their life without feeling the villain with a knife left in their own heart when it was your heart you were trying to defend. Stick and stones and bones but words can leave wounds deeper than a fracture but not visible to the eye. I would have liked a heads up about how carelessly we throw words but keep the stones in our pockets beside the conkers on string as though they were a prize.

Oh, and the fairytales that’s another thing life isn’t always the happy ending when you are walking away from the love of your life to save yours. And it didn’t feel noble like finding the uncooked pea underneath mattresses it felt dishonourable initially to put yourself first. Your lessons in school are nothing like life but I suppose it is because you know the basics of arithmetic and the English language and the rest you have to find out for yourself.