Here To Help

Como puedo ayudarte?

How can I help?

At 9:30 a.m. today, a Monday, I start my new part-time gig at Iowa Central Community College, Storm Lake extension office, teaching an ELL class. This is just Monday mornings, as I’ll continue my other Imagine job coaching position.

Even though I’ve been teaching folks in some form or fashion since 1977, I’m still a bit nervous. Yet, I’ll keep my mantra - I’m here to help.

Some run for public office (continue the good fight, Mike Frantz), others serve in essential community, as my buddy Adam Kutz does with the SLFD, and still others are wrapping up their school years in a few weeks as teachers, administrators, and other support staff.

I’ve decided, for now, amidst the usual turmoil of our spinning sphere, my place in some small aspect of aiding humanity is continuing to do good work in small ways. Life is perpetually wacked out at times, then gloriously in sync at other times, as it should be. It all makes sense, then it doesn’t make sense.

You reach an age where your friends and family that reach the same age are facing some Sisyphean battles and uphill climbs of their own. There are those starting at cancer dead on and starting that treatment journey. Some face financial upheavals when they should be enjoying the enrichment of their golden years.

Whatever spirit you call upon to take the wheel at those hard points, that’s okay. Call in the reinforcements as you see fit.

On another note, I won a scholarship to the fall Okoboji Writers Retreat up at the lakes at the end of September. Retreat visionary Julie Gammack, whose dad Gordon was the dean of Iowa journalism when his column would grace the pages of the Des Moines Register back in the day, sent me an email stating that I won. I was extremely gracious, because I sent in their Facebook application figuring, what the hell, I’ll never win so why not give it a shot? Well, I won, and of course, schmuck that i am, replied to Julie that one, do you need to attend that entire 4-day event, and secondly, I’ll need to see if I can get off work from my jobs because that’s a busy time of year for both.

My wife, in her infinite wisdom, along with many friends who had attended previous retreats, simply stated,” You’re going because you can’t pass something like this up.”.

They are correct now - I’m going because I can’t pass something like this up.

The retreat has workshops from film script writing, songwriters, journalism, novelists, and other creative endeavors. As we used to say on the band stand, it will be a hoot and a holler, plus I’ll will learn a thing or two, about a thing or two. And even more.