It was only two days ago

Yet the joy still fills me.

We were immersed in study

I the teacher

They the students

Eager to learn

And they were eager.

Appalled, heart-broken, shocked

Angry, lost, unsure

Does any of it matter?

The president and others incited a riot

More, it was insurrection!

I have decided to write a mystery story. But, I have never written one. How does one start? Granted, many of my stories have been tales of people solving problems, some might say they are mysteries. But, they aren’t really. The mystery is not the focus. Instead, it is part of the setting. Being a treasure hunter is solving a mystery. But, the focus is on the adventure, not finding and decoding clues.

The weather turned last night. It had been in the 70s for a week. This morning, it barely made freezing. By 10 it was snowing. Oh, it wasn’t hard like the blizzard two weeks ago, but it was steady. It is a wet cold, seeping into the bones and joints, everything aches. By noon, it was positively chilling. Then the teapot began to whistle. “hot water” it said. Into the mug went the water, over the teabag. It was hard to wait. After six minutes I hold the steaming mug, too hot to drink, but wonderful still. The aroma is full and a little sweet, smelling like Christmas. It is peppermint. Soon I sip. The warmth fills my mouth, the scent my nose. With the first swallow, the warmth spreads down my throat and out through my chest. The aches diminish, the chill abates at least for a while.

We all want to be students of master teachers or we want our young to be students of master teachers. We reasonably expect that they will to a better job of teaching than the average teacher. But, there is a problem with this desire. If you ask several different people to define a master teacher, you will receive several different definitions. The term is in common usage, but without a common definition. That does not mean there are no formal definitions (Jackson, 2012; Johnson, 2011; What is, 2020; Ohio Master, 2011). However, those definitions focus on what a master teacher does, not what make her or him a master teacher.