1. My second semester of teaching started off on a tragic and jarring note. The weekend before we came back, one of my co-workers and her husband were killed in a car crash, leaving six young children behind. I didn’t know her very well, but it’s still a sobering experience to have a violent death strike so near. Please say a prayer for the repose of their souls if you can, and for their family.

The other car was a stolen truck and the driver was running the wrong way up the expressway with his lights off trying to evade the police. Needless to say, I hope he never breathes free air again.

2. As the Gospel says, we know not the day or the hour that God will call us from this life. We moderns have a tendency to think that we’re more insulated from that than our ancestors, but the truth is it can strike us just as swiftly and unexpectedly as they. More so in some ways; most people throughout history would find it bizarre that one of the leading causes of death is our normal means of transportation.

As in many cases, it’s less that we’re more protected than that it’s easier to ignore. We feel like we can count on living to old age, and so death and what comes after can be safely relegated to “future me’s problem.” And because advances in medicine and hygiene mean that things previously deadly are now much less so and ‘ordinary’ causes of death are less prevalent, this idea isn’t often disturbed.

But it’s no less real. We all will die, and none of us know when. So we have to be ready for it; to be found at our posts when the summons comes.

3. Anyway, the fallout from the event made for a pretty atypical couple of class days. On Monday two of my classes only had a single student (they only have three at the best of times), so I just decided to use it to chat and get to know him better rather than trying to lecture at him. Unrelated to the tragedy, I also found out that two of my students will be moving away, and of course they had to be two of my favorites, consistently well performing and with great attitudes, whom I’d partially built my new seating chart around (placing them near to low-performer on one side, shy wall-flower on the other). Such is life, I guess.

4. I’ve started studying a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (hereafter TEFL) course, intending to make that another part-time teaching gig so that I can finally be back in black and so be able to keep it up. Online courses are what they are, but I feel like I’m getting some good material from it, especially with regards classroom management and teaching strategies. I’m considering how to apply them to my current job. Which is part of the reason I decided it’d be a good investment: even discounting TEFL as such, I’ll get info and certifications I can apply to other possible teaching gigs, broadening my resume and hopefully making this a viable long-term day-job. It’s really my first experience with a day job that I can actually see myself sticking with, if I can square the financial circle.

5. I’ve not been writing much lately. My mind has been more disorganized even than usual and it’s simply fallen by the wayside. This past week I’ve made a conscious effort to correct that and I’m slowly starting to get back into the good habits I was beginning to build.

6. My first-Mass prayer for New Years was to get my own house in order. I feel as though I’m beginning to see some movement in that direction, but it’s slow going so far.

7. And a bit of beauty to round out a somber Flotsam: