Don't know what you're doing? You're probably on the right track
When I started teaching professionally, I was faced with a dilemma: Try to look and act the part of the “expert” and present information in the prescribed manner or on the other hand, honor my own creative process. I tried my best to do the first option and it didn't fit me at all. I can't follow a schedule no matter how hard I try, and I spend way too much time musing about odd things when I should be working. My mind and heart do not operate in a linear way, and frankly, doing things conventionally is just not interesting to me.
Grungy stuff that’s off-the-beaten-path is what intrigues me. Rough, unkempt people, wild places and obscure things offer me all kinds of inspiration for creative “play.” Stuff that no one else is interested in seems to be my route into inspired creativity, giving me ways to engage and have “conversations” that I can’t seem to have with things, people and places that are already polished and perfect. With perfect things, my heart can’t seem to find a way to penetrate the veneer. But if it’s less-than-perfect, I feel right at home.
But naturally, I want to act the part of a “professional” educator--my life and livelihood depend on it. So I wrote a book in order to help me understand how someone like myself could successfully live and work in a messy, creative way and still earn an income as a “professional.” I titled the book Getting Messy: A Guide To Taking Risks and Opening the Imagination for Teachers, Trainers, Coaches and Mentors. In case you’re wondering, “messy” doesn’t mean literal mess. (I’m actually a neatnik.) Messy means plunging into the unknown--befriending things and people that don’t follow established rules, navigating through confusion and perplexity. Contrary to sane reasoning, I feel most alive when I’m in situations where I don’t know what I’m doing. Perplexing situations give my rational mind an opportunity to “get lost,” which in turn opens space for something more imaginative to come through. When I’m confused or don’t see a clear path, I get to rely on something greater than myself. That’s when I feel most alive.
Getting Messy offers those of us in service professions a way to stay in the juice, inspiration, and “messy muck” (for lack of a better word) and still hold the title of “teacher” (or counselor, coach, mentor, manager, etc.) But after I finished it a funny thing happened. I realized that Getting Messy wasn’t just for teachers. It’s for anyone who wants to live an interesting, creative life. And it’s for people like myself, who simply can’t follow the linear, respectable, polished path, no matter how hard we try. If you read it, I hope it gives you both inspiration and sanity. Please let me know.
Learning to be simultaneously a “teacher” and “authentically me” at the same time has been a path of growth and learning. But the truth is... as teachers, what we point to is more important than what we actually say. Good teaching is not about "look at me"; it's about "look beyond me." Thank goodness.
