If you’re in my generation or love Oldies, you sang that title and followed it with
“You got to make the morning last – just – kickin’ down the cobblestones – lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy!” (and if you need to follow THAT with a sing-along before you continue reading, then by all means, click here and take a little song break!)
I spent so much time playing this whole album as a teen that I cannot just sing a phrase. It’s the whole song before I can move on with even a thought – and that’s only if I can remember what I was thinking before the song started playing.
These words by Simon and Garfunkel came to my mind today when for the third straight day, I stayed in bed instead of teaching school as I’ve done for 34 years. It’s because of the fever, body aches, sore throat and cough — but, still, the take-away lesson for me as I look at this unexpected interruption in a pretty peculiar year of interruptions, is that the time is coming when each day will present the choice to get up or not.
For now, I love teaching high school seniors, although I admit that I have to move very fast to keep up. Sometimes it’s good to be forced to slow down, to stay in bed, to catch up on a favorite TV show, to read a good book. When you’re in full career stride, you move fast all the time, and even though most people think teachers have the whole summer slowing down, I don’t. I move just as fast, if not faster, during the summer months.
I wonder if I might have been healthier and been able to resist the flu if I’d been a little more rested. I wonder if a three-day break would be good for all teachers between winter and spring breaks (no brainer: the answer is yes!), but I wonder most of all what it will be like when the words “Slow down, you move too fast” are no longer relevant to my life.
When that day comes, I hope people won’t be telling me to “Hurry Up, You Move Too Slow,” but, if they do, I plan to sing my reply…
Got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy.
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