I talked to one of the students that I worked with this afternoon. She is "on punishment". Being someone who is fairly familiar with this concept, I talked to her a little about it.
"Let me tell you the story Ms. Kara...."she begins, and then weaves an amazing, eventful tale about how THE VERY FIRST NIGHT she was allowed to drive (she has JUST turned 16) she hit a parked car at the movie theater, but didn't think that it was that bad, so she drove away.
Then, driving home, it was dark and raining, and she HIT ANOTHER CAR from behind. She couldn't drive away from this one. Her dad showed up and told the police to take her to jail. He was so mad at her. They didn't.
Then, that night, the police showed up at her door, asking about the "hit and run" informing her (apparently this is the first time she found out about this) that she could be sent to jail for what she did. Some kids from school were at the movie theater, saw the whole thing, and told the police. She is one of the only black people at her school, so how did they describe her? The black sophomore who ran for student council VP. And she was surprised she got caught!
Greg talked about community on Sunday, and I can't stop thinking about it. I have lived alone off and on for almost 4 years now (since I graduated from college). It's hard to live with people sometimes when you are used to being selfish with everything around you. In true community there is a sense at which you have to die.
In the movie Crash, the beginning quote is so profound.
"It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
Sometimes I think that I'm more like my student, though. I crash into people, and still think that I can walk away. Or Hit and Run.
2 comments:
this is a great story.
when I was in high school my friends and I used to take turns hitting eachother on purpose with our cars. we were really good at it and we had it all timed perfectly. we'd drive up, slam the brakes too late as the guy getting hit would leap onto the hood and bounce off the windshield and roll onto the road. then we'd get out and scream.
this was almost always in front of a walmart.
I really like your correlations here... between your student, the movie, and living in community...
And "hit and run" relationships... I've never thought of that before, but it's a great thought... I think our generation tends to do that alot...
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