Napa Valley Earthquake
“…the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”
There is a Zen adage that states: “No two people have ever met and departed unchanged.†It is chilling to me to acknowledge that a simple question, asked by a curious student, profoundly altered the direction, scope, depth, and trajectory of my life. Without Lettie’s question, I most likely would have missed much of the magic, marvel and music; the poetry, pageantry, and intrigue; the joy, sorrow and wonder that all converge in the realm of human spirituality.
Without Lettie, I probably would not have met John Muir and Robert Burns, two men who had a huge impact on my life journey.
Burn’s poems are often pithy, rooted in nature, poignant, spiritually simplistic and contain a compelling moral statement.
A classic example originated the day he was plowing a field in Scotland. Much to his surprise his plowshare sliced neatly through the habitation of a family of field mice. He stooped down and saw the underground dwelling with a chamber for food storage and a sleeping area. Seeing the destruction that he caused, as well as the terrified inhabitants frantically trying to find safe refuge, he was moved to write, “ To a Mouse.†Each time I read the poem, I imagine that Burns was not only horrified by his actions, but wondered how he would react if some behemoth alien, with a 20-ft-tall plow, were to slice through his cottage.
The ode reveals all that he was thinking and feeling and includes one of the most famous lines of poetry ever written:
“…the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”
His ode, “To A Mouse,†not only forever changed how I look at animals, but became a mantra for each Biodesign Class.
Each Class was a unique blend of all of the component personalities. At the beginning of each year, I urged them to acknowledge that what they brought was more important than what I brought. It wasn’t a hollow platitude, but based on the fact that there were 25-30 of them and only one me.
Although I had a lesson plan for each day in class and an itinerary for each field trip, what happened in class and on the trips could be wonderful—scary—unpredictable. Over the years, several times graduates volunteered to go along on trips as chaperone/aides. After the second or third day, they came to me with concerns that the trip was not progressing as it should; which meant it was not progressing as their trip did. I smiled, knowing that I had to learn the same lesson.
In spite of meticulously planned trips, each one unfolded as a unique experience. While Burns’ mantra, “The best laid plans…†often involved painful adjustments, many provided opportunities for growth and contributed to the evolution of the class.
If, “no man is an island†and all of the people we have met have changed us, then Biodesign Out For A Walk was truly written by over 700 students who took the time and made the effort to help educate me.