All right, I’m not going to start one of my rants about all those people who belittle the teaching profession, but after the kind of day I had today, anybody who does not believe how difficult and stressful teaching is should try working in a classroom for a few weeks.

Did anybody notice recently how many signs there have been that the world is headed towards a not-so-bright future? Such as the United Nations’s report on the current state of global warming, and the subsequent predictions of the effects this will have on both coastal flooding and worldwide famine in the next century? That presumes we will survive the current epidemic of terrorism and worldwide warfare which has caused scientists to move the doomsday clock closer to midnight. Sometimes I wonder if we will survive long enough to experience any of those science fiction far-future scenarios at all. It’s real scary.

And there’s my tiny bit of sunshine for this stressful midwinter day. Maybe I’m just getting cabin fever and need to get outside a bit. Or maybe I’m just being realistic for a change...