We’re all just passing ships in the Teaching night (or sea?): Reflections on 10 years of teaching, Part III
When it comes to longing and nostalgia, few writers capture it better than Milan Kundera. ‘The Greek word for ‘return’ is nostos. Algos means ‘suffering’. So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.’ ( Ignorance ) ‘In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.’ ( The Unbearable Lightness of Being ) ‘We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.’ ( The Book of Laughter and Forgetting ) ‘But we know that memory is anything but reliable. It selects at random what it wishes to store, discards what is not to its liking, underscores the emotional, sublimates and distorts.’ ( The Snows of Yesteryear , Gregor von Rezzori) Rewind to this time 10 years ago and I was finishing up my first stint as a teacher, at a summer school just outside of London. After 6+ weeks of teaching, it was time to say goodbye. It wasn’t easy. I’m a sentimental old fool. Growing...