thoughts on mr. harrison

 today marked the final full day of teaching english and philosophy at trinity for mr. harrison. next week is finals and next thursday is graduation. matt's seventh senior class will walk down the isle with robes and caps on ready to venture out into the world armed with the knowledge and wisdom my husband tried to push into their heads. matt will walk into that graduation as mr. harrison. teacher. and he will leave the ceremony mr. harrison. dean of students.
a whole new set of responsibilities and lessons are waiting around the bend for him. 

matt was content at his job. he loves teaching with a passion i've never witnessed before. the thing about it is, he is an amazing teacher. and i'm not just saying that because i'm his wife. his past and present students will nod their heads in agreement to this statement. he KNOWS, capital letters knows, his subject matter. he LOVES, capital letters loves, his subject matter. and he CARES, capital letters cares, for his students. he doesn't just stand up in front of them droning on about something. he presents his subject matter with flair and a zeal that ignites in them an enthusiasm for learning and for understanding what their purpose is while they are here, the purpose God has spoken into each of their hearts. 

i embarrased matt on his last full day of teaching by showing up with my camera. i walked into his homeroom and was greeted by all of the seniors. they are not normally all in his room for homeroom, usually it is just half of these faces. but on this day, this lucky last day, they were all in there. i announced much to the horror of matt, that i would like to get a group picture with all of them. they were more than excited. in fact they all raced to get around matt. he was holding penelope who when all the kids rushed him burst into sobs!  that is why this picture is a little on the blurry side. for that reason and the fact that matt wanted it over as fast as possible. after the picture was over they all went to lunch and matt held back. "thanks alot for that", he said to me sarcastically. to which i replied in a no nonsense kind of way. "you might not like it now, but someday you will be thankful i took that picture!" i think he agreed because as he was walking to lunch, he said to me, "i'm going out to play dominoes with the kids for the last time....you can come and take a picture of it if you want to." oh! i want to husband. i truly want to. the picture below is that picture. every friday matt would sit with students and play dominoes. the sound of the little white rectangles with different colored dots smacking on the tables echoed off the walls. 

he looks happy in this picture. truly happy. 

i pray this next chapter of matt's time at Trinity brings him happiness and contentment and growth. i pray it stretches his natural talents and that God continues to use him. i know that it will be a different kind of "teaching" and a different kind of loving these kids, but i am certain that he will do it with consideration and with flair. 

because that is just the kind of man this man of mine is. 

congratulations Dean Harrison! 

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey." - 

Wendell Berry an excerpt from his poem The Real Work