Perspectives author Elsa Glover occasionally recruits fellow teachers or students to take over her regular slot in the schedule and share their opinions with WNIJ listeners. Today, we hear from Kaneland High School English teacher Mallory Sunday.
As a little girl, I remember nights bundled in piles of quilts, tucked into bed while dad sang our family lullaby with his children. “I’m being followed by a moon shadow…” we sang, thanking God afterward for the best parts of our days at our cabin in the woods. That song lulled me to sleep on many nights, and I came to associate it with absolute peace.
But dad was cunning. I suspect he planned this Pavlovian association so he could use it later as a life lesson. Exploring a rustic island in the daytime is an adventure, but by night it is the stuff of nightmares for a six-year-old. To my abject terror, Dad would think nothing of taking his kids on midnight hikes through black tunnels of tree-shrouded roads. I dreaded the monsters that stalked my imagination, mentally running in search of a hiding place. Dad had a way of cutting through all of that for us. He’d take our hands and sing, swaying our arms in time. “Try to relax and be at peace with the uncomfortable,” he would say.“That’s where learning happens.”
I’m not always successful, and it definitely isn’t comfortable, but I’ve been pushing towards the unfamiliar to find those learning opportunities. When I feel the tensing of nerves, I choose to say “yes” anyhow. It’s okay to relax and wander through that darkness in search of moon shadows because it’s not something to be afraid of.
I’m Mallory Sunday, and that’s my perspective.