Philosophy of Loss, Friday, 2nd Period

[living_endless]

"Morning," Didi said, from her perch atop the desk. "So we've spent most of the class so far talking about death. That's the big type of loss, right? It's the one that's inevitable, and it's permanent. Well, normally."

She was talking to Fandomites, after all.

"Anyhow," she continued, brushing it off. "The fact death is the main type of loss we've been talking about doesn't mean it's the only one that matters. Sometimes somebody is still perfectly alive but we aren't in touch with them. They moved, or we did, or life put us all on different tracks. Or you had an argument and everyone's too stubborn to apologize. Whatever the specifics are, the longer that goes on, the harder it is to write a letter or track down a phone number and say, 'hey, I miss you. What's going on?'.

"But the good thing is, there's nothing that says that kind of loss always has to be permanent. I won't lie: Sometimes it is. Sometimes you just can't find somebody, no matter how hard you look. Sometimes it's better someone not be in your life, even if you do miss them. And that's okay too."

She began moving through the classroom, passing out sheets of stationary. "Anyhow, the assignment for today is to write a letter to somebody you lost who is still alive. If you feel like mailing them off or sharing them with me or the class, you can. But if you'd rather keep it private, that's fine too. The point is just thinking about it. And before you write, we could maybe take a minute to talk about why we might have lost people and how it's different from them being dead. It can be hypothetical or specific -- whatever makes the most sense to you."

Teamwork & Tactics, 3rd Period - Friday

[worstofalltime.livejournal.com]

Class today was in the danger shop with a familiar warehouse . The only difference was thar there were no paintball guns. Or grenades. Or tanks.

But there were several cats. One of which looks like it might have been resurrected from the dead because Wash was a giant sucker at the animal shelter.

"Today you're going to pick a partner to work on trust. With cats." Look, someone had learned about the existence of Neko Atsume and this would have to seep into classes. God help you. "You're going to gain a cat's trust without being clawed."

One cat looked like it would sooner murder you all than allow anyone to pet it. It was adorable and Wash had scratches all over his hands under that armor.

"Try not to get clawed, okay?"

At least no one had to run?