THE MAGICAL GARDEN
By Peter Vuono
Journalist Andy Rooney once said that "Teachers have thousands of people who will remember them for the rest of their lives". This is certainly true of my friend and former English teacher Joe Sullivan. I was in Joe's class in 1969 when I was in the 10th grade. It was an amazing time in American history and Joe did more than keep up with the changing times. He inspired, encouraged and enhanced our creativity. He, during the poetry unit, allowed us to bring in pop tunes so that we could analyze the style the artist used. He never raised his voice or got angry- he didn't have to.
Today, unfortunate English teachers are forced to placate students with perfidious tomes written by gangbangers in an attempt to capture their attention. I was fortunate enough to to be given classics by Joe which I have never forgotten. When I think of Sydney Carton saying,"It is a far,, far better thing that I have ever done", how true it applies to the readings I was lucky enough to have been given.
Joe and I lived in the same city. It still has many good people but it has slowly suffered a metamorphosis of degradation. This all ceases when one exits the back door of Joe's home into his personal garden. When I first saw it, I thought that I had stepped into the Garden of Eden, Narnia or even the Shire of Bilbo Baggins. There was a field that went on as far as the eye could see totally obfuscating the darkness that surrounded it. There was row upon row of trees, fruits and vegetables of every kind. It showed me that although the world is getting worse that some things could still shine through the darkness.
So when I left the mortuary and thought about Joe's magic garden, I remembered that there was another that he left behind- his classroom. He inspired, encouraged and helped me so much to "self actualize" as Bruce Lee called it which is merely making myself as good as I could possibly be.
I had enough confidence to continue to write and although I'm the furthest thing from Checkov I self actualized and got many articles published and continued to write, all because of Joe's classroom.
Someone once said that ,"If you can bring one moment of happiness into the life of a child, you are a coworker with God". That being said, it is obvious that Joe is going, to"A far, far better rest than he's ever known".
