While reading Bartleby, The Scrivener, I remembered a thought I had 9 years ago during the third grade. I felt my teacher was treating me unfairly, and when faced with adversary I immediately felt like giving up. I wondered how my teacher would react if I responded "No." to any request she asked of me. How would she react in the face of a defiant 8 year old? I knew I would be sent to the principals office, but how could she force me to go if I refused? Fortunately, I decided not to follow up on my plan, but I saw a bit of myself in Bartleby as he refused the Lawyers requests. It solidified the vague idea in my mind that no one can make anyone do anything else. Every individual is fully in control of how they react in every situation, and have full control of where they take their lives, even if they choose not to do anything. With my senior year starting up, and college applications steadily approaching, I am taking every opportunity to boost my application to gain a competitive edge over my peers. Fortunately, I have realized my eyes are often bigger than my stomach, and I have limited my activities as there are only 24 hours in a day. However, many of my peers have not yet realized this fact, and have decided to accept every opportunity presented to them, even if they would rather not. So even though Bartleby's phrase ended up being his downfall, I know that it will also be some over-achieving seniors savior as well.
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As the father of one of your people (i.e., a high school senior), Mr. Hoffman, I feel and experience the truth of this line of your in ways I never have before: "It solidified the vague idea in my mind that no one can make anyone do anything else." My wonderful son suddenly has dreams we never dreamt a child of ours would have to go and do things we would never hope our child to do but will have to find within us the strength to support when and if the time comes. And through it all there is this realization that we cannot tell him he cannot do this, cannot follow that path but can only help him better understand his own choices, but even then, he can simply say, when asked if he would like to talk about it, "I would prefer not to." One cannot, as you say, make another person prefer. This all sounds very cryptic, I realize, but for now suffice it to say that my son is looking to a path very few in these parts choose to follow.
ReplyDeleteA great blog, as measured if nothing else by my own response to it.