Friends,
This morning, a former student came up to me where I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop and asked, “Professor Reich, are you enjoying your retirement?”
I said “no.”
My answer confused and embarrassed her. “I’m … I’m sorry to hear that,” she said.
“Oh, I’m enjoying life,” I reassured her. “But I haven’t retired.”
“But … you retired from teaching, right?”
“I retired from classroom teaching.”
I gestured to the seat opposite mine. “Please sit down. It’s Sarah, right?”
“You remembered!” Her face broke into a big smile, and she sat. “But I only have a moment.”
I felt proud of myself for recalling her name. I’m terrible with names.
I asked Sarah what she was doing now. She told me about her job in a nonprofit focused on the effects of climate change. We commiserated about what Trump was doing to the environment.
“Now tell me about teaching outside the classroom,” she asked. “How? where?”
I showed her the video I had just posted about what average people can do to help end the scourge of Trump.
Here it is (just double click below):
“That’s fabulous,” she said.
“It wasn’t my doing. It was written and edited by my wonderful, talented team.”
“Wow!”
Her enthusiasm emboldened me to mention the new film “The Last Class,” directed by Elliot Kirshner and produced by Heather Lofthouse. “In just eight weeks it’s been seen by tens of thousands of people in 105 theaters in 33 states (including many red ones!), along Washington D.C., Toronto, and Vancouver!”
(Here’s where it’s showing now.)
“You are busy!” she said.
I suddenly feared I was sounding wildly egotistical but I couldn’t stop. “I’m heading back on book tour this week to promote Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America.”
(I’ll be in Houston on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Emanu El, 1500 Sunset Blvd. Here’s more information.)
“You haven’t retired at all!” she said. “But where does the teaching come in?”
“It’s all teaching,” I said.
She looked puzzled.
“That’s what I do. In all these ways. Helping people understand — especially now, in these terribly dark times. People need to know what’s happening and why. What they can do. And avoid cynicism and hopelessness.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re still teaching!” she said. She rose from her seat. “And now I have to get to work. I’m not retired either!”
“Good to see you, Sarah.”
“Nice to see you, Professor. Hope you retire someday!”
“Not a chance!”
She laughed.
This post has been syndicated from Robert Reich, where it was published under this address.