Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Six Sentence Story bloghop.
Hosted by Denise there but two requirements for inclusion: involve the current prompt word in your story and have no more/no less than six sentences.
Prompt word:
TASK
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.Sister Catherine turned to face the classroom even as she wrote the final line of Henley’s poem ‘Invictus’; the majority of the eighth graders were busy scribbling notes, a third, mostly the boys in the back row, looked impressed by her chalkboard skills and one student frowned as if trying to solve an attractive riddle.
“That sounds like he’s saying we can rely only on ourselves in life, we don’t need others, not even God,” the boy spoke half to himself but looked up to see the nun staring at him; smiling, she extended her hand, “Come up and lets see if that’s as valid an ideal as Mr. Henley wants us to believe, shall we?”
“Don’t worry, Seth, your task is simply to walk slowly to the door, turn and come back,” her arms now at her sides allowed the traditional habit of her Order to cover all but a window formed by the starched-white wimple framing her face, her eyes, with a thinly-veiled passion, commanded the attention of twenty-five young people; “Now, repeat your walk but when I say stop, freeze.”
Three steps away from her, she said “Stop” and the boy, his right leg halfway into the next step, froze and stumbled forward; the class laughed, the boy joined them with a protestation of, “No fair, I was in-between steps.”
The woman in the ancient clothing of her Order nodded, “Exactly, walking is nothing more than falling forward, counting on your other foot to be there when needed; and that is surely the most mundane example of Faith; being willing to fall because you know that God will be there to keep you going.”
*
About clarkscottroger
The last para totally resonates with me. Very well-written!
Thank you very much, Miz Saxena
That boy’s reading of those verses from the poem are how I would have read them as well. However, I probably wouldn’t have risked telling Sister Catherine my opinion. I would just wait to see what happened when he did.
lol Sr. Catherine does have a certain rep.
Excellent, master Weaver.
As for sister C’s metaphor… a big discussion.
Nevertheless, allow me to use Alan’s words :
“Faith is a state of openness or trust.
To have faith is like when you trust yourself to the water. You don’t grab hold of the water when you swim, because if you do you will become stiff and tight in the water, and sink. You have to relax, and the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging, and holding on.
In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be”.
Impeccable cite-source, yo.
Totally agree.
my time with t’ai chi brought the notion of walking as controlled falling into better focus. and Faith, well, as someone once said, ‘It’s easier to want than to have ‘course ain’t nobody said it better, imo, than Douglas Adams’ “the secret to flying is to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
Delightful – I love spending time with Sr. Catherine.
Thank you
A nun who loves imparting knowledge in unique ways will always get her point across.
agreed (Sr Catherine is a hybrid nun combining characteristics of a number of historical Sisters)
Good one. Nice to see Sister Catherine again!
thanks, yes. she is fun to write
Sister Catherine’s words within your final sentence are really striking. We can only hope he heeded them.
Thanks.
That (heeding words) would make sense, if not for one little thing (speaking only for myself)… at the age, lol we all know how the odds would be handicapped
Sister Catherine sounds like a good teacher. I really liked the last paragraph, and her explanation about faith.
She is becoming a favorite character to write for… funny thing about characters, some are more… ‘real’ than others
What a pleasant surprise to “see” Sr. Catherine. Been a very long time.
Enjoyed this story very much, Clark, as well as your description of Sr. Catherine’s habit – “… her arms now at her sides allowed the traditional habit of her Order to cover all but a window formed by the starched-white wimple framing her face, her eyes, with a thinly-veiled passion…”