Working While Your Heart Is Elsewhere...

My sister called me on the way to school today and told me about the earthquake in Thailand.. My son teaches math there at the American School of Bangkok. I'm so proud of him--he's doing so well. I am guessing he's a great teacher--I know he loves it. He's department head, gets sent to education conferences out of the country, teaches AP classes, gives independent ukulele lessons, and coaches. He was coaching soccer--kids about ten and under--when the earthquake hit. 

When I got ahold of Max right after I hung up with Jill, I found out that, thank god, he was alright. He was still with a bunch of the  young soccer kids in a van and they had gone outside of the city. He sounded strong and OK, but he said the kids were really upset and I could hear them in the background. It happened about 1:30 in the afternoon, so about 1:30 a.m. here. He said he had sent a text to our family group chat in the night, but I hadn't checked my phone before heading to school. (Weird, I know, but I  leave at 6:25 a.m. and was thinking about my honey lavender shaken espresso from Caribou. Basic first world thing.)  :(

Anyway, stateside, I told colleagues who knew where Max was living that he was ok, remembering  that it really is different if it's not your kid. He had said to me, "We were lucky. People are dead." It is devastating that so many are still unfound in the rubble.  

Students are a great distraction, but Max was on my mind all day. I got evaluated fourth period, and it was fine. It's not like he was injured for heaven's sake--but he was there. It isn't my tragedy. I certainly have taught through worse things, and will teach through much worse things. We all will likely teach through heart breaking things. For our family, today wasn't tragic, but my heart still wasn't at school. 

It was halfway across the world.