Fear

Fear

“Who can give me an answer to the question on the board?” Mr. Lehnert scanned the room for life.

Students sat, reclined, generally paid no attention to his question.

“You should all be able to answer this. The first one to answer gets a pass on the week’s requirement.”

He again saw no action on the part of the students for a few moments. Then one from the back stood, walked to the white board.

The question stood out in black block letters on the board.

‘Why does silence scare you?’

The young woman spoke, “I know an answer.” She took a red marker to the white board and wrote.

Flowing script Mr. Lehnert had not seen since his childhood appeared.

“We are afraid of knowing who we are. We are afraid of our imagination. We are afraid of life.”

Stacy put down the red marker, nodded to Mr. Lehnert, walked out the door.

“I think class is over for today. Your assignment is to choose one of Stacey’s statements. Write a 500 word essay with your thoughts. It’s due tomorrow.”

Mr. Lehnert left the classroom, leaving the students with more than an hour left in the class period.

“Are you kidding? I’m not afraid of life, I’m afraid of imagining not being alive,” cried Adam.

Stan stood, pointed to Adam. “You’re a big cop-out. You know you’re afraid!”

The remaining students took sides. They argued imagination, quiet, knowing yourself, eliminating distractions.

Mr. Lehnert found a note when he returned in a few hours.

“The sociology class challenges you to live like it’s 1990. We will be doing that for a week. See you tomorrow with our hand-written essays.” Fifteen cellphones sat on his desk. He smiled, added his to the pile.

W/C 294