Remembering an “Apollo” student and our wedding rings.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.

Romans 8 : 28

Some stories stretch over years… This memory came to me when standing in Delphi and a lady said ” We Greeks still call a handsome man Apollo”.

We were teaching an “Apollo” of a student in looks and charm. One of us called him ” eye candy”. A senior teacher to me taught him for his main classes and I had him for communication .

After one of our classes finished he said: ” We are all sitting here and we don’t want to go. After lunch we feel like a sleep but we still come.” A little while later we were taking a trip to Oxford and he most politely asked to go to the bookshop with me. I had a few books to buy . Three brick sized Advanced Learner’s Dictionaries. He then asked if I could include the book he wanted with my order. I didn’t catch the title but I did hear full colour and hard back. I gave him a post- it to write the title down. Handed it to the lady with the words:

” Hard back and full colour, please”. Apollo was standing right there and kept a straight face.

It was a terribly hot day. He offered to buy a drink. Water would be fine and while he was standing in the long queue I looked in the packet to see what book was bought. My face burned as I turned a few pages and quickly replaced it!

He returned. The care free atmosphere had gone. I was horribly embarrassed.

He grumbled about the cost of the water and keeping the bottles. I said I had some personal shopping to do. I reminded him where the bus was to pick everyone up and he “Apollo – like” offered to carry the dictionaries with his book.

It was around this time that I was like a dripping tap. I guess I was feeling insecure. If I was wearing a wedding ring so should Roy. Then Roy made the suggestion:

“Let’s go to Athens for our 20th Wedding Anniversary.”

We did. We got our rings.

By that time our student had already left with most of the students in that class getting A’s for First Certificate .

Twenty – five years later the rings from Athens still continue their story…

With retirement Roy has been working a lot more in the garden and recently his ring fell off and got lost. Conversely less work has made my fingers change so now in Athens my ring was made bigger and Roy has had one made smaller. Let us hope his comes later…

Some thoughts about embarrassment.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing teaches us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self- education.

Thomas Carlyle 1795- 1881 British essayist , historian and philosopher.

Now this quote is taking me where this post wasn’t heading but the person who wrote it has such an interesting understanding about God.

I hope for the day when everyone can speak again of God without embarrassment.

Paul Tillich 1886- 1965 German -American Christian existentialist phosopher, Lutheran theologian. Press on The Courage to Be: An antidote of Meaninglessness to hear some more of his thinking.

Sometimes my posts teach me far more than I expect. Upon reflection what if I had asked the student: Why?

The word embarrassment lead me to listen to something unfamiliar but interesting. I listened twice.

Thank you for being with me a little.

Sandy 🙂