Big Head or Pirate

Very often I tell my students stories that aren’t always entirely true.  One of my favorites is the one about my wives.  You see, my first wife was a pirate.  She died 21 years ago in a bungee jumping accident.  That’s right, my first wife was a bungee jumping pirate! I tell my students.   My second marriage was a total disaster.  She had a tiny head and criticized me about everything I did.  Nothing was ever good enough for her.  I should have never gotten into that marriage so quickly but I was on the rebound from the death of the pirate. Small Head’s name was Snydley.  My final and current wife use to work at hickory farms.  She was the lead cheese cutter there when we met.  She has an abnormally large, but beautiful head…and only one eyebrow.  I am attracted to large headed one eye browed women…and a mullet, curly on the top, straight on the sides…with a little bit of acne.  She is extraordinarily humble and always open to new ideas.  She was one of the subjects in the Habit of Mind study done on highly successful people by Dr. Arthur Costa.  She is the kindest woman I have ever met…the antithesis of Snydley, my second tiny headed with a string bean body wife.

That is a rough synopsis of the stories I tell my students about my wives.  At the end of each year, I ask my students to describe which of my three wives is their favorite.  A very insightful student I have wrote the following in his response to the question.

I like Big Head because to me she almost represents the changes that you have made. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but your wives almost seem like an allegory to the evolution of you as a person. At first you were reckless and perhaps less thoughtful(pirate wife), but then you evolved to someone who is too critical of themselves(small head), and then finally you became Big Head, the person of today who is a practitioner of thinking and living in the moment. Big head is my favorite because she is thoughtful, humble, and embraces change, just like you.

My student, Ashlen, is way too kind.  I guess he learned about allegory somehow, and as important or even more importantly, so did I.

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