very old watch on the post card and photo

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way — in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

The opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities — Charles Dickens, 1859

From Washington to Wall Street, it seems that everywhere I turn there is an uneasy state of chaos — as sounds of discontent come through my desk top, a group of pre-license students are in a huddle in my conference room … I’m not sure if they are trying to gain strength in numbers or work up their courage for the looming mid-term.  Muffled laughter is interspersed between  pizza and chocolate — occasionally a befuddled face peeks around the corner with, “we all got different answers for this one ….”   With everything around me upside down, there’s a lot of comfort to be had in that familiar classroom chatter.

Though there aren’t as many students as there were in the “glory days,” it’s still the typical class room …. there’s the nervous little student who chews her nails down to the third knuckle, the easy-breezy who sails right through, the one everybody calls teacher’s pet ….. with all of them bent on making their future in real estate.   This group of students take me to the I Ching, “Out of chaos, brilliant stars are born …”

Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”  In spite of all the uncertainty that surrounds me, judging from the excitement coming from my conference room I’m thinking the best is yet to come …..