TIME

When I taught art to a class of teenagers studying for their first national exam (GCE), they hated me. The first term consisted of art exercises and no sketching or painting. The first set of exercises used dots and progressed to circles. The last set of exercises started with broken lines and finished with continuous lines. Their first homework assignment was to draw a household item of their choice without taking the pencil off the paper. They had to vary the pressure of the lead on the paper to depict form -- no shading allowed.

I drove then dotty!

When they returned from a school trip to Venice, they were tripping over themselves in the doorway to the art room -- talking over each other at the same time!

"Oh, miss, we saw everything!"

"WE saw the reflections, the decorations, the bridges and the buildings. The others didn't see it! But WE did! WE are special because we do ART!"

They were special all right!

Good story Shelagh.

LC wrote:

I've never interviewed anyone on their deathbed. I don't know what they say.

I wish I could say that. You are fortunate to have been spared that particular pain.

LC wrote:

Do people wish they spent more time sitting on their asses reading novels, fishing, shopping, and watching TV? I'd rather be at the office.

The underlying meaning of that quote is obvious to those who understand. People wish they had spent more time with other people who should have mattered more to them than did their jobs.

"Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

- the ghost of Jacob Marley

Al Stevens wrote:

The underlying meaning of that quote is obvious to those who understand. People wish they had spent more time with other people who should have mattered more to them than did their jobs.

I understand it. It's an overwrought, soppy saying that people like to pull out to justify spending even more time watching TV.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who spent loads of time with other people, and then wished on their deathbeds they were able to pay for a better old age. And a better young age, for that matter. The grass is always greener.