Ink And Reason

Some of life’s most valuable lessons can be learned from the most unexpected places.

Do you know what diffusion is? It’s the tendency of gases to spread out and occupy all available space. I learned this invaluable information when I failed physics in seventh grade. I was kind of lazy, more into reading literature, and simply didn’t like science subjects. But then, after a summer of cramming, I finally understood physics, and it became my favorite science subject! Most of this shift in perception was due to the best teacher I had during my school years: Mr. Bălănean, the physics “marshal”. We all called him Bălănel, after a Romanian cartoon character, and he didn’t seem to mind, in fact he wore that nickname with pride. I went through the entire elementary school without ever knowing his real name. It wasn’t until I got my graduation album that I finally found out. His classes were enjoyable and full of laughter. He was strict, funny, and cultured. He was a big man with a heart of gold and heavy hands like shovels, a former boxer turned teacher. He could make us listen in silence and hear a fly’s wings flap in class, but he could also make us laugh like crazy while learning about inclined planes and pressure while studiously cutting up soccer balls confiscated from students who illegally played with them in the hallway.

About 10 years after graduating, I met him again at an Olympiad committee. I was a young teacher at a local college, and he was the same witty man with a booming voice. Tears welled up in my eyes when he fixed his big green eyes on me and after a few seconds of analysis said, “What are you doing, boy? You haven’t learned anything, have you? You became a teacher?”. We chatted then, and he made light of me when I told him he was my paragon of what a teacher should be and how a subject should be taught in school. But I saw, behind that jesting countenance, in the scintillation of his eyes, that he was filled with pride.

But I digress, like Putin in his interview with Carson. What I wanted to write about is that earlier today my little kid farted in the kitchen and set off the gas alarm. Because, you know, diffusion really works, even with memories.