Once during my college teacher career, the dean called me into his office and ordered me to finish teaching a course that lost its instructor. When I complained that the semester was almost over, that I had no idea what had been covered, and furthermore that I had never taught that course, the former Marine drill sergeant pointed to the door and dismissed me with the same words he no doubt growled to numerous terrified recruits: “Like it or not, you will do whatever must be done.”
Back in my office in a blue funk, I had no idea even how to begin preparing for the course. Then I thought about how my best friend and mentor Jaybird during my boyhood years on Dad’s Mississippi Delta farm would react to such a daunting challenge. “If you’re looking for an easy day, boy, look to yesterday,” he would have said. The wise old black man began his well-earned rest in the Lord’s eternal embrace years ago, but is very much alive in my heart and mind. So, I did what I often did as a boy: I talked to Jaybird, knowing he would provide the encouragement I so desperately needed.