My Favorite Teacher

   I have had several good teachers in my travels and lifetime. Starting with my parents whom I loved, as well as my sisters and family who lived with us. From my birth family I learned about love, spirituality, and social mores. In  grade school and high school I had a few good teachers. These special few had the ability to show interest in our success in life as well as our academics. To them there were no stupid or wrong questions.
   When I got to college I had my horizons expanded in several ways, none the least was that many of the professors were there to give information only. It was up to me to take notes and don't ask too many questions. These were some of the reasons that the following teacher sticks out as my favorite teacher.
   When I signed up for ancient history I was prepared for a boring dry lecture. What I experienced was quite the opposite. The speaker was a middle aged man, short and stocky, salt and pepper hair with glasses.  He introduced himself as Dr. S.T. Swirsky. He spoke with a commanding tone and a slight accent. As he continued to speak  I felt like I was listening to a documentary where the setting and background of the subject matter was being skillfully and masterfully set. I was so mesmerized by his presentation that it was about ten minutes into the lecture before I realized I needed to take notes. I soon learned to concentrate on the subject and not the presentation only, and to quickly take many notes. My grades were very good in his class. I remember essay tests that were long but he was a fair grader.
   I was to take world history as well as auditing a comparative religion class of his. As students in world history we learned first hand about being a Jew during the time of the Nazi occupation. Dr. Swirski had the yellow star and a missing finger  as a solemn reminder of those years.
   I was to find out later that he was also a rabbi when he invited me to a Rosh Ha-sha-nah service. Being that I was a fallen away Roman Catholic I saw no harm in it. This again was an eye opening experience. I never realized how similar a temple service was to a Roman Catholic service. Even the physical setting, save for the men and women sitting separately, was very familiar. The most amusing part of the service came when a woman who was sitting next to me got lost while following along in the jewish prayer book. She asked me to help her find her place. I thought if someone who can read hebrew was lost I certainly wasn't the right person to ask. What I said was, " I am sorry I don't read Hebrew." Another realization was that the "Our Father" that I had prayed since I could talk, was a condensed version of a longer prayer commonly said in temple. When I pointed this out to Dr. Swirsky he just smiled, and then invited me to sit in on his comparative religion class, which of course I did.
   Looking back I can see that Dr. Swirsky taught lessons about history,  religion, love and tolerance, not only in his classroom and the pulpit, but by being a living example. For instance, one day when I was short of bus fare and I asked him for help. He told me I was in luck because I had gotten to him before his daughter had, and if I ever needed help again to come to the First National Bank of Swirsky, and then he laughed.
   I ran into him sometime later and after asking how I was he asked me if I was happy. To Dr. Swirsky that was the most important thing in life. He told me to do what makes me happy. At that time I was into having fun. Happy would come later. I was still in college wondering what the future would hold.
   Since then, through my many jobs and phases of life, I can still hear him asking me that question, and my honest answer is yes Dr. Swirsky. I have lived in a way that, although I have had rough patches, I have also had many periods of happiness, and with God's help, I will continue to have them in the future.