Connie Schmidt:  

High school was a long time ago, and only a few events and people from that time stand out for me. But there was this one day in the Comp & Lit class of Naomi Fannett, who was one of my favorite teachers of all time because she encouraged my -- um --creativity, and was tolerant of my adolescent arrogance. On this particular day, we were all engaged in one of those lively class discussions that I always thoroughly enjoyed. I don't remember the topic now, but I do remember that this session had a bit of a twist, because Mrs. Fannett had assigned a few class members the task of observing the rest of us in action. Based upon our behavior, the chosen observers would place each of us into one of several categories, e.g., leaders, followers, wallflowers, peacemakers, class clowns, and so forth. (I do not actually recall of the categories, but a couple of them stick out in my memory, for reasons that will become apparent.) When the discussion was over and the time of reckoning came, I smiled a little smugly to myself, sure that I would be classified as one of the "peacekeepers" due to my continued efforts to help people who were vehemently disagreeing with each other find some common ground. I have to say that I was a little disappointed when my name was not listed in that noble group. Instead, I was one of the class clowns, of all things, along with Leslie Kiefer and "the two Rustys" -- Rusty Rains and Rusty Carter. How could that be? I wondered. Those observers obviously had it all wrong. Still, I felt honored to be in the company of Leslie and the Rustys, and while I did not go on to enjoy a distinguished career as a stand-up comic, as befits a class clown (neither did my fellow "clowns," for that matter), I have continued clowning around in my own way. Most recently I've been hamming it up on my blog, Whirled Musings, which pokes fun at the New Age (or, in my parlance, the New-Wage), self-help (selfish-help), pop psychology, McSpirituality, and related topics. Occasionally I get serious about one thing or another, but for the most part it's lighthearted. In keeping with this web...Expand for more