FLIPPED

Yesterday I learned about the value of “flipping”, and today I might try some serious flipping in my own life. At a teacher’s conference, a speaker spoke about flipping homework and schoolwork, so that homework is done at school and the usual schoolwork is done at home – in other words, doing the exact opposite of what we’ve been accustomed to doing -- and what he said woke up something in me. I began wondering whether whole groups of routines in my life could be profitably flipped – whether parts of my life might look less colorless and a lot livelier if flipped upside down. Like most of us, I love the customs I’ve created over the years – the day-after-day rituals that give a sense of rightness to my life – but what would happen if I turned them, at least now and then, upside down? What would happen if I occasionally sat at a desk in my classroom and my students stood before me as my guides and counselors? What would happen if, for a day, my car rested at home and I had a day of walking? What would happen if, instead of being asleep by nine, I sat up late outside and saw stars spread out above us all? Years ago, if someone was acting crazy, friends might have said he had “flipped”, but could that kind of craziness be something to seek after? Could a tipped-over life be a life of freshness and newfound fullness?