My Role in Life

When I was in my Junior year as a student at the University of Detroit High school, I was the Staff Poet for our student newspaper.  My English Teacher, a Jesuit priest, Father Skiffington, was examining some of my work one day and he said to me, “Art, I believe that God had a master plan and he gave each of us a special talent. Now if we can discover that talent and if we learn to hone it and put it to work in our lives then we might work out to become a very special person.  He paused for a little drama and then said, “I do believe that God put you on this earth to serve as a bad example.”  And I said, “Yes, it is true, Father, and you’ve got to admit that I am doing a great job of it.”  In our class yearbook it reported that I had the distinction of spending more time in after school suspension than any student in the school’s history. Over the years, so many writers and speakers have told me what an inspiration I had been to them.  They said they observed all of the things I was accomplishing with the few talents I had and just knew they could do much better with their special talents.  “It’s true,” I would tell them all. “There is greatness in you.”