“You all are zee future of our country. You are zee future leaders of our na-shan,” Mr. Karan went on with in his thick accent. I haven’t been able to place where the accent is from or what language he speaks natively, but I do know its not english, and his english reminds me of being at church when I was little and the Holy Spirit moved and all the old people spoke in tongues.
“What do you see when you look at this pick-chur?” He met nothing but blank stares as he presented us with photographs of the Middle East, slides of the conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs. He smiled slightly and slowly walked down the aisles. “Is et just too early for you to care about the world?… Someone. Tell me how to solved the conflict between Israel and Palestine?”
The familiar ritual of silence greeted me. only four weeks left of this. More Silence. I squirmed. I blinked. My neighbor fidgeted. It loomed on. I couldn’t tell if I heard a clock ticking or if it was just my imagination. All of us torn between guilt about not giving a shit about the rest of the world and desire to crawl back in bed.
And then someone caved, for the first time all semester.
“Well I saw this peanut butter commercial once…,” he began. “There was only one peanut butter sandwich left and there were two boys. And the mom said if one boy cut it… then the other boy could pick which half he wanted. And then everyone was happy because they both had peanut butter.”
Professor Karan nodded, walked over to the boy and smiled.
“If everyone could share zee peanut butter, all our worlds problems would be solved.”
Now the peanut butter sandwich I had to have is refusing to comply with my tongue and be un-stuck from the the roof of my mouth like play dough after you smoosh it to the table. And all I can picture is President Bush sitting with all the world leaders trying desperately to unstick the peanut butter plastered to the mouths that declare war, solve conflicts, and issues orders to millions of people.
Were all equal when it comes to peanut butter. Unless you’re allergic. Then you just can’t be a world leader.
