My Gravestone, So To Speak

I was in the middle of teaching a class today and I got a text from a student asking a question. As my class was working on solving a problem I gave a quick response to the text question and chuckled. My students sitting in the room inquired about my chuckle.

I told them how I happily answer mah Jongg questions, but so many times it is the same question. “Can I (PLEASE) use a joker in a pair?” Today’s students have taken more than one class from me responded practically in unison, “NEVER can you use a joker in a single or a pair.” They are well trained.

I said, I should get that tattooed on my forehead I say it so much. That’s why I call that sentence “the Tattoo.”

“You should put it on my gravestone,” one cheeky woman said.

Since my church, Westminster has a memorial garden, which is where I will go, I said, “I think I have to have my name legally changed to “NEVER can you use a joker in a single or a pair” so it can adorn the little brass plaque that will commemorate my being interned in the Memorial Garden. It would be fitting.

People may forget my name, but over 30,000 students will always know me by that sentence. And even though they know it, they will still probably be coming to me, dead or alive, to let them break the rule, just this once, since it is for mah Jongg.