Introduction to Ignition

Frank McCourt wrote that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. The former followed this by suggesting that the latter did not live long enough to have one. As of this recording, I’m four years shy of forty-four, the age where the latter of the two aforementioned authors drank himself to death. I am already a master of second acts, as I am always and forever in one. Italo Svevo wrote a book about a man called “Zeno,” who becomes addicted to giving up smoking. The feeling of freshness and invigoration accompanied by the naivety of an untested resolution are intoxicating to anyone who knows them. Mark Twain once wrote that giving up smoking was the easiest thing in the world and that he did it all the time. He also wrote that the difference between reality and fiction is that, in order to be believed, fiction must follow certain rules. Reality because it is what it is, observes no such niceties. On stories, whether they’re true or false, Margaret Atwood once wrote that in the end, we’ll all become stories. After all, when we die, what’s left of us? Whether you’re religious or not, our post-mortem presence on earth is just that: narrative. Were they a good person? Was that person kind? Do you remember when they did this or that?

My name is Sean Bienert, and I teach high school English in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is the introduction to my vlog, Ignition, where I hope to share some ideas that I find interesting and pertinent, and, more importantly, I want to explore a vision for the world that I believe to be attainable and beneficial for everyone involved.

I’m not going to pretend for a moment that the things that I am saying are entirely mine. After all, few people are going to listen to what I have to say, simply because, as a society, we don’t tend to listen to public school teachers from North Carolina. Additionally, because of who I am 1) I refuse to be a plagiarist 2) I am fairly certain that I have made a mistake or two to have wound up in a profession that is regularly and superficially honored, just before being accused of everything from greed to the grooming of minors.

But, if I’ve made a mistake in becoming a teacher, that is mine and no one can take it away from me.

In the next several episodes, I will attempt to do what anyone must do in order to make a substantive argument: define my terms to avoid ambiguity and semantic quibbles as much as possible and outline what my vision is, what makes it desirable, and how to attain it. As brevity is the soul of wit, I shall leave it at that.