What's a sojourner?

"I'll bet you guys are really pissed off at me right now," Mr. Camacho said as he walked back into the classroom.

"I don't want to talk about God, the Bible or who begot whom right now," he said as he took a seat on the table at the front of the room. "I want to talk about this anger you are feeling."

"Look around you. Look out the window. Has anything changed in the last fifty minutes? The sky is still blue, the grass in still green, the walls are still white and millions of people are still believing in God."

He paused for a moment to watch our foreheads wrinkle up with thought lines.

"The only thing that has changed in the last hour of Bible reading is your blood pressure. You are pissed off at me because you believe that I have no business, no right to make you do this."

I laughed at myself for a second.

He then held up another book. "This is Dr. Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams. We will use it to explore this hate you're feeling."

He then held up the second book. "This is Rousseau's Social Contract. We will use it to explore the reasons why I'm duty bound to piss you off."

He then held up the Bible again. "And we will use this book to turn you little atheists into God loving philosopher/sojourners with a thirst for knowledge and truth that will drive you for the rest of your lives."

He then hopped down off the table and walked over to the blackboard.

He spoke as he began to write. "The New Testament has a central power. This power has three parts; the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost."

He then took a step to the right, still facing the board. "Dr. Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is based on the mind's three part structure; the Id, the Ego, the Superego."

He took one more step to the right. "Social Contract is based on the three segments of a society; the State, the Sovereign, the Subject."

"I can't show you how each of these things works. There's not enough time. What I can do is help you see how everything has three phases, three parts, three lives. When we are done here you will be able to brake down any natural and man made object or action into its engine, its driver and its payload."

"Read the first chapter of Freud and I'll see you tomorrow."

With that Mr. Camacho turned and left the room.

We just sat there for a moment and stared at each other. I got up, went to the table, picked up my books and left. I was unusually quiet. I was busy thinking.