Last Letter: A Riddlesome Goodbye

A riddled message for those who knew and know, or just want to be fooled.

This paradox is unlocked with a key — open the box.

Preface:

Education has always been a "beautiful risk." Throughout my ten-year odyssey in secondary education, I asked only this. "Never tell me the odds." The world clamored for defined objectives and measureable goals, a power I did not seek. Instead, despite my imperfections, I played the role of the unassuming reformer. How so?

I sought to exavate the objective within you; to let you play autodidact, the scribe of your own desires. Or in other words: "What I believe, I create, and what I create, I believe."

But with that came danger — the risk of being marked just and unjust, kind and cruel, precise yet confusing. To pursue such a path is to embrace cruel criticism and most challening of all, the betrayal of those closest to you. "Et tu, Brute?"

Yet I embraced it nonetheless, with the hopeful understanding that I did not walk this path for me, but for you.

Amor Temporis: The Love of Time

Time is strange — we never know how much of it we will have. And every "now" leaves us changed, in ways both drastic and small.

If I've taught you anything, I hope it's not just to think differently, but to know you were worth the thought in the first place: a riddle of systemic questions.

A system tethered by annihilation and transformation — beautiful and terrifying. That's how I felt every day while teaching you.

Today we crave change, tomorrow we resist it, yet change arrives all the same. We leave what is known for the unknown, to make it known, so that tomorrow's unknown is known at a future day unknown. A memory of what will be.

A cycle. A pattern. Order and chaos. A language of understanding.

With each moment comes a choice — or at least we must believe we have one.

Without choice, we justify any terrible state. But oversell it, and you risk a dystopian nightmare full of ideals with no room to love or care — only hatred thrives therein.

So pursue the road that is life and believe in the fire — love life. Be grateful for the time that is now by choosing to live.

I'm grateful for the time we've had together. From bewildering riddles to mythic journeys, from temporal displacements to hidden codes, from witch hunts to forensic debates to historical overviews, to tangential questions like, "Who are you?" Or "Why are you here?"

Don't let school be a prison; let the time of life show you the light. Ascend from the cave, that allegorical dream within a dream.

Remember, to understand light, you must understand shadows, for they are its evidence. Light is best seen in the darkness, guiding the seeker's path to be away from the dark's guarantee.

Paradoxical. Like strangers in a strange land. As we navigate through our own journeys, let's not forget the times we felt like strangers, out of place, anachronistic, or out of time.

We are prisoners, for time comes no matter who you are, where you are, or when it finds you. The time is always now, arriving anew. A cave of light and shadows.

To solve the prisoner's dilemma, one must remember two things: Reciprocity and Mercy. And here, in our now, I leave you with time to ponder, to wrestle with your mind, to ask why you think what you think.

Once seen, time chimes like bells of warning and loss. My enigmatic question for you: Is it noise, or is it a signal?

Time is light and shadow, chaos and order, choice and fate. Love it. Love the paradox. Wrestle with it, walk with it. For in the end, the only escape from the cave is to accept it.

May you learn to love its mystery. The riddle remains: Is it shadow? Or is light?

Your task is to decide. Will you treat the moment as noise to ignore, or a signal to live by? Wrestle with it.

I am grateful for every moment we've shared. May you take what we've built together and light your own path forward. Life's joys largely depend on the quality of your thoughts, so think true, think like you.

The end ... for now.

Mr. Ritcher

(P.S. I've placed the metacognitive riddle before you eyes, so you be the judge of what you think and why you think it.)