What books rarely teach.
The teacher often taught outside the university setting.
Self-Mastery
They went to the cinema to watch the film “How to Be Human?”.
The speaker stepped onto the stage.
He argued that virtue seldom appears in extraordinary moments, but in small choices, when no one is watching.
He suggested that virtue may not lie in the extinction of passions, but in their education—just as one educates what, by nature, tends toward excess.
In the midst of his speech, he evoked the image of animals kept on chains: calm at first glance, yet returning to their nature the moment the chain breaks.
There were those who abandoned wine, gambling, and the excesses of pleasure, yet still carried within them the same inner movement. A sudden party, the sound of clinking glasses, or a familiar scent was enough for desire to reawaken as if it had never left.
He was met with a standing ovation.
He posed for photographs alongside the most influential people in the audience.
In the parking lot, he grew irritated with the delay of the valet.
At home, he let his body fall into neglect, and the space around him mirrored the haste of the day.
And between speech and silence, only he remained.
Continuous Improvement
They visited a botanical garden.
Rose bushes stood heavy with blooms, surrounded by vibrant vegetation.
The gardener greeted them with pruning shears at his belt and a small spade in his hands.
As they walked along the stone paths, he stopped before a flowerbed.
Among the flowers, there was a small weed.
He bent down and removed it with ease.
“Today was simple.”
He showed them the thin root still clinging to the soil.
“In a few more days, I would have had to dig much deeper.”
Further along, they found a striking azalea bush.
Cut branches lay quietly at its base.
“When I had no knowledge, I used to feel sorry for pruning.”
He pointed to the shoots emerging beneath the cuts.
“I thought I was hurting the plant.”
Near the greenhouse, there were dozens of seedlings.
Some grew vigorous. Others appeared fragile, almost invisible.
One of the students pointed at one of them.
“That one doesn’t look very promising.”
The man smiled.
“The best ones don’t always draw attention at first.”
“They simply grow.”
Farther on, the gardener pressed his fingers into the soft soil of a pot.
He carefully revealed a seed, already preparing to sprout.
“Almost everything happens where no one is watching.”
At the end of the visit, they inhaled the fragrance of night-blooming jasmine beginning to open.
The gardener looked over the garden in silence.
“I’ll be back early tomorrow.”
The Practice of Goodness
They visited patients in the hospital.
The waiting area was crowded. Some seemed to be in physical pain, others in emotional distress.
In the corridor, patients moved slowly. Others sat quietly, waiting for consultations or tests.
Passing through the ICU, they saw a nurse holding the hands of a boy connected to several machines. The child’s eyes were calm. His mother’s face was covered in tears.
In the ward, they found a doctor speaking with an elderly woman.
He was not speaking about illness.
He was speaking about the animals she used to keep at home before she became ill.
The woman smiled.
When they left the room, one of the students said:
“I thought caring was only about giving medication.”
The teacher said nothing.
They kept walking.
Service to the Community
They attended an orchestra rehearsal.
The conductor raised his baton.
Cellos, violins, flutes, and horns began to play.
For a few moments, the melody filled the theater.
It became difficult to distinguish one instrument from another.
Everything seemed to belong to a single voice.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed through the hall. Everyone turned in alarm.
A person fell from their seat.
A violinist stepped down from the stage.
When the performance ended, one of the students said:
“I couldn’t hear a single instrument on its own.”
The conductor smiled.
“Nor could I—even with the unexpected disturbance, and the fact that we lost a musician.”
The student looked puzzled.
“When each one tries to stand out, the music disappears.”
He looked back at the orchestra.
“When all serve the same work, it happens.”
As they left, they saw an elderly woman being helped by a young man carrying a violin.
Education of the Soul
They entered the library.
The bookseller was elderly. His round glasses gave him both a youthful and wise expression.
There were thousands of books.
Some filled the highest shelves. Others rested on wooden tables weathered by time.
He moved among them as one walks among old friends.
One of the students stopped in front of an encyclopedia.
“Have you read all these books?”
The man made a face, widening his eyes.
“No.”
The student smiled at the reaction.
The bookseller pulled a small volume from the shelf.
It was simple, yellowed, filled with handwritten notes in the margins.
“But this one I have read many times.”
He turned a few pages.
“There are books that inform us.”
He ran his fingers over the cover.
“And there are books that stay with us.”
They continued walking.
Some shelves held pristine, untouched collections.
Others held modest books marked by use, folded pages, and underlined passages.
The bookseller pointed at them.
“These often leave more transformed than they arrived.”
The students smiled.
Further on, a man sat in an armchair reading in silence.
The bookseller observed him for a moment.
“Some people finish a book.”
He looked at the reader.
“Others allow the book to continue them.”
Inspiration Through Examples
They visited a gallery dedicated to great lives.
The walls displayed portraits of men and women from different eras.
Beneath each painting, only a name was written.
Some had ruled nations.
Others were famous film actors.
Others had never held any position of power, yet bore faces of rare beauty.
They walked in silence until they stopped before the portrait of an ordinary woman.
A small plaque was fixed beneath it.
It said she had been criticized, ridiculed, discouraged, and imprisoned for having freed many people from slavery.
At the end of the visit, they found a sentence engraved on the wall:
“Men die. Examples remain.”
The students stood in silence before the inscription.
And so, the students went home.
No one spoke of the teacher.
Each one returned in silence, reflecting on their own life.
https://digitalmehmet.com/author/rschumaher
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Discover more about my journey as a writer in my interview with Dr. Mehmet Yildiz
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