For some kids, school is the only refuge from the heat

 This week was hot. Really hot. I remember hotter (summer of 1980), but I was just a kid then and could take the heat a lot better. Now, as an old fat man, it's a lot harder to take. It's easy to feel sorry for ourselves and complain when it's like this. But this week, even in the incredible heat, I was reminded how blessed I am that I can usually find refuge.

I am extremely thankful that most of my day is now spent in the air conditioning. As I type this, a crew is putting a new roof on the house next door. They don't enjoy my luxury. Even still, I do spend some of my work day in the heat.

I'm a teacher, but I'm also a school bus driver. Most school buses, mine included, don't have air conditioning. That big yellow steel box sits on a lot all day under the blazing sun and temperatures inside are at or near 120 when you get on it for an afternoon route. Then you fill it with kids and all that body heat makes it worse. I got on my bus this afternoon at 2:45 pm and off it a little over 2 hours later.

The folks in the bus shop did their best to make us and our passengers as comfortable as possible. They froze water and brought it to us at one of the schools where we pick up kids. That was a huge help, but nothing could mitigate the scorching heat on a long afternoon bus route. To say it's been miserable for most of the kids and the drivers would be an understatement. Personally, I couldn't wait, every day, to pull back into that parking spot, set the brakes, and turn that key to the off position. That meant I was on my way to somewhere, some way to escape the miserable heat.

But one comment from a little kid early in the week made me grateful for the opportunity to drive that hot metal box full of kids in that heat that made Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come to mine more than once.

"It's not as hot on this bus as it is in my house," said one little kid getting off the bus.

That stayed with me all week. Every afternoon when I got on the bus I remembered it. Even every morning when I got on thinking about the afternoon to come.

The truth is it probably isn't hotter in that kid's house than it was on the bus. You'd be hard pressed to find a house with 115+ temps inside around here. But it's very possible that kid lives in a house without a/c. And it's very possible that kid lives in a house that is always hot.

In the evenings when I made it home to my air conditioned house, I saw several times people suggesting that school should be closed, or dismissed early. But while we were in school, we were plenty comfortable in air conditioned spaces. The bus was nearly unbearable, but other than that things weren't bad.

Some nearby schools did close early some days this week. When I saw that, I thought about that little kid's comment.

Even though the house probably wasn't REALLY hotter than the bus, it's very possible the only relief that kid gets from the heat is at school. How many others are in the same boat? How many at our schools? On our buses? At other schools?

It's easy when we're uncomfortable to complain and look for ways to ease our discomfort. If school would have closed this week, I probably wouldn't have ventured out in the heat much. I probably could have stayed pretty comfortable.

But closing schools would have deprived that little kid on my bus of the only relief available. That kid has no relief from the heat except for school.

So I'm thankful we kept schools open. I'm thankful that kid and all the others in the same situation were able to find some relief for some of their day at a place that's often unappreciated.

I'm thankful for all the bus drivers who sat in the drivers seats of those tin cans under a blazing sun, enduring triple digit temps to get kids like my little one who commented to school, and some relief from the oppressive heat. I'm thankful for the bus shop guys who kept the buses going and did all they could to make the uncomfortable rides as comfortable as possible.

If I was driving an air conditioned bus, most likely I'd have never heard that little kid's comment, and this would probably be a post complaining about how hot and miserable it was this week.

Instead, I'm thankful to God for putting that little kid on my bus to remind me just how blessed I am. Blessed to have a cool house to go home to. Blessed to work with kids in an air conditioned school. And blessed to work with kids on an unairconditioned bus.