Life Lessons with Mr. Lima

Yesterday, I was at work doing my thing and searching for customers information when I came across this little jewel:

It is by far one of my favorite things I have found on the Internet to date. It's a little story about a volcano and drug abuse.  

Keep in mind, this was on a Middle School's teachers web page. Apparently he felt this would get through to kids?? 

We've pasted it below, but credit where it's due, it came the Mater Lakes Academy High School. The original link comes from here. 

Earth Space Science Life Lessons with Mr. Lima

(In Honor of Red Ribbon Week)

Episode I - The Life of Magma

An endless routine of going around in circles - stuck in a convection cell rising and falling between the Outer core and the Mantle; slowly rotating around the super-hot core. This is the life of Magma.

It is a great life. In this capacity he energizes the entire world and causes the movement of the lithosphere, which would otherwise always be stuck in the same place. He carries heat from the core and gives it to those less fortunate. He is so powerful that by driving this tectonic plate movement, he can shake the very essence of others - cause earthquakes that change everything forever. He a great motivator. An example for all in the geosphere to follow.  His twists and turns might seem too complicated and difficult for him, but they are magnificent for the world.  His entire journey create a field of attraction that protects the entire planet. He has a good, fulfilled, and magnetic life.

However, Magma sometimes wishes for something more, something different in life. You may call it: "some excitement". He fails to see that his life is hot and that he will gain nothing by trying to be "cool". Which is ironically what will happen if he makes the wrong choices  - a cold lonely end. Succumbing to peer pressure, Magma finds and gets high on cracks. For a while it is wonderful experience. He feels powerful - so powerful that he can push the planet's crust apart, create new sea floor, and separate and join entire continents at will. He feels like exploding with joy.

But pushing others around because of his new found addiction will ultimately cost him. As magma thinks he is getting higher and more powerful, he is actually digging himself a deep hole towards his doom. That is right. In space there is no up and down. It is all a matter of perspective. At this point, Magma unfortunately lost his. As he rises, he eventually reaches the surface, a new exciting place where he is not supposed to be. He is completely lost.

Taking a new persona, Magma becomes LAVA! A powerful and angry force that destroys everything in its path. He is now so caught up in this wave of annihilation that there is no going back. But even as he sets things around him on fire, he is also burning out. As he touches air, land, and water , he loses more and more of his energy. As lava he is much colder than he ever was as Magma. He has lost his intensity and power.

Ultimately his life ends because of his bad decisions. He hardens permanently into rock. As a rock he will stay until it is nothing but dust - destroyed into tiny grains of sand by slow erosion and spread thin all over the surface of the world he once so deeply moved.

Only if he is extremely lucky, in a few billion years, he may sink below another tectonic plate and be once again near the core of his values. After much time wasted, he will melt and once again be part of the circle of internal energy of the World. Though he is essentially powerless and mostly likely need the help of others to get close again to the good warmth of the life around the core.

In life we often find ourselves confused. We may feel stuck in a rut - in an endless routine. Life seems to be going around in circles. In times like that, we may fail to realize that near our core  values, we are powerful. We can be great and full of energy. We are deep motivators. We can touch and affect the life of many others. Around family and friends that are also glowing, we will continue to shine and create  a field of attraction that protects the world around us from evil and destruction. Near our core values we are magnetic!

If instead, we listen to peer pressure and seek excitement  in the wrong way, we may end up in a journey where we seem to rise, but are ultimately falling to our doom. For many, once the journey starts it is almost impossible to turn back. The temporary "high" that comes from the bad choices entraps and forces you to keep going up until the point of no return is reached. Those that choose to go this way, always end up losing themselves in the way - they become less powerful, corrupt versions of their formal selves. They become someone else, a destructive force that consumes the life of those around them - sometimes the very same that were once helped, are pushed around and dragged along. The saddest part is that ultimately, their own lives are forfeited. They consume themselves and if they survive in some way - they are nothing but shells of their former selves. They are powerless. While for some there is hope of return - through a long journey that requires much help from others, for the majority death or a long life of misery is the ultimate extinction of the light that of us have at the start.

Please remember to stay near your core values and say no to the fleeting "excitement" that leads only to sadness and isolation. Say no to things that ask you to relinquish your character. Respect yourself first and then others. This is especially true with it comes to substance abuse.

SAY NO TO DRUGS.