The student asked, "Is this all there is?"
The teacher said, "What?"
"This life," said the student, "is this all there is?"
The teacher looked perturbed. "Well," she said, "what else would there be?"
The student, trying not to be a bother said, "I guess I think there might something beyond life?"
"Beyond life?" the teacher responded, in a kind of loud & offended tone.
"Sorry," said the student sheepishly.
"No, no," the teacher said sarcastically, "tell me, what could possibly be beyond this life?"
The student had fear in her eyes. She said, "Um, heaven?"
"Heaven!" the teacher said. "Heaven!" she said again as if to make some kind of point.
"Okay, I get it," the student said.
"What do you get?" the teacher retorted brusquely.
"I get," said the student, "that this is not the sort of school where open-ended philosophical questions are welcomed as a sign of free inquiry, that the teachers here are more likely to hew to close-minded ways of thinking which perhaps they might find threatening or offensive."
The teacher rolled her eyes. "You know," she said, "this is a massage school, right?"
The student looked a bit sheepish. "I have lots of questions," she said.
"Jesus fucking Christ," the teacher said. "Can we talk about muscles or something instead?"
The student got weirdly wide-eyed. "What if," she said, "there is something beyond muscles?"
The teacher put her head in her hands & wept silently.
