Here is the answer to a question frequently asked by students after missing a class...

Did I Miss Anything?

Nothing! When we realized you weren't here

we sat with our hands folded on our desks,

in silence, for the full period...

        Everything! I gave a test worth

        half of the grade for this class

        and assigned some reading (due today)

        on which I'm about to hand out a quiz

        worth the other 50 per cent...Are you prepared?

Nothing! None of the content of this course

has value or meaning

Take as many days off as you like:

any activities we undertake in this class,

I assure you, will not matter either to you or me

and are without purpose...

        Everything! A few minutes after we started class

        a shaft of light descended and an angel

        (or other heavenly being) appeared

        and revealed to us what each woman or man must do

        to attain divine wisdom in this life and

        the hereafter.

        This is the last time the class will meet

        before we disperse to bring this good news to all people

                on Earth...

Nothing! When you are not present

how could something significant occur?

        Everything! Contained in this classroom

        was a microcosm of human existence

        assembled for you to query and examine and ponder

        This is not the only place such an opportunity has been

                gathered...

        but it was one place...And you missed it! 

— Adapted (with apologies) from a poem by Tom Wayman, in The Astonishing Weight of the Dead. Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.