Thursday, September 29, 2011

Ann

If you're a woman, you might like reading you some Ann Voskamp. I like reading me some, despite my not being a woman. Beth and I get her blog posts sent to our e-mail address almost daily, and everytime I open them, I feel like I'm looking through my mom's Better Homes and Gardens magazine, but enjoying it.

This is the post she sent out today, writing about some of the same things I've tried to write about on this blog, but writing about them better and womanlier than I ever could.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Classroom Quips, 9-21-11

The BFG by Roald Dahl has some pretty pacifistic teachings. I decided to turn these teachings into a little 6th-grade debate. The kids went to one side of the room if they could not see a justification for war and the other side if they could. Bernardo, who until today I  thought to be one of my lowest-level thinkers, placed himself with the pacifists. He looked across the room, shook his head and muttered under his breath, "You people are sick."

And also from this week...
Me: I'm gonna tell you guys a scary story. One time I was in Florida,
Lalo: (leaning forward) Oh yeah, Florida's scary.

Me: I've got a point for anyone who can tell me what I'm thinking right now.
Hugo: Man, these kids are getting annoying.

 And a couple others that I didn't post from last year...

Javier farted. He looked around for who he might blame, but there were only 2 other students in the room. Realizing he was caught, he said "awww," disgusted, and waved his hand behind his seat to push away the smell.

Me: Who can tell me the capital of Alaska?
Arturo: A
Me: Mmmm, heh heh, and the capital of Virginia?
Arturo (with growing confidence): V!

Javier: Why doesn't this school buy 100% milk stead of just 1%

Javier was supposed to be reading the sentence, "The dog in the bathtub is a mess."
Javier: "The dog in the bathtub is a mouse."
me: Whoa! The dog is a mouse?
Javier: apparently

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Given

I recently finished working through Given, a collection of poems by Wendell Berry. The poems are stinging, funny, prophetic; it's as if they come from a wisdom beyond our age. The second half of the book consists of what he calls "Sabbaths," - poems he writes in the woods on Sundays - broken up by year, from 1998 through 2004. The following is one of the Sabbaths from 2003 (a year in which Berry's Sunday walks resulted in one fine poem after another). Go ahead and read it aloud and slowly.




Look Out

Come to the window, look out, and see
the valley turning green in remembrance
of all springs past and to come, the woods
perfecting with immortal patience
the leaves that are the work of all of time,
the sycamore whose white limbs shed
the history of a man's life with their old bark,
the river under the morning's breath quivering
like the touched skin of a horse, and you will see
also the shadow cast upon it by fire, the war
that lights its way by burning the earth.

Come to your windows, people of the world,
look out at whatever you see wherever you are,
and you will see dancing upon it that shadow.
You will see that your place, wherever it is,
your house, your garden, your shop, your forest, your farm,
bears the shadow of its destruction by war
which is the economy of greed which is plunder
which is the economy of wrath which is fire.
The Lords of War sell the earth to buy fire,
they sell the water and air of life to buy fire.
They are little men grown great by willingness
to drive whatever exists into its perfect absence.
Their intention is to destroy any place is solidly founded
upon their willingness to destroy every place.

Every household of the world is at their mercy,
the household of the farmer and the otter and the owl
are at their mercy. They have no mercy.
Having hate, they can have no mercy.
Their greed is the hatred of mercy.
Their pockets jingle with the small change of the poor.
Their power is in their willingness to destroy
everything for knowledge which is money
which is power which is victory
which is ashes sown by the wind.

Look out your windows and go out, people of the world,
go into the streets, go into the fields, go into the woods
and go along the streams. Go together. Go alone.
Say no to the Lords of War which is Money
which is Fire. Say no by saying yes
to the air, to the earth, to the trees,
yes to the grasses, to the rivers, to the birds
and the animals and every living thing, yes
to the small houses, yes to the children. Yes.