Spring Break Extra Credit!

In about 5 minutes, I am leaving to pedal to St. Augustine. I am have a little trepidation about the ride, but I am super excited. Sorry it has taken me so long to post this. Here it is!

Find the story "Like a Winding Sheet" by Ann Petry online. Either print it or read it online. Write a response to the following question after reading.

Why is the symbolism of the winding sheet so important to the story and how does the man become more symbolically wrapped up in it as the day progresses to its eventual, tragic end?

Your response should use specific examples from the story and be at least 1 page long. This extra credit is worth up to 60 points, but that is only for superior work, so try hard to be excellent. Blue or black ink. No torn edges on the pages. Be neat! Please title the assignment, "Like a Winding Sheet" Extra Credit.

Have fun and enjoy the rest of your break!

Supermoon, superfood, supertramp?

You may have heard, if you're alive, that last Saturday we experienced a phenomena called "super moon". What this basically means is that the moon was really big and closer to the earth than it had been in 18 years. Weird people who predict things predicted that the world would basically fall apart thanks to said moon. It is now Tuesday. I am alive. I hope that you are also. Thus, epic FAIL on the part of those who talk so much and know so little. I, for one, never believed that the world would tip sideways or the oceans would split or all my students would turn into monsters . . . wait. . . maybe I believed that one! You see, I used this really basic thing called reasoning. This was the biggest the moon had been in 18 years, not the biggest ever. So it follows (to those who reason) that if catastrophe waited on the heels of giant sky orbs, then it should have all gone to hell 18 years ago. That's just my thinking!

Still, the SUPERmoon did cause one seismic shift - Joshua and Israel Roe entered Gainesville! The significance of this statement depends largely upon who you are. If you are one of my students, this is probably pretty exciting news. If you are anyone else, I expect a response somewhere along the lines of "Joshua who?" or "big deal." Oh, it is a big deal. :) While these boys coming to town may not satisfy anyone's 2012-esque longings, they are bound to shake up something. Tomorrow, that starts with my students.

Joshua Roe is perhaps one of the coolest guys I know. When I met him a little over a year ago, he shook my world view. I hope that I also shook his, because that is what friends do - they challenge and push, they stretch and they pull, they make us stronger and support us when we are weak. It was Joshua who told me to go, to experience, to live with less fear and less caution. I was never a particularly cautious girl, so this could have been a risky thing, but I got it. There are all sorts of ways that we hold back our own living, all kinds of fear that keep us exactly where we are. To put it simply, his message to me was most people never LIVE, so don't be a "most". I heard him loud and clear and I began to find the tethers that held me in place. Joshua's message isn't that everyone everywhere should leave their lives and travel the planet (although he would find that pretty cool), rather, his message is that if you embrace where you are as your end, then you will miss a whole lot of journey. That means different things for different people, but there IS a message for everyone. I love this message. I am proud that he's my friend. I count him now as one of my favorite people in the world.

And now he's here, the myth, the man, the . . . biker. He and his little brother Israel arrived with the supermoon into my little neck of the woods. They left San Diego, CA on January 9th, and on March 19th, they pedaled into Ft. White, FL where I met up with them. They were tired, but they were in excellent spirits and it was great to see each other after months of separation. One of the first questions that I asked them was, "Are you guys hungry?" When they were finally able to silence their laughing, they said, "That's a joke, right? We've been hungry for two months!" So I cooked and cooked some more. Then we cooked and shared meals with great people. My house has been a whirlwind of activity, but we are happy and their bellies are full - mine too as Joshua is a great cook. It has been a great reunion and I have loved the commotion of my house.

Still, sometimes, sneaking away onto the front porch swing is a great prospect because it offers a tiny bit of quiet. That is where I am now, happily typing away while sitting on my porch swing and listening to man in the house next door yell a little too loudly. There is also a woman down the street who is probably homeless and is yelling about pills that she may or may not have in her purse. So it isn't exactly peaceful like a mountaintop here (the last time I saw Joshua, we were climbing peaceful mountains) but it is a cool, brisk night and a lovely end to a good day. As I write this, Joshua is out having some strange procedure done that will leave him with big welty marks but feeling great, and Israel is inside finishing up a movie. I feel at ease and happy just knowing that they are both around and that we have more time together.

And tomorrow, they will be at school. This is good. I am very excited to see what they have to offer my students and how much more I will learn from them as well. Seriously, Joshua must know everything. I want to play stump the supertramp, but alas, he would win. I will think of something. No worries. Don't forget, I have an 80 mile bike ride ahead. Lots of stumping time! I can't wait to share my amazing friend and his dear brother with all of my students.

Extra Credit soon to come. One more for Spring Break!!!!

Breathing again

Do you ever feel like you are drowning? Metaphorically, of course. That is how I have felt lately. I have felt like I was in some swirling pool of water being sucked into a vortex. I have wanted to stop it. I have wanted to breathe, but it hasn't happened yet. The normal load of grading and planning and teaching has been there, but it has begun to feel insurmountable (maybe I should just give everyone an A and call it a day). Add to that the sad loss of Sarah Landauer and the hospitalization of my stepfather, and I am officially in the suck zone. It has been a long, gray week.

Still, today is a new day and tomorrow starts a new week, so I am glad and the clouds overhead seem a little less gray. While I hope that you are also all feeling brighter this week, I am glad for the perspective this last week has given me. After all, I am teaching you all about the disillusionment of the Modernists, but I don't really know what that feels like. I don't know what hopelessness feels like because my life is always full of hope. I always trust in the new day and the ability of God to change my circumstances or change my heart to accept them. So I don't know that sinking feeling of hopelessness that seemed to consume so many Modernists. I don't think that I will ever know that, but feeling a bit like Eeyore this week has left me with a tiny glimpse of what happens when sadness works its way into your soul and seems to make a home there.

My tiny pattern of disheartening events stacked one on top of another is certainly no true comparison to the Great Depression and 4 wars, but I think I get it. I get what happens to you when you forget to swim up toward the light. I get what it feels like to want to camp out underneath the water in the deep, cool darkness and just wait. I am thankful that warmth and light always win in me, but I get it. Too often, bottom dwelling is just easier. It takes real effort to pull yourself up, to shake off the grays and to live. It takes effort to make yourself breathe through the heavy load and force yourself to answer the question. "Do you dare to disturb the universe?"

I feel profoundly sorry for the people, for the Prufrocks of the world, who simply let themselves sink. But I also feel sorry for the rest of us who may never know the greatness of those we easily ignore, those who will sink away into nothingness. Surely they are not without merit. Surely you, if you are one of those who feels sucked into the murk of life, are not without merit. Just like Prufrock would likely have found love and joy and purpose had he been brave enough to try, so you will find greatness when you dare disturb your universe and shake up what you have always known.

A man named George, whom I greatly respect, is fond of saying, "You can't expect a different tomorrow if you are always doing the same thing as yesterday." How true this is. We must be brave. We must shake off yesterday's funk and today's disappointments if we are going to have new, fresh, remarkable tomorrows. I want remarkable tomorrows. I hope that at least a few of you do as well.

EC - For this week, write me a one page paper in which you tell me about either a) a time when you have felt like you were sinking and were struggling to get your footing OR b) what you plan to do in your own life to "disturb your universe" Feel free to also comment on here so that our thoughts and ideas can mingle together in cyber space.