"Of All Commandments: Sitting Beside My Neighbor"

"When I scroll through radio stations, I hear Rush Limbaugh arguing that if schools weren’t gun-free 'liberal utopias,' that if more people were armed to the tooth and ready to kill, we’d be safer. It’s redundant and exhausting, at this point, to even argue with what these men are saying. Their argument isn’t safe, it isn’t pro-life, and it doesn’t reflect any kind of Christianity that I’ve ever known."

This piece, where I found the quotation above, speaks to me. Teaching is about relationships, about trust, about working with others to make the world better. This writer gets it--and how sad it is that some people believe guns need to be part of that process.

Sweet return

8 January 2016: [Posting Friday's "good thing" on Saturday--a sign of a busy and good day.] I have lots to choose from for Friday's "good thing," but I am going to go small here. We had our Spring 2016 convocation yesterday, welcoming our new students and kicking off the semester. It's always a fun event, followed by a small reception. As I sipped some really delicious hot chocolate at the reception, surrounded by some of my favorite colleagues, I realized once again how lucky I am.

Pandemic!

7 January 2016: So I know the post title doesn't sound like a good thing, but trust me here--hanging out with some great friends and playing this game is always a good thing. There's so much I love about this game: how you play with each other to beat the game, how it involves planning, debating, and figuring out the best moves, how one set of awesome friends introduced it to me, how I taught another set of friends and got them addicted, too. In short, this game reminds me of a whole lot of what's good in my life lately. 

Pictures and notes

6 January 2016: You know what made me smile the most today? These notes and pictures from my niece and nephew.

Here are Olivia's:

I

The picture is entitled "Christmas Day" and is a pretty accurate depiction of her family room. The note cracks me up. Some highlights: "How did you know I love Taylor Swift? Her perfume is amazing." (Those are actually double underlines.) "My mom likes it to, so I've let her use it a couple of times. Then she talks about how she's reading the book I gave her, even identifying an "interesting character!" These documents are so very Olivia: bright, frenetic, energetic. 

Here are Colin's: 

The picture is careful and controlled, as is his handwriting in the note. It's Colin in document form. The picture also has a title that cracks me up: "Good Life." Awwww...Little Man trying to sound grown up. His note is also great: first he talks about how "it will be interesting to learn about the history of the presidents" in the book I gave him. Then he says, "You would also not believe how cool the light is. There are different colors and it looks like you are underwater! Perfect for a dance party!"

These kids rock.

Mid-week movie

5 January 2016: Finally saw Mockingjay: Part II this afternoon with my friend Carrie, who has seen every other movie in the series with me. It was worth the wait.

Rejected pretzels

4 January 2016: Veronica, who still doesn't let me pet her or hold her unless she is absolutely compelled to do so, nevertheless always begs relentlessly for whatever I am eating. In the past, this has included not just traditionally-appealing-to-cats food like chicken or beef, but stuff you wouldn't expect like pretzels, potatoes, and even corn chips. When I really think about this, it makes me a bit sad, realizing that in her early days, she was desperate enough to eat just about anything. So it's cute, but also kind of a bummer.

So today, I was doing some reading, absentmindedly eating some pretzels and sharing small pieces with her, tossing them onto the carpet whenever her head would pop back up and her paw would reach out. About an hour later, when I got up, I saw this trail of pretzel bits on the ground. Apparently she begged (and kept begging), but has decided that she actually doesn't like pretzels, thank you very much.

Looks like she isn't that desperate anymore. And that makes me happy. It's today's good thing.

"Nothing more significant...than the human Other that one encounters"

3 January 2016: Today's good thing is this terrific interview with Marilynne Robinson. I love her take on why democracy is the best political form: "...it assumes the sacredness of any other, in a human being. It assumes the direct, very powerful relationship between any human being and God, whether that human being is aware of it or not. It’s a huge investment in respect for other people, because you assume that God respects them, and a huge assertion of their value that society should accommodate."

"elegies turning into comets"

2 January 2016. Today's good thing: I read these lines from Nathalie Handal's The Republic: "...I know now that distance isn't a broken letter; it's a dazzled heart, elegies turning into comets."

New Year/New Blog Resolution: One Good Thing

A couple of years ago, I tried to do 365 posts (one for each day in 2014) about little things for which I was grateful. I got to about late July and then, well, things fell apart. Since then, my posts overall have been pretty sporadic, but I think I want to give this whole thing another go. My theme this year is even more simple: "one good thing." Each day (or at least, for each day--some might be late), I am going to post about one thing in my day that was good.

Look, the English teacher/lit critic in me realizes that "good" and "thing" aren't very fancy words. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now, but it's what I keep coming back to. I like the simplicity of "good" (Hemingway was onto something, I think) and the vagueness of "thing." I think that will allow me the versatility that was lacking in "year of thanks." For that series, it was kind of hard to find something that was appropriate without also veering full speed into cliche. Lord know I can fall into a sentimental cliche and just luxuriate in it.

I welcome the challenge to spend a moment every day pointing out one good thing that happened to me--just something good that I experienced, that I saw, heard, tasted, touched, or smelled. Life is filled with these moments, even on the worst days. So I'd like to record them. And maybe this will lead me to more blogging about other stuff (posts not on the theme). Who knows?

So here's #1 of, I hope, 365.

1 January 2016: This is an easy one. It's the delicious everything bagel I had this morning at Panera. What made it extra delicious? Sitting across from me in the booth was my best buddy, Jane.

"Left Right Black White"

This post's title coming from the title of the episode of Strangers that I listened to tonight while taking a walk. The monologue at the end came at the exact right moment for me as I returned from a visit home for Christmas. Voices like Lea Thau's make this world a better place. Check it out.

Go Rams!

Despite my complicated feelings about football, I am so proud of these guys. GO RAMS!

Dancing queen

My quest to be a cool aunt receives some much-needed validation.

 
I certainly don't think I am good at playing Just Dance, but the kids seem to like it. 

Window crew

Moving from two cats to three cats changes things in ways that might seems subtle, but are quite real. I now feel like I have a pack or at least a crew. It's a bit strange. Anyway, here's my crew the other day, all watching birds outside the window. (Perfectly normal to have the window wide open in December, right?)

Fall 2015 Grading: DONE!

I don't think I've done one of these "DONE!" posts in a while, but it feels good to do one today. As of about 2:00 today, I am done with my grading for this semester.

It's been a strange semester: in some ways, it flew by, in other ways, it feels like August was forever ago. In terms of workload, well, it was a lot for me. (Two classes on novels and two writing-intensive classes will do that...) The students (especially in the novel classes) were amazing. And, as always, every day I am in the classroom is a good day. For that, I continue to feel so blessed.

Still, it feels good to have the grading done. Onto Spring 2016! I started on my syllabi today...

Chair dancing song: B.B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, "The Bells of St. Mary's."

"Your Village"

Grateful to the Poetry Off the Shelf Podcast for introducing me to this poem. So perfect for these challenging times.

"Your Village"
Elana Bell

Once in a village that is burning
      because a village is always somewhere burning

And if you do not look because it is not your village
      it is still your village

In that village is a hollow child
      You drown when he looks at you with his black, black eyes

And if you do not cry because he is not your child
      he is still your child

All the animals that could run away have run away
      The trapped ones make an orchestra of their hunger

The houses are ruin      Nothing grows in the garden
      The grandfather’s grave is there      A small stone

under the shade of a charred oak      Who will brush off the dead
      leaves      Who will call his name for morning prayer

Where will they — the ones who slept in this house and ate from this dirt — ?