The Florida Project

15 March 2018: Finally got a chance to see The Florida Project this evening. What an amazing film, simultaneously beautiful and painful, hard to watch and utterly engaging.

Back to Great Expectations

14 March 2018: "That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." --Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

I spent part of today re-reading the open chapters of Great Expectations in preparation for my ENGL 311 class last week. The lines above always stand out to me, inviting the reader to contemplate how one small event can set a whole chain of events into motion.

Daniel and Nicole...

13 March 2018: I was just talking with a friend today about how, if you are looking for some light and joy in the world (especially on a day like today, when the president fires his Secretary of State over effin' Twitter), you could do worse than to read Nicole Cliffe and Daniel Ortberg's tweets about his transition, their friendship, and his book tour. These are two wonderful, smart, and funny people, supporting each other through something big and it's just amazing to watch. And these interviews with Ortberg are also well worth your time.

"I Hear the Bells"

12 March 2018:

"I hear the bells, they are like emeralds, and
Glints in the night, commas and ampersands
Your moony face, so inaccessible
Your inner mind, so inexpressible" --Mike Doughty, "I Hear the Bells"

I have loved this song since I first heard it on Veronica Mars. With its just-barely-controlled-and-then-it's-not-controlled-at-all energy and its youthful exuberance ("let's go make out/up in the balcony" always makes me smile) expressed through a mature voice, it felt like the right song for the first day of Spring Break. Let's just say that some days--including today--I can relate.

A Wrinkle in Time

11 March 2018: A Wrinkle in Time feels like an important movie to me. It isn't perfect, but its power is undeniable. After I saw it today, I was catching up on my Entertainment Weekly magazines and came across an interview with the cast (available in video form here). In it, Ava DuVernay puts into words what I was feeling:

"It’s hard to explain how it feels to have Storm say to [costar Levi Miller], Meg say to Calvin, ‘Do you trust me?’ — a little black girl to a Caucasian boy. And he says yes, and he follows her. You’ve never seen that before on film. And so those are transformative images."

"Something Large and Wild"

10 March 2018: "I realized that sometimes when things are really difficult for people, if you just are there with them, if you just walk beside them, it makes all the difference in the world--that so much of life can be lonely, but if you know that somebody is nearby, it changes everything." --Lynne Cox, explaining what she learned by helping a baby whale who had been separated from his mother. She--as a teenager--swam with the whale for over five hours until it could find its mother.

The people behind the amazing Criminal podcast have recently launched This is Love, which is just well...lovely.

Poetry Festival

9 March 2018: Our Sigma Tau Delta chapter hosted a very successful Poetry Festival tonight. We had some local high school students show up (one of our main goals) and lots of people shared their work. I am exhausted as we finally hit Spring Break, but if I had to limp across the finish line, this was a nice way to do it.

"Little Romance"

8 March 2018:

"Can I have this chance
To be your little romance?
Can I have the stance?
I am in the mood for love.." --Ingrid Michaelson, "Little Romance"

Still sort of dragging from this cold and that surprises me a bit as I thought I'd feel better by now. I mean, I feel much better than I did on Monday, but still... And I've been getting lots of sleep. But my head still feels full and heavy and all that. So..the little ditty quoted above, which always lifts my spirit, was quite welcome when it came on Pandora. I love its unabashed hope and optimism.

"The Foundations of the Earth"

7 March 2018:

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" --Job 38:1-7

I taught Randall Kenan's "The Foundations of the Earth" today in my ENGL 360 class. It's a great story and I could write about so many different ideas, but I think I'll just stick to the part above, the excerpt from the book of Job that features prominently in the story and gives it its title. It is a powerful passage: beautifully written, moving, and frustrating. We talked about how Job (like Maggie in Kenan's story) doesn't get the answers he seeks from God, who just sort of shuts him down. Are God's words comforting for Job? Do they frustrate him into silence? We don't know. We can just imagine and imagine what we would do.

How about those teachers?

6 March 2018: I am just in awe of our WV public school teachers who successfully demanded more money--money they absolutely deserved--and somehow managed to get a raise for all state employees (including me). They managed to do what people have said (for years) couldn't be done. Simply put, they are amazing, dedicated, and strong. And I hope they serve as a model for teachers everywhere.

Art appreciation

[Another catch-up post...I blame this cold, which had me in bed earlier than usual...]

6 March 2018: Felt like garbage today (stupid cold) but this impressive artwork gifted to me by the 6 year-old daughter of a student is making my day brighter. Lots going on here (perfect for our discussion of deconstruction!).

Conversations with myself...

4 March 2018: To be honest, I am dragging today. This cold stinks and I am pretty darn tired. I have fourteen more Annotated Bibliographies to grade (and have had that many since Friday afternoon), but being busy and being sick has really frustrated my efforts. And I was bummed about that. I really wanted to have them done by Monday.

So today I had a conversation with myself. I always impose these ridiculous deadlines on myself to return stuff. Like, I never take a week. Which is crazy. And today I was like, "Who sets those deadlines? And why?" I set them for myself to please myself. That's it. The students don't care too much if they have to wait an extra couple of days. And if the self-imposed deadline no longer fits what I want to do/can do, then I get to change it.

I mean, it's so simple, isn't it? But I had to talk it out. Maybe this is some of the wisdom that comes with being 40?

2018 Symposium

[Catch-up post #2]

3 March 2018: Shepherd was well represented at the Symposium. A good day.

Muriale's...

[Catch-up post #1]

2 March 2018: Friday found me on my way to Fairmont, WV with some of our best students to attend the WV Undergraduate Literary Symposium. (Previous posts about the Symposium here, here, and here.) I gotta be honest: I was (and am) feeling kind of rough--a nasty little cold came on starting on Thursday. So driving three hours both ways, sleeping in a hotel (which never works for me--especially when sick), and getting further behind on some work was/is...unsettling.

But...when we got to Fairmont on Friday night, I took the students to this restaurant we've been to before when we visited the town (Muriale's). And it was kind of lovely. Just a good time, you know? 

More on Keats...

1 March 2018: I walked into my ENGL 311 class feeling a bit crummy. I might have a cold coming on--and I have no time for it. But by the end of the class, my mind was far from any impending crumminess--almost entirely because of the wonderful students and the great work they did with Keats' poems and letters.

I really knew we had hit our stride when we got to the last stanza of "Ode to a Nightingale." After one student read it out loud, I said, "I always find that last sentence so unsettling" And another student jumped right in: "This whole stanza is wild. It goes crazy here." That's the kind of reaction a teacher dreams of. On the surface, there's nothing wild or crazy about that stanza. You have to be really deeply engaged to see it. And they were, so they did.

I suppose it's all a bit meta, too, since in the poem Keats writes about wanting to escape materiality (including sickness) through poetry. For a good hour, I did just that.