"The Balcony"

30 October 2018: "Each story is different, or appears so to her; each has some unique and peculiar pathos in it. And so she dramatizes and inflects it, trying to make the point visible to her apparent also to her hearers. Sometimes the pathos and interest to the hearers lie only in this - that the relater has observed it, and gathered it, and finds it worth telling." --Grace King, "The Balcony"

Taught this little sketch this afternoon in the Gender and Women's Studies class. It's always such a satisfying piece to teach, especially to open up discussions about women and storytelling. I am especially fond of the sentiment above, in which the narrator explains why the women on the balcony value the stories others share: they matter because the storytellers think they do. That's enough.

Dress those babies up!

29 October 2018: "It has come to my attention that not all baby owners dress up their babies for Halloween. This is wrong…Have you been on social media and/or in the real world lately? Things are very bad there. We need this. Do your part and create some content."

This article speaks the truth! I needed it today.

Little Shop of Horrors

28 October 2018: Had a blast seeing this show at the Kennedy Center today.

Beetlejuice

27 October 2018: Today in Pittsburgh, we saw again how much the world can suck sometimes. Words fail. In fact, all of the news this week (month? year?) has raised the levels of despair even more.

So I was grateful to spend the day with someone who always makes things better, even if we are just talking about how much things suck. Jane and I saw the new Beetlejuice musical at the National Theater today. It was silly and funny and bawdy and looked amazing. A bit of light in the midst of the sadness...

The Bride of Frankenstein

26 October 2018: "An audience needs something stronger than a pretty little love story. So, why shouldn't I write of monsters?" --"Mary Shelley" (the fictional version of her) in the prologue to The Bride of Frankenstein.

Our department co-sponsored a screening of this film tonight as part of our "200 Years of Frankenstein" celebration. I hadn't seen it before. It's a lot of fun. Not a bad way to wrap up the work week and start what will be a busy weekend.

"Taking Out the Trash"

25 October 2018: Love, love, love this poem, which reminds me of thoughts I have every week when I drag the trash can down to the curb on Wednesday evenings and pull it back up the driveway on Thursday mornings.

Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?

24 October 2018: Big thoughts swirling around my head these days, tinging a bit darker thanks to our Gender and Women's Studies class's visit to the women's prison in Maryland. It's the fourth time I've gone and it only gets harder each visit.

Back on campus, I found myself trying to get ahead on plans for my Young Adult Literature class, where we start YA poetry next week. What a treat to go back to Kenneth Koch's Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? and be reminded of what kids can do with great poetry. (Koch's book is about younger children than we address in my class, but his basic ideas transfer.)

Here's just one that stood out to me today, by Andrew Vecchione, who was in 5th grade, I think, when he wrote this (probably 50 years ago). It's inspired by Donne's "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

"Love is a Scissor"
Love is a like a scissor
When it's together it's happy
When it's apart it's sad
When it's rusty it has a sore throat.

Andrew gets it.

Even more from Aristotle and Dante...

23 October 2018: "They were all over me, hugging me and saying nice things, and I wanted to cry. Because their affection was so real and somehow, I felt I didn't deserve it or felt maybe that they were hugging the guy who had saved their son's life. I wanted them to hug me just because I was Ari and I would never be just Ari to them. But I had learned how to hide what I felt. No, that's not true. There was no learning involved. I had been born knowing how to hide how I felt."

This darn book. Had me tearing up in Panera this morning. Amazing how much of yourself you can see in a character that is so very different from you.

More from Aristotle and Dante

22 October 2018: "Another secret of the universe. Sometimes pain was like a storm that came out of nowhere. The clearest summer morning could end in a downpour. Could end in lightning and thunder." --Benjamin Alire Saenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Ah, this book. It's almost too much. And today has been a day...so this really spoke to me.

"No One Else Is Singing My Song"

21 October 2018: Catching up on the new episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend today and this song arrived just when I needed it. So smart, so funny, and hits just the right amount of "too close to home."

Metal and poetry

20 October 2018: After returning from Cape May, there were still two excellent events on my schedule.

First, the Women for Shepherd University Metal Pour with four of my favorite people...

Then a poetry reading from another of my favorite people, a former student who wrote this book and who continues to amaze me with her talent.

What a life I get to live. Feeling very blessed.

Cape May, Day Two

19 October 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Packed a ton of fun into Day Two of our trip, starting off with this perfect sunrise.

Cape May, Day One

18 October 2018:

[Catch-up post...]

Fall Break trip to Cape May. Kind of perfect.

Fall Break, here we come...

17 October 2018: A long day, but a good one. (I know I use that construction a lot, but it's often true, so...) Carrie helped me finish up (almost) a big project today and then to thank her, I bought her dinner at Bistro 112. We sat and talked for a good long time, which always makes me happy.

Tomorrow and Friday are Fall Break and I am so ready. And for the first time in forever, I am actually going somewhere. Add that to the positive side of the "balance" chart. (There is no chart.)

Back to Aristotle and Dante

16 October 2018: “When I looked through the telescope, Dante began explaining what I was looking at. I didn’t hear a word. Something happened inside me as I looked out into the vast universe. Through that telescope, the world was closer and larger than I’d ever imagined. And it was all so beautiful and overwhelming and—I don’t know—it made me aware that there was something inside of me that mattered.” --Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Starting this beautiful book once again in my YA lit. class tomorrow.