February 2012
10 posts
Lookie Here
Sometimes I struggle to get my students’ attention. I’ve tried shrieking, counting to three, and when that fails, ten. I’ve tried threatening; I’ve tried going eerily silent. But after watching the Oscars, I picked up a sure-fire attention grabber, namely, to cut a hip-high slit in my skirt, then strike a pose while sticking my leg out of it.
I’m grateful to Angelina for the tip, even as it...
Free
Free verse poetry is my favorite thing to teach. Unlike grammar, which mandates rules and retention, free verse is the inducement to let go. Free verse is poetry’s equivalent to prose’s stream of consciousness. Professional poets have to obsess over form and word selection, so the letting go becomes painstakingly selective, but not so my middle schoolers, who can let go with abandon.
Free verse is...
Found
Yesterday I was at Yale-New Haven Hospital with my daughter Rachael, who was having surgery to repair a torn ligament and realign the bones in her ankle. It was a complicated procedure that took several hours. For much of the time I sat with her boyfriend Will. He is as gentle and generous as Rachael and they totally deserve each other, which is saying a lot. After a while, I started up a...
Relativity
My family had long expressed collective dismay at what they considered my unfortunate television viewing habits. According to them, my delight in shows like Intervention and Hoarders revealed a terrible character flaw, namely, the capacity to be entertained by the suffering of others. As much as I resented being judged, I had to admit I was guilty of some measure of schadenfreude, but in my...
Shopping Under the Influence
I think I’ve stumbled upon a great way to spend a slow Saturday night: buzzed grocery shopping.
We went out for sushi last night, and after a twenty two ounce can of Sapporo beer, I was buzzed. We were also out of my favorite ice cream, and we were also a mere block away from Stop and Shop. The next thing I knew, I was grocery shopping.
Doing mundane tasks while buzzed is fairly standard. I have a...
The Bigger Person
I was walking up the stairs to my classroom today only to be greeted thusly:
“Wow. You look the way I feel.”
I muttered something unintelligible kept moving, because between trying to understand any possible point to this comment and a surge of murderous rage, I had no time to frame an appropriate response.
Even though the window of opportunity for a snappy comeback had long since closed, I spent...
Smile
When first met Sam back in 1971, I didn’t see anything beyond a smart quirky guy with long hair and a beautiful smile. I think this is a good thing. I’m pretty positive that if I’d sensed the enormous complexity of what lay ahead, I might have totally freaked out.
Fate has always felt familiar. It sleeps by my side, forgets to fold the laundry, and comes through the door at the end of the day....
Not the Buoy
I have been thinking my vacations are analogous to shipwreck islands; basically, my salvation upon which I barely manage to wash ashore. Weekends are buoys, in that they also save you, but only in the short term. Eventually, you have to keep swimming.
I realize that what I’ve been doing is clinging to that weekend buoy as if my life depended on it, all the while bitching about the waves and the...
Outlive
A kid from our old neighborhood died over the weekend. He was the younger brother of a friend of my daughter Rachael’s, and the same age as Micah- eighteen, a high school senior. The fact that he fell to his death from a local mountain deepened my shock and empathy, because both of my sons love climbing.
Micah and Jake are careful, in the context of an endeavor that requires one to pull oneself...
The Kiss
Yesterday my class watched the 1960 black and white version of the movie Inherit the Wind. One of the opening scenes shows the romantic leads locked in a passionate kiss. “Whoa,” said one of my students. “What are they doing?”
This is a kid who I know for a fact is addicted to “Jersey Shore.” I couldn’t believe he was such a prude about a 1960’s kiss. “They’re in love,” I explained.
He looked at...