“Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave.” — Muhammad (570-632)

“Gavel him down!”

Oh. My. Heck.

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

— Holden Caulfield in “The Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger, Little, Brown and Company, Inc., 1951 (although Holden’s character first appeared in Salinger’s short story, “Last Day of the Last Furlough” in a 1944 issue of the Saturday Evening Post.) (just fyi. wm)

Why do I want to teach? Or (better question) why do I want to continue to teach? (Since I’ve already been teaching, just in a classified position, not certified, for almost three years now.) Yeah, good question. In the class I’m taking this semester, we’re exploring that. Because why bother, if you can’t pin down why you’re bothering? Also, if I would have known that graduate school was going to be such a mind-blower, so fun and intriguing and challenging, I would have gone right after I finished my undergrad degree, like I should have.

Not true — I didn’t know what I wanted to get my degree in, back then. Certainly didn’t want to teach. I tried some education classes, as an undergrad and could. not. stay. awake. eyes closing……… zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t drop the class and go out to the clubs with their friends and dance all night. Alternately, they play cards and drink at home ’til all hours.”
— Wacky Mommy

“My girl wants to/
party all the time/
party all the time/
party all the tiiiiiiiime…”

— my friend JoJo, singing Eddie Murphy’s song to her sister and me

Oh, JoJo. Whenever old men would hit on us downtown she’d woof at ’em like a dog. Pretty girl, barking? Pretty funny. Then we’d run off.

So no, I wasn’t ready for this, then. Writing would have been the obvious choice, but why? So I could write? I was already writing. I write every day, even when it rains. Especially when it rains. Always have. So I guess… I wasn’t ready until now?

For my schtick for class, because I am “visuals impaired” (not to be confused with “visually impaired,” although I’m that, too), I decided to illustrate my path in life via books.

Wicked smart, no? I suggest that you share this idea with all your friends and family. Books are highly undervalued as a supporting player when it comes to presentations. PowerPoint gets all the credit.

Here is the list of the books I chose:

a primer from when my dad was a kid

a primer from when I was a kid

“Catcher in the Rye,” by my main man, J.D. Salinger

Santa Biblia/Holy Bible, Edicion Bilingue/Bilingual Edition (a gift from my husband)

the “Nancy Drew” books, by Carolyn Keene

“Little House in the Big Woods,” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“The King, the Mice and the Cheese,” by Nancy and Eric Gurney

“Are You My Mother?” by P.D. Eastman

“Eloise: The Absolutely Essential Edition,” by Kay Thompson, illustrated by Hilary Knight (and a small digression: I am unable to weed the following books from any library in which I work: fairy tales/fables, 398.2; poetry, 811; and anything illustrated by Hilary Knight. Just one of those little “librarian quirks.”)

“Henry Huggins,” by Beverly Cleary

“Home Price,” by Robert McCloskey

“Harriet the Spy”

“From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler”

“That Crazy April,” by Lila Perl

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith

“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Song of Solomon,” by Toni Morrison

“The Portland Review”

the “Harry Potter” series, by J.K. Rowling

“The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” by Brian Selznick

the “Oryx and Crake” series, by Margaret Atwood

And the piece de resistance… which I had just read to my first- and second-grade students that very day:

“Green Eggs and Ham,” by Dr. Seuss

“Thank you, thank you, Sam I am.”

As for the presentation? It went okay, I think. But I’m not sharing it here — too personal. Besides, you already know it all. hahahahaha. (That’s a little “blogger joke.”) I will tell you something, though — we all wrote out affirmations and feedback for each other. And while I, like Holden, hate all that kind of crap, it was excellent and made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Yes, that’s right. My cohort has broken me. I knew someone would, eventually.

One of them wrote me a note, with my name at the top followed by the words, “My life is an open book.” Underneath was a sketch of “Green Eggs and Ham,” and a C.S. Lewis quote: “We read to know that we are not alone,” followed by, “Great job.” All of the notes were cool like that. It’s enough to make a girl feel like she’s not flying solo through life. Oh, wait, Internets… I already knew that one ;) Thank you.

Even if you’re not “required” to do one of these, a LifeMap is pretty cool. I highly recommend that you do one. Break out the colored pens, the magazines to make a collage, the visuals and the written words. Sketch it, bake it, put it to music, whatever works for you. Tie in the political, the philosophical, the ethical. What about family? Friends? Teachers and others who influenced you?

Ask yourself: What brought me to where I am today? Where am I going from here?

You can swipe my books idea if you’d like. There! I just gave my first assignment.

— wm

“I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.”

— Walt Whitman, from “Leaves of Grass”

i’m watching only movies with a school theme. so far I’ve watched:

“Over the Edge”
“Dead Poets Society” (half-way through — just finishing it — have mad crush on Josh Charles)
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”
“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”

next up:
“Good Will Hunting”
“Goodbye, Mister Chips”
“To Sir, With Love”
“The Breakfast Club”

what are your favorites?

I’m not reading much for fun and/or book reviews, nowadays, because i’m too busy giving presentations, teaching, studying, and paying attention to Steve & the kids… Argh. Maybe I’ll get a chance over the holiday breaks? (she says, wistfully.)

(i should start a category called, “Not Reviews,” eh?) And of course I almost missed out on posting about the Smart Chicks Kick It Tour (the real reason they sent me the books gratis). (Please see disclaimer, mercy bouquet.)

Ladies, rock on. I will read all of your books, eventually. And, dear readers, you can start with their blog and go from there!

Now. I just finished reading “The Hunger Games” about half an hour ago (the first book in Suzanne Collins’ trilogy). It scared me and I loved it. What more can you ask for on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Portland?

ttfn,

wm

Reading (and just looking at longingly):

to her dad and me, in the car on the way home from taekwondo: “The first fifty years of marriage are the hardest.”

randomly, daily: “I’m, like, what the cuss?”

after school today: “Everyone at my school is named Hannah, Emma, Chris or Zach.”

and this one remains my favorite, from Wacky Girl to her dad: “You will never understand the life of a woman.”

no, he never will, baby.

“You must live for something higher, bigger and better than you.”

listening to 2Pac, “Me Against the World,” and doing my LifeMap homework. My life, as illustrated by books. i don’t want to go too deep, but i want to go wide. after five-plus years of blogging, i’m not so into the self-assessments. too much navel-gazing. I’ll do it anyway.

“i got nothing to lose/
it’s just me against the world, baby…”

— Tupac Shakur

lie. he had everything to lose. talk about self-reflective, my Lord, this album — so brilliant. You know the poet Nikki Giovanni has a THUG LIFE tattoo on her arm? she does.

i have everything to lose, too (cuz me and 2Pac, so much in common, right?) — i want to get books to as many students as possible as I can before my time is up, and sometimes, that altruistic mission, which sounds like a cakewalk, right?, becomes such a struggle. wish me luck. have a great week.

— wm

And then there’s this oldie-but-goodie. You know I have to put this on auto-replay whenever I’m writing. I esp. love when she punches him in the nose.

Edited at 10:14 p.m. to say… Homework is done, three days ahead of time! Now I need some sleep. have a really superfine week, y’all. See ya when I see ya. Leave me some comments!

“Now is the time to understand / That all your ideas of right and wrong / Were just a child’s training wheels / To be laid aside / When you finally live / With veracity / And love.” — Hafez, poet (1315-1390)

this was the poem for yesterday, September 11th:

Dance

— Rumi