tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17212032088741052922023-11-16T05:44:20.897-08:00A Room For LearningTal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-61514911684238100602011-02-07T11:57:00.000-08:002011-02-07T14:50:44.675-08:00Your Work is You, Nothing More<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMTonleCuvdaUO8VsGsv90Doc8JrZq-Qm4eAQGiNXYUY-yoUdcCpCp_-y6LnkuYL7kF9F9BAaFlbLaI-nr4udk6LlunxZqpwqc5Pq-lEqy8L4I_ywh8WXIK_hFUH6NpsexFBfJJBA8VQ/s1600/mandel2bfreed.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDMTonleCuvdaUO8VsGsv90Doc8JrZq-Qm4eAQGiNXYUY-yoUdcCpCp_-y6LnkuYL7kF9F9BAaFlbLaI-nr4udk6LlunxZqpwqc5Pq-lEqy8L4I_ywh8WXIK_hFUH6NpsexFBfJJBA8VQ/s400/mandel2bfreed.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571045469464250274" /></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:'times new roman';font-size:small;">We start Monday morning meeting with a lecture from Tal. Though its not really a lecture. He is more lecturing himself. He is halfway through his teaching career. “On Wednesday it will be the ‘hump’ or the middle day of the middle of the year of my twentieth year of my teaching. I have twenty years ahead of me. I am so tired, already. You know, it's all working towards retirement.” There were many laughs especially the little chuckle of Eric who was sitting beside me.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:'times new roman';font-size:small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:'times new roman';font-size:small;">“What was the appeal of teaching teenagers again, Tal?” Eric asks</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, the first thing is that I don’t have to deal with many adults, who are even more screwed and crazy than teenagers because they have so many more problems than you guys, myself included,but they just cover them up better. You guys are much smarter in that you aren't very good at hiding your insanity. Also, I can dress the way I want and cuss and I don’t have to kiss anybodies BEE-hind! Plus there is June, July and August. And I can wear any old rags I want to. See?"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So There is no potential for us adults, NOT to be screwed up?” Eric asks.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"That is correct."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal and Eric share the VERY original ‘building a house’ metaphor. “If you build the foundation crooked then the whole house will just fall over after a while.” They told us that we were building our ‘foundations’ and that we had the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">‘potential’</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> to be great and not crooked. Theire job is to save us untold suffering later in life. I hope they know they sounded like some very "by the rule book" Boy Scout leaders. (Thanks, Sophie!)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Simon told about how he listened to opera and he really loves it. That he really wanted to just blast it out the windows. I wondered if he wanted to show everyone, not just us but EVERYONE all around how much he loved it and how great he thought it was, which in part is a very direct line to him.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Kiley went to the ‘Bamf’ film festival about great athletes. A Swiss speed climber was filmed climbing this mountain and did it in a little over 3 hours. He broke the world record. But he wasn’t satisfied with this so he did it again and got his time down to 2 hours and 47 minutes. Kiley said she thought it was really awesome to go until YOU know that you're done. That that is the absolute best you could do, even when the ‘world’ says you are done, or already the best.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Eric was at a Breadloaf cross country ski race where Morgan was racing. He was on the trail as a monitor person. When Morgan came by he was really amazed by how fast she was and how all out she was going. She was in the middle of a pack of skiers who probably train every day, even though she had been sick. But we said that the only thing that mattered was that she had on an awesome ski racing suit. (Tal asked if she wore "jeggings" in skiing. Everyone said Tal was dumb.)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yared was working on his project when he got sidetracked, He started listening to jazz and blues and was distracted for almost 3 hours but he said it was really amazing to learn a ton about that because he loves that music. Tal said this was not getting off track, it was getting on track.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Rowan was sick and was having short term memory loss (probably hallucinations of all the homework he still had to do and Tal as a wild boar yelling at him when he would come back to school. That’s what we pride on here at North Branch, at least the kids are </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">scared</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> into doing their work) and ‘The White Album’ by the Beatles came onto the shuffle on his ipod (though we have no idea if it </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">actually</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> came on or if that was a part of his hallucination as well) but the album didn’t play in order though and he could immediately recognize that, he thought it was really interesting to know the sounds and feelings that came next in an album even though he hadn’t listened to that one in a long time and how one's memory really kind of ‘chooses’ what its going to always remember.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Anna overheard all the cross country ski bums from the high school talking on the ACTR bus down the mountain. Simon had said, after they had been talking about how unintelligent their conversation was, that it was probably not unlike US when we are riding up on the bus every morning. But she thought the difference was that she could see the other side of US, and she was worried if she would be able to see that side of people next year at all.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Reed and her mom went way back in the woods at Breadloaf (away from all the tacky tourists with their SWIX pants, Patagonia sweaters and North Face hats.) and Reed noticed that she (her mom) is one of the steadiest and happiest people she knows. She went all into her skiing even though she wasn’t too fast.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Kiley Read the Poem:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">"On looking up by chance at the Constellations"</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Robert Frost</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You'll wait a long, long time for anything much</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">To happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloud</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The planets seem to interfere in their curves</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But nothing ever happens, no harm is done.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We may as well go patiently on with our life,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">For the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It is true the longest drouth will end in rain,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The longest peace in China will end in strife.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Still it wouldn't reward the watcher to stay awake</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In hopes of seeing the calm of heaven break</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On his particular time and personal sight.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">That calm seems certainly safe to last to-night.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Quote of the morning:</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “This Girl is Going to give it a whirl!” –Tsering</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> (Tal asks what the guy version of that is)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “This guy is gunna give it a try!” –Rowan</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> In Science Class we hear that a Grouse ran into Kiley’s window and died (though Ollie says that it did not die but Kiley went outside when her family wasn’t looking and stepped on it so that it WOULD die) and she says : </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “Shall we dissect it in Science Class?” </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “Ewwwwwww” says Claire.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Eric: “We want to stuff it! Take out its organs and stuff?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Kiley: “I have a quick fact about Grouse! They eat grapes and they don’t digest them so in the middle of winter they start to ferment and then the grouse get tipsy!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> ……I wonder if we are actually learning much in science class……. (Tal thinks so)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> We travel inside and outside during class. No one is really prepared but we have to run to the middle of the field, scoop up some snow, run inside and measure the density of the snow. Calder starts calling everyone "cows," he even said I was a "slow cow." I also heard a glimmer of the word ‘cow’ when Evan was trying to get Calder to show him his ‘Man burns’ during math (aka, side burns says Ollie because girls can obviously no have side burns so calling them man burns is just stating the obvious)</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yared and Luke talk to Tal about next year right before break. Yared is scared because at the high school they only really look at your work and he SAYS that he’s not the best at that. But here he makes up for it because people know his soul.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> In math Class: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Evan starts labeling people’s hair</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Ollie: Rats Nest</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Calder: Mushroom Top</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Evan: Ski Jump</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Simon: ……….??.......... Worms???</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Eliot is going to send an email to Nelson Mandela. “What should I say?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tal: “Start out with, ‘Oh, grand master Nelson Mandela, I am your humblest servent’”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tal is comparing regular Goldfish to FLAVOR BLASTED. He says that the verdict is the regulars are very dry and the FLAVOR BLASTED are full of moderate cheesy flavor. He then says that they are just basically orange saltines with butter and Claire says that she LOVES those. Apparently they are incredible toasted.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> We have Tate’s project: On the Warsaw Uprisings. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We discussed who will have a statue made of them. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Better die on your feet than live on your knees” = You will be made into a Statue; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">“Better live on your knees than die on your feet” = No statue for you. (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">See Notes from Tal…..)</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Play starts coming along. Sophie, Reed, and Tal work during study to put up what we have and what we still need to do.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">TUESDAY:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Simon really liked Tate’s project. Everyone was really amazed that Tate had NO SCRIPT and was just talking off the top of his head.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Aylee wanted to be sure that her sister has a chance to come here and is sad that she doesn’t like school and doesn’t want to come here because of the homework. Tal talked about how kids don’t want to come to North Branch because they know about the homework but don’t know the other part of it, the part besides homework, because you can’t really describe it to anyone who’s not here.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Luke got an email from a past NBSer at the High School who feels lonely and unreal. She wrote Luke a place description about her dad but it wasn’t as good as when she was here. Luke wrote her back a really long email. Luke, to me, seems to be trying to give people advice more lately and I think its great. He has a lot of wisdom inside him. I think that HE cannot see it sometimes.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yared says he knows EVERYTHING about the high school “You know, the Science room is here, the ‘stuff’ is over here”……We all laughed because of course he knows SO much.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rick Sko left a doodle on the table which Miles started decorating. Rick was chuckling while Eliot told about how Nelson Mandela will appear in a giant glass box in the middle of his project wearing fur….. Tal: “I hope not real fur, Eliot." “No, he will be wearing giraffe skin.” Tal says he needs to get ‘recycled’ or roadkill fur because if they just took it off the giraffe then all the giraffe muscles will be exposed or all the blood will fall off of his body.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yared said that last night Yib came into his room (bringing tea as a way to bribe Yared to talk to him) and they talked about his girl troubles. It was awesome to talk to him.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Ollie and Calder's coach Hugh told the soccer team that they should do an act of random kindness. Hugh was planning to take something to a Hannaford Bagger. Tal emailed the former NBSer that Luke was talking to and asked about how she was. He was saying that that can be an act of kindness when you know someone is down, just to ask.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Rider was thinking about what he would fight for in his life. We had been talking about it the day before in Tate’s project and he said that he would fight for a lot more things than he said (he had mentioned his nephews) and that that was what he wanted to be able to say, was all the things that he would fight for. That was his goal in life, to have as many things as possible that he would fight for. He said that it was a great thing because he had been sitting around a lot, saying he was going to do things, but this was really a concrete thing that he had devoted himself too.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> How do we move from wanting so desperately to hear “I love you” to just being able to give it all the time. And if we all gave it, wouldn’t we have what we wanted? All of us saying that we love each other? Tal referred to a poem that Sophie used once by Hafiz. In it, Hafiz asks why don't we just all say the thing to others that we want said to us.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Claire was talking to Ada on the phone and realizing that they had known each other all their lives and she was more of a sister than her own sister. And she was missing her sister a lot. It was interesting to me to think about the school and how I honestly feel that some of these people (and usually almost everyone by the end of the year) are my brothers and sisters. And how does that happen in a year or even a half a year with the sevies? I don’t know, maybe it is just saying I love you to other people and trusting </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">you</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> with them.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Morgan read "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">Three Seasons", by </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">Geoffery G. Obrien</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="text-align: left;border-collapse: collapse; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border- color:initial;"><tbody><tr><td width="546" valign="top" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; width: 546pt; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border- padding-top: 0in; padding-right: 5.4pt; padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 5.4pt; color:initial;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The winter, it was the winter all</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">the usual things happened,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I have forgotten what</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">would travel from the north</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">as a series seen from above</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">or from below, and the followers,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">the flowers, I tore them up</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">the next summer, or rather</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">before or immediately after</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and thought no more about it.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But then the summer, plans</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">to sign a contract, the summer</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">came back for what it was:</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a small sprinkling of rue</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and a yellow fantasy</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and we were invited. It appeared</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">tall and swaying and deaf</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">to appeals, and the winter following,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">this was the arrangement—</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">first one and then into</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">another not yet there,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">many years of this refrain</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and all the productions within it</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">coming to mean more</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">of an intimacy between</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">musical instruments and still lifes</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">you lose yourself in again</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and probably have now,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">what objects have known</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">in their one dark winter afternoon.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">They are still visited</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by everything else and together</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">complete the effect, a distance</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">which the next day took form.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">That winter stopped and probably</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">on account of summer a spring,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">spring with a sturdy fringe</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and a local reputation,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">it’s outside, in various rooms</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and looks at everything,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a few lilacs in awkward</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">positions, but they were alright,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">it was summer, very strong,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">passing organizations,</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">which never finished anything</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and ended in making</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">all this, cold coals</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">of wildflowers, little wars</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">at the centers, they go on for years</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">burning near the front</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and from below.</span></span></i></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yared had an impersonation of Calder: “Its kind of Chipmunkish! Like you know how chipmunks can fit 80 seeds in their mouth, that's how Calder talks. He slurs everything together.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> During Break: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; ">Some of the guys play driveway football. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Ollie and Tsering and others sing: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“War…. Huh. What is it good for? Absolutely NOTHING!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Aylee and Ollie discuss Hello Kitty before Class.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> We watch videos about the uprisings in Egypt. Trying to change the country and get the leader out who apparently rigged all the elections, and the food is very expensive and there are very little jobs. There are some self immolations and we talk about how if someone is willing to burn themselves for a cause it must be important and lead others to follow that cause.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wednesday:</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Snow Day. The little children of the North Branch School are probably bounding around playing in the glorious snow flakes. Coming in and drinking hot cocoa by the woodstove and probably watching movies that their parents suggest and they at first don’t want to watch, but realize is actually a really great movie. There are probably some children putting off the homework piling in with the snow until late at night when everyone thinks the time gets slower and you therefore become more productive which actually is not the case. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> In my case, I made a batch of brownies which I told myself I would only eat a little bit of but looking back on the pan I see I ate a little more than anticipated. But as Tal always says: “Life is too short not to eat real butter”…. It’s the same with brownies. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> So the teachers are probably sulking at home, wishing they were at school so they could try and stay on schedule which I think they are already about three weeks behind on (because of our awfully short attention spans and low productivity?) but I say to those teacher sulking: GO OUTSIDE AND ENJOY THE SNOW!! Frolic in your snow clothes with your children and pretend you are in a really cheesy movie with terrible music playing in the backround that makes the scene look joyful. Throw snow around so that even if its not snowing hard, it looks like it is, and try to enjoy your vacation!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Thursday</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On Thursday Hilda Billings came to talk to us at morning meeting. She lives in Ripton, knew Robert Frost very well, worked as the Ripton post lady and we helped her cut up and stack the maple tree wood when the ninth graders were in seventh grade. Her little maple was planted in the 1800's. She showed us a picture of the house with the tiny maple in the late 1800's and then she showed us the pictures she took when we were there two years ago. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire was at the Snowbowl with Rio, his brother Ziven and Ada yesterday during to snow day. SHe said it felt really special to be there because just about nobody was there and they were laughing at Ziven when he fell over and she said it was really fun. Rider was really impressed when he went up to the Fieldhouse and saw Calder leading his Synergy Football Club saying 'go' to all the really difficult drills like holding a ball over your head while you run, and if you let it fall then EVERYONE else has to do it over and doing push-ups and switching from one side of a cone to another and then sprinting right after and doing push ups again. Rider said it was really awesome to see him where he is doing what HE does, where he is in his 'element' and being a leader and just being really awesome and working SO hard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anna went to shadow at MUHS on Tuesday. She was talking to a former NBS student Cody. They were at an assembly and he started telling her that NBS is a 'mean' school and MUHS is a 'nice' school. He said that NBS is mean because it’s real, people have the space to have actual opinions and feelings so you could have 'bad' feelings towards people, and MUHS doesnt leave any room for those feelings with so many people and so everyone is just 'nice'. But are they really being honest? probably not, because there is no room for 'mean', gritty and real, or honesty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon was amazed by the Kinglet birds we have been reading about in science. They are about the size of a person’s thumb and have an inch of fluff around them. Its really amazing how they don't use any imported insulation or outside forces, they just use themselves to keep warm.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Luna, Eric's crazy dog got out of the science room and ran over to the Carvers'. Eric decided to make sure Luna hadn’t destroyed the Carvers' house before school. He drove over, found the door ajar and found a quart of honey with dog marks on them ripped open and a large pool/trail of honey covered the entryway. He found Luna with as much of a devilish grin as a dog can muster and tried to clean up the honey desperately before school......<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Aylee's sister started to get into her application to NBS and she didnt even need her mom to tell her to do it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Poem, read by Chase ---- “Fire and Ice”, Robert Frost<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Some say the world will end in fire,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Some say in ice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">From what I've tasted of desire<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I hold with those who favor fire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But if it had to perish twice,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I think I know enough of hate<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">To say that for destruction ice<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Is also great<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And would suffice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">FRIDAY:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anneke brought in an awesome quilt made for Dalia that she gave to the Tal has been working on since last year. It was cut outs of everyone's hands from last year and sewn onto black and purple fabric (white black and purple are Prunes colors). She said in meeting that she understood what people meant when they say that you don't appreciate people until their gone and she was really sad working on it last night and remembering last year’s ninth graders. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I've been thinking a lot about last year’s ninth graders lately, too.Will these ninth graders be as big as last year, or is it just that I was a sevie last year and I can't see that they are just as big? Every year the chemistry of the school changes, but it’s hard to see the awesome stuff when you are immersed in it. Some awesome stuff the ninth graders have been doing: For example,Yared and Rider are like the heart and the mind. Together they seem to always be able to get to ego-death. When I hear them in conferences they are always talking about the 'house' of the school, how we can make it together, how we are trying to make it together. Then there's Aylee and Anneke and Sarah who have been trying to be characters in the play who want real love, who can see how ridiculous the pre-made system is for getting love in our play. Miles has been drawing his own drawings which may not seem like a lot, but I think that it’s a form of non-conformity. He is thinking, he is DOING something. He is not letting everyone else's ART be HIS art. HE IS HIS OWN ART. You are what you say, you are what you eat, you ARE YOUR ART. So maybe these ninth graders are VERY different from last year’s, maybe there are some things about them that are not perfect, but they are not conformists. They are thinking feeling, DOING something, and I think that is the most important thing. If there were perfect people leading us, who had everything figured out, there would be no way to tell that they had done anything, that they had come so far, but I have been seeing lately how seeing these people re trying and desperately clawing inside of themselves to be better, and that is making all the difference and, to me, is the sign of incredible ninth graders.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rowan went to Finn's aunt’s house (as Tal would say: probably where they do sun salutations to welcome the day) and was urged by Finn and Eliot to come to the bathroom of her house (the BATHROOM??) it was (apparentely) a tradition (tradition??) and Rowan felt glad to be invited in to their really big bathroom friendship. (though we are all a little worried that what they do with their free time is go into their aunt’s bathroom...)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sarah saw her brother happier than ever because he now goes to the Ripton School. He's been coming home singing and happy to go to school every day. Rose was thinking all week about Tate's project. About whether or not you could have the courage to stand by your people and your morals and your religion even if you were to die. Whether you would feed a dying relative if you knew they were going to die, or if instead you would take that food for yourself. If you would fast on your religion’s fasting days even if you were starving already. She liked the concept of not making excuses for people who didn't do that, not making it right for the people who were small and tried to save themselves and not actually LIVE with their morals while they were still alive and in the hardest conditions. She said she was watching a movie on migrating birds and how they wouldn’t stop for anything on their way. Even the best food in the world; somehow they had a greater purpose and that they knew to migrate and somehow they always knew that. If those people held strong for their morals, then they are like migrating birds. They are far above the world, they have truly learned to live, don’t you think? If you can become your morals and your religion in your dying day, I think that is when you are living.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Eric thought Yared did a great job of running meeting on Thursday when Hilda came and Tal wasn't at school. In the last several weeks, Yared's been feeling closer to the ninth graders, that even though it isn’t perfect he is so happy that he can have his friends at the high school his whole scene there and then have his friends at North Branch and he can love all of them. When he went to DJ skate night (where teenagers skate around in circles in the dark with a disco ball and listen to teeny bopper music) and he felt awesome to have the two groups he loved there and knew that he could go back and forth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider Read the Poem: (he said he could remember when he was in seventh grade and he picked this poem without really knowing about it, but now he can understand it and he can see how his mind has changed over the three years.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:16.0pt;margin-left:24.0pt;text-indent:24.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wake Up. Day Calls you<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Pedro Salinas.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wake up. Day calls you<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">to your life: your duty.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And to live, nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Root it out of the glum<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">night and the darkness<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">that covered your body<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">for which light waited<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">on tiptoe in the dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Stand up, affirm the straight<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">simple will to be<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a pure slender virgin.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Test your bodys metal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">cold, heat? Your blood<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">will tell against the snow,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">or behind the window.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The colour in your cheeks will tell.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And look at people. Rest<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">doing no more than adding<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">your perfection to another<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">day. Your task<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">is to carry your life high,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and play with it, hurl it<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">like a voice to the clouds<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">so it may retrieve the light<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">already gone from us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">That is your fate: to live<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Do nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Your work is you, nothing more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later we talked about having the courage to say out loud what you really feel about something. To be able to tell your friends the most important things, even if it is hard to say or hear.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">-Albus Dumbledore. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sometimes you have to stand up for what you want and yourself more to your friends than to your enemies. With your friends, if they are real friends, they know what hurts and it hurts even more when you care about what they think about you. You have to be able to stand up to your significant other as well. Because throughout all of your life your going to have to live with yourself and you can be hurt by your friends and you can be hurt by people you are in love with, but in the end you have to stay true to yourself and what you want to do to be happy and the people who love you truly will want you to do that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We talked about how Anna had had a crush on a boy and it wasn't hard for her to admit THAT, it was just hard for her to admit that she had had a lot of trouble talking to him. She felt like a flawed human because of that and it was that that hurt, not that she had liked him. We talked about how we search for security, a 'known' and guaranteed friendship. First with one other person then with your class and then hopefully with the school, and then the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Everyone is looking for that I think. It’s just really hard to see that you wont be replaced when other people have friendships with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The week overall? Are you replaceable? Never. You are not replaceable when you hold to yourself your morals, even in the dying day. When you are not a conformist to society or anyone else but only conforming to who you are and what you believe and becoming that. There is everything to be learned from those who are working, and maybe it’s a little harder to learn from those who aren't growing and are staying where they are. The ninth graders are awesome. Snow days are for frolicking. And most of all: Always say: “This girl is going to give it a whirl! OR This guy is gonna give it a try!”</span></span><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-62355166331509216422011-02-07T11:50:00.001-08:002011-02-07T11:55:41.972-08:00In Peace<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3BSWlvn-vA5O_VtxCdWmWHOC_9-vIEFzj8NbyJiTnp8Whc2_r-Ffu81C1dvoJPhla-UIRTP9Qrs_Wjo9k0HWaAg1i9GT0LYDJUMF0ieVjxOJxavvn1Fy6oIxLHxZN0YNFoh_7o3m61I/s1600/c3caae2d593f698ab3d0bacd3412a8d7.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 247px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3BSWlvn-vA5O_VtxCdWmWHOC_9-vIEFzj8NbyJiTnp8Whc2_r-Ffu81C1dvoJPhla-UIRTP9Qrs_Wjo9k0HWaAg1i9GT0LYDJUMF0ieVjxOJxavvn1Fy6oIxLHxZN0YNFoh_7o3m61I/s400/c3caae2d593f698ab3d0bacd3412a8d7.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5571038420272813106" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i>When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have always been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invicible, but in the ends, they always fall—I think of it, always.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>—Mahatma Gandhi<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;">On Friday we got<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a letter back from Jarvis Jay Masters…We read his book, <i>Finding Freedom: Writings From Death Row</i></span><span style="color:black;">, this year. At the end of our reading we sent him each our last literature responses, which we wrote to him in the form of letters. WE also included our pictures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Here is what he wrote back to us, hand written, addressed from San Quentin.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>Dear Tal,</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i>I am writing to thank you and your 8<sup>th</sup> and 9<sup>th</sup> grade students who wrote me all the wonderful letters that continues to touch my heart and, in so many ways, lets me see how my book, </i><b>Finding Freedom</b><i>, is contributing to class rooms like it has at North Branch. I truly appreciate <u>everything</u> you have made possible for your students to sit with their hearts, and to say I had a real presence in their literature class. I feel so honored by this Tal, you know? I really do, Tal.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i>So Please, please let all of your precious students know it means so much to me to know that my book is in their classroom! Please let your classroom know that I am truly grateful for all your letters and the wonderful photographs sent to me. They’re all GREAT! </i></span><span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings;color:black;"><i><span style="mso-char-type:symbol;mso-symbol-font-family:Wingdings;">J</span></i></span><span style="color:black;"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </i></span><i>Again,</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thank you so much Tal.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><i><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In Peace,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Jarvis<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-15060460247824318152011-02-04T04:27:00.000-08:002011-02-04T19:28:38.663-08:00Moving Forward<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b></b></span></p><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; display: inline !important; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We climb to hopes</span></span></span></i></span></p></b></b></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; display: inline !important; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></i></span></p></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; display: inline !important; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of such seeing up the leaf-shuttered escarpments,</span></i></span></span></span></p></b></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blindered by green, under a green-grained sky</span></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Into the blue.</span></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> —</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sylvia Plath</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></i></span></p></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b></b></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Monday</span></b></span></p><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7l9jbuaMxHL1-ZyLyTpx0fw-9eWd15Sx1mOGPFDAlxqFSx5J57CJnvnfz0F945jfkt1oH5s74L7Q0LdrlVHmEDIM0U2MhC4Su1hLtYaoLmyH2oSPYGN2mnqJxgherNFCar2a-6dcwYCo/s320/Memento+Mori+Painting.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5569812263845961234" /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Claire talked about when she was with her friend who works at the gallery who she has known for a really long time. She </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';">had been thinking about how this person was kind of like her older sister.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>At Patrick’s soccer practice there was one kid who was criticizing everyone when they made mistakes, and he realized </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">that, even when we are running around</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and yelling, we are pretty mature.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Simon was at the perspective students meeting and saw the way Tal, Eric and Rose</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">were talking about the school and realized how much they do for us and the school.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Eric was also at the perspective students meeting and heard Simon and Rowan talk about their experience at North Branch, and liked that they could talk about what we do there so clearly.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rose saw that instead of getting the play organized Friday afternoon while Tal was there we decided to do it Monday on our own and she thought it was cool we that we did that.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Anneke watched a movie about a lady who stalked her ex-husband and was then sent to an insane asylum. While the lady was in the asylum a man came up to her and told her that she shouldn’t be wasting her time in that place, she should go somewhere else and do something. This made Anneke think about how we have so much at school, but the only place its truly worth something is outside the school.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Finn read “Moving Forward,” by Rilke:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The deep parts of my life pour onward,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">as if the river shores were opening out.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It seems that things are more like me now,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That I can see farther into paintings.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I feel closer to what language can't reach.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">With my senses, as with birds, I climb</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">into the windy heaven, out of the oak,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in the ponds broken off from the sky</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">my falling sinks, as if standing on fishes.</span></span></i></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Tuesday</b></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal came back and was asking about how class had been in the 20 below weather the day before. Some people started shouting out and arguing over the inside and outside temperatures of the snow shelter, which Tal interested in for about three seconds until someone said, “I didn’t go out.” This shocked Tal because he thought that we should be true Vermonters, and real persons, and risk the cold. He said that if there is ever a point in your life where you could choose discomfort over boring and the same you should take discomfort, unless it will kill you. He said that the only time you can grow is when you are uncomfortable, when there is tension. He said that he tries to create tension at school so we can be at a place where “something happens.” Then he told us that people in Atlanta close school when it gets down to seven degrees, and then talked about Paideia baseball, and when they posed in the snow pretending to play baseball, and then a newsletter article was written about the hard-coreness of Paideia’s baseball team.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Calder said that while he was at soccer practice Hugh said that the problem with adolescents is that we can’t change our decisions once there made. Calder had been thinking about this and realized it was true--when he was opening the dishwasher and it was stuck he repeatedly yanked it but it didn’t open. Instead of looking to see what was wrong, he kept pulling on the dishwasher until it opened, which took a very long time and was probably the least efficient way to do it.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal then talked for several minutes about the contents of cabinets in kitchens, and how it was always the cheese-grater that jams up the drawers. After considering this fact for some times, he has decided that it is easier to keep the cheese grater in a cabinet.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Eric said it was very liberating to come to a new house and leave all of his junk behind.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire talked about two police officers who were shot while searching a man. She was thinking about how easy it is for people to get defensive.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon read "Ionic" by Catullus</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That we've broken their statues,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that we've driven them out of their temples,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">doesn't mean at all that the gods are dead.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">O land of Ionia, they're still in love with you,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">their souls still keep your memory.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When an August dawn wakes over you,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">your atmosphere is potent with their life,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and sometimes a young ethereal figure</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">indistinct, in rapid flight,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">wings across your hills.</span></span></i></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Wednesday</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Calder was looking at the corrections on his story that were done by his dad and his brother. He noticed that they were similar, so therefore Henry and Tal are similar.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The night before many North Branch students had watched the State of the Union address, proving our knowledge and brilliance compared to many other adolescents, who spend too much time listening to “Grenade” by Bruno Mars.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse was watching the State of the Union address and kept hearing Obama say that he wants America to be great, but she was thinking that the ultimate goal should be for the world to be great, but for the world to be great we should stop trying to be better than everybody else.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire had a dream about Martin Luther King dream coming out of Obama’s mouth, and said that although Obama is not as great as Martin Luther King, he’s the best we’ve got, and he could make things great.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kiley was thinking about how lucky we are to have peaceful, regular elections, because in some places things never change, except for when there is violence.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anna heard Obama say that we have to move forward, and realized that we are always trying to move forward at school, so we are a kind of mini-world.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal said that he has figured out Obama’s strengths and weaknesses, and then said that the work of the president is to get people together, which is a very difficult thing. He said it was hard enough to bring our school together and move all of us together to a good place, but imagine it when you are trying to move 300 million people to one place together.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse’s brother told her a story about machine gunners on the White House, and she said that even though we are farther along than some countries, but we are not perfect.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon was thinking about the Tucson shootings and how</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the lady who got shot has come to a stable condition, and was thinking about how strong you would have to be to pull through something like that.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rose said she was very proud of the math nerds, or “mathletes” as they are sometimes referred to for wanting to go to the competition that would happen that afternoon, then we talked about how strange it is that so much is spent at the football program at some schools, while the people who are there to learn, which is, last time I checked the reason for college, get ignored.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evan had a basketball game against a team that always beats them, and after three minutes they were down 14-0, but then they came back and won, and that made Evan feel really good.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire read "It was a Quiet Seeming Day" by Emily Dickinson.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was a quiet seeming Day —</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There was no harm in earth or sky —</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Till with the closing sun</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There strayed an accidental Red</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A Strolling Hue, one would have said</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To westward of the Town —</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But when the Earth began to jar</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And Houses vanished with a roar</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And Human Nature hid</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We comprehended by the Awe</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As those that Dissolution saw</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Poppy in the Cloud</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Thursday</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b> </b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b> </b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rose said that the math team had gone down to Gailer, and she noticed that the NBS kids were the weirdest and wildest, but they were also the most enthusiastic and excited.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anneke was reading her lit and then her mom came and talked to her about baby pictures of Anneke that were on facebook. After seeing these Anneke felt that life goes too fast and you only get so much time. Then Tal interjected and said that thinking about how much time you have left can be sad, it is a good thing to think about because it will make you do more with the time you do have. He talked about “memento mori” paintings and how the purpose of those, like “carpe diem” poems, is to remind us that time and life is precious, that we need to be aware of the closeness of the end so we take care of the time we have.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Y’all,” he said, “it is dark, spark, then dark, so it is good, Anneke, be aware of that. If you are always aware, you can make each day or moment meaningful.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Simon was talking to Claire during study and had a good time doing that.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal said that the afternoon before Doon saw him, and then just came and hugged him, maybe because, Tal thought, Tal appeared so haggard. Tal is not really the huggy type, but he thought that it was amazing that Doon did that even though he doesn’t know Doon that well. He said Doon crossed a lot of time and space and unfamiliarity to throw himself into that hug. He also said that Doon is a really good hugger, and then he gave Tal a quick shoulder rub, it made Tal feel better.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Luke watched a movie about two friends on the run from the law, “The Outsiders.” One of the friends quoted Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold can Stay. The other friend thought about the poem, and thought that it meant that you are golden when you are a kid, but you can’t stay a kid forever. Then he died saving kids because they were more golden than him. Luke was thinking about how he is golden right now, but he won’t be forever. Tal said: the goal of life is to try to stay golden.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b>Friday</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal said various variations on bro, as he was inspired by Luke, and said that at NBS he (Tal) was the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“broffesor”.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Everyone spoke about something that was copied off of </span></span></span><span style="color: rgb(21, 0, 204); "><u><a href="http://cowgirlslang.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 204); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">cowgirlslang.com</span></span></a></u></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, which we shall not expel to the world as it was kind of inappropriate and Tal does not wan to bring shame and scorn raining down upon us.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Jesse came home to an empty house and she was scared so she called Anneke and went to her house. She said that she feels safe with Anneke.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal said that he was having a good teacher/student relationship with Jesse and she was having good thoughts and he wa sin a good “conversation” with her. Tal explained how he sometimes teases us to get out something more, but it is a way to find some cracks and to get us in a conversation with him, and he is always trying to lure us into conversations, like a bullfighter; or like a fisherman, offering a tasty looking lure to big “Catty-Wampuses.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(Extra credit: find the etymology and meaning of “catty-wampus.”)</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Fairchild, A.K.A. Morgan, spoke about her mom sewing curtains for her room. Morgan always told her they were nice, and she said she felt good that her mom was doing something that she cared about, that was creative.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rio started to talk, saying “This person like…” After the word “like” Tal interrupted and told him to start over. Rio then talked about how there are some things that are important and some are not.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Simon said that the day before he was reading about flying squirrels. He enjoyed this and thought that flying squirrels are almost perfect machines.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal said that ducks are cool too.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Yared said that he can fly, stating “I can fly in my dreams. I am the black superman. Burger King.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>We all laughed about this for a while.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anna told of a body builder and how he trained people, but the people didn’t like him because he was better than them.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal told of the amazingly difficult training regimen that He, Calder and Ollie were undergoing at Synergy Football club. A brutal physical training, modeled on a Bolivian Football Club called Tahuichi, which emphasizes having a rock solid physical and mental foundation before anything else.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Sophie went in to do her solo skating routine and said that she wants to be able to do things herself. She said she gets up at 5 am every morning to train. Tal said this is the kind of discipline, which, practiced over time, makes someone or something great.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Eric said that if you are reading the science and you are able to relate it to other things than you are doing it right.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Oliver read “Above the Oxbow” by Sylvia Plath</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Here in this valley of discrete academies</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We have not mountains, but mounts, truncated hillocks</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To the Adirondacks, to northern Monadnock,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Themselves mere rocky hillocks to an Everest.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Still, they're out best mustering of height: by</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Comparison with the sunnken silver-grizzled</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Back of the Connecticut, the river-level</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Flats of Hadley farms, they're lofty enough</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elevations to be called something more than hills.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Green, wholly green, they stand their knobby spine</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Against our sky: they are what we look southward to</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Up Pleasant Street at Main. Poising their shapes</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Between the snuff and red tar-paper apartments,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They mound a summer coolness in our view.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To people who live in the bottom of valleys</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A rise in the landscape, hummock or hogback, looks</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To be meant for climbing. A peculiar logic</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In going up for the coming down if the post</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We start at's the same post we finish by,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But it's the clear conversion at the top can hold</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Us to the oblique road, in spite of a fitful</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wish for even ground, and it's the last cliff</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ledge will dislodge out cramped concept of space, unwall</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Horizons beyond vision, spill vision</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After the horizons, stretching the narrowed eye</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To full capacity. We climb to hopes</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of such seeing up the leaf-shuttered escarpments,</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Blindered by green, under a green-grained sky</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Into the blue. Tops define themselves as places</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where nothing higher's to be looked to. Downward looks</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Follow the black arrow-backs of swifts on their track</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of the air eddies' loop and arc though air's at rest</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To us, since we see no leaf edge stir high</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Here on a mount overlaid with leaves. The paint-peeled</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hundred-year-old hotel sustains its ramshackle</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Four-way veranda, view-keeping above</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The fallen timbers of its once remarkable</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Funicular railway, witness to gone</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Time, and to graces gone with the time. A state view-</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Keeper collects half-dollars for the slopes</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of state scenery, sells soda, shows off viewpoints.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A ruffy skylight oaints the gray oxbow</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And paints the river's pale circumfluent stillness.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As roses broach their carmine in a mirror. Flux</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of the desultory currents --- all that unique</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Stripple of shifting wave-tips is ironed out, lost</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the simplified orderings of sky-</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Lorded perspectives. Maplike, the far fields are ruled</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By correct green lines and no seedy free-for-all</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of asparagus heads. Cars run their suave</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Colored beads on the strung roads, and the people stroll</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Straightforwardly across the springing green.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All's peace and discipline down there. Till lately we</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Lived under the shadow of hot rooftops</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And never saw how coolly we might move. For once</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A high hush quietens the crickets' cr</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">y.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Tal said this was his favorite Sylvia Plath poem, and she was bringing the good stuff.</span></span></p></div>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-53887447384578648052011-01-05T15:14:00.000-08:002011-01-05T15:19:36.669-08:00Weekly Notes By Tsering<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1XiAhT8hPLe32hyphenhyphen02kQdmc5NxEbbG3u6H5Kc2DK6lGrhQ3DbYbk3_2ExRIyLOugPbR3j9-tpi_U14NAzKbsE5AzN7UMXN83w8AIA_d9jQlmQ5ILuu05W_LkEltN7w18kcgCv_cDYmtk/s1600/Coretta+Kissing+King.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh1XiAhT8hPLe32hyphenhyphen02kQdmc5NxEbbG3u6H5Kc2DK6lGrhQ3DbYbk3_2ExRIyLOugPbR3j9-tpi_U14NAzKbsE5AzN7UMXN83w8AIA_d9jQlmQ5ILuu05W_LkEltN7w18kcgCv_cDYmtk/s320/Coretta+Kissing+King.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558844539940462562" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; "><span class="UIStory_Message"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.</span></i></span></h3></span><!--StartFragment--> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-weight: normal; "><span class="UIStory_Message"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">—MLK, Jr.</span></span></h3></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Monday</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“What’s your goal?” Tal asked. First one person answered then it all rolled in, everyone saying their goal. It all went back to when Hugh, from Synergy Football Club, came in and told us that goals are just dreams that are written down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then Tal started to rant about the world cup being in Qatar<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Qatar is having the World Cup in 2022?!” But then an disturbing comment came from our science teacher<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Qatar would be a very interesting place to visit.” Everyone glared at Eric. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Anna said that the other night she was working on her story and then she came across a piece of paper from the past and stared out the window in thought. Aylee said that her Internet was down over the weekend and so she had no communication with anyone, and it made her so much more excited to see people on Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Claire said that the other night her mom had done her Tarot reading and the ones that Claire had picked were Judgment and Two Roads and she picked the Swords which symbolizes hiding and that is sometimes what she feels.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">There is more talk about the World Cup in Qatar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon said that the other day he was talking to Tate and was really happy because he feels like Tate has opened up a lot more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Morgan had a couple of exchange students over and they helped decorate the tree, but they were decorating it in a different way that Morgan’s family usually did it. Morgan became angry, especially after one of the students asked if he could put the angel on top, which Morgan usually did, and that her dad helped her get through it and that in the end she got to put the angel up.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire said that she was rearranging her room the other day and that she moved the extra bed that her dad sleeps on and that she and her dad were sad that the bed was gone because her dad used lay in it every night and talked until they both fell asleep and she was sad that it was gone away. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tueday<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal said that he went with Rose and Eric to the Paramount Theater in Rutland to hear Garrison Keillor speak and that he (Tal) said he (Tal) was definately the coolest person there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Finn was at the Dentists and she was very grumpy but her brother saw a train there and got excited so Finn’s mood changed because she saw how happy her brother was.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon had gone to a talk with his parents and he didn’t want to be there very much so he was being grumpy but he ended up really enjoying it. Calder and Calder’s mom Blair made a really cool gift for Dalia—a lobster boat made out of a giant box of cardboard. It was a surprise and Calder had left it in the living room at Tal’s house for a surprise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wednesday<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When we came in Tal started ranting about Santa Claus and how sant couldn’t get to so many houses in one night and there was no snow to land his sled on in Atlanta. Claire said that she wanted to be treated not like she was lower or superior to anyone and she was really happy because she was talking about this with her mom and her mom understood this. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Morgan said that the other night her parents had asked how Kiley and Morgan’s day had been and Kiley said that Tate had talked a lot and it made Kiley happy and that made Morgan happy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal started talking about the Nutcracker and the weird snowflakes and many people interrupted and said things like, “I would make a great snowflake.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Thursday<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anna said that she had went to the Gailer play and that after the play her mom was very late so when her mom finally came Anna was being a grumpy gorilla and so when she went home she started crying and her mom comforted her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then sang to Kiley “Happy Birthday” in a very high squeaky out of tune voice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Miles said that he was being a grumpy gorilla but then he talked to Finn on Facebook and it made him happy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Patrick was done with all done with his homework and he heard his mom reading a story to his brother and he just sat down and listened.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rose said that Jared’s class had gone to the Vermont Folk Life Center to see the gingerbread houses and Jared saw Kamille’s and voted for it three times and saw other kids voting for it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Luke watched a movie that reminded him of how appreciative he is for his dad. Eric said that he was happy to see how much the seventh graders were excited to do things. Jesse saw her sister playing soccer and that she was working really hard and that motivated her. Patrick said how much he loved poetry so he had started collecting all his poems and put them in a book.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Reed saw Tsering ski and it was her first time skiing and Reed thought that she had perfect motivation and was doing very well, and I must agree with her.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anna was at her ballet class and she saw a little girl dancing because she loved it and Anna was very motivated to be like the little girl, dancing because she loved it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-15233563527001954282010-12-05T17:57:00.000-08:002010-12-06T20:16:20.044-08:00Finding Freedom: Weekly Notes by Simon<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8F-w_SJtgxo0ApEfinnvmZoHtcl-sz9Gvb-fJkBPN-kiXv5UQB5CwoiKSK8_ZKlSi-EBySc81MCqCH7ZjSAqh7gTNd4Y67ZWbN6RQja-nfh8SwP-1km45cFleF8loXP_4mr5XycIn_Q/s1600/cover_lg.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 211px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp8F-w_SJtgxo0ApEfinnvmZoHtcl-sz9Gvb-fJkBPN-kiXv5UQB5CwoiKSK8_ZKlSi-EBySc81MCqCH7ZjSAqh7gTNd4Y67ZWbN6RQja-nfh8SwP-1km45cFleF8loXP_4mr5XycIn_Q/s320/cover_lg.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547387839285838242" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">MONDAY </span></span></u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Meeting</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Claire Watched </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into the void, </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a movie about two people climbing in Peru, and one of them slips and falls into a crevasse. The other one has to cut him loose, because otherwise both of them would die. The one who fell survives, but it still got Claire thinking about how difficult it would be to cut the rope.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“If it was me and my mom, I don’t know what I would do,” said Claire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Over vacation Patrick said he was always with relatives and never alone. One day he saw some bugs all bunched together, and realized they were safer in a pack. He later saw a dead deer in someone’s trunk, and thought about how that deer was alone, and it had been unsafe. It made him think about how there is safety in numbers. He concluded by saying that from this he knows that he doesn’t want to be alone.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tate Watched </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The Deer Hunter </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">over break and it was awesome. At this proclamation Tal gasped, and told us how great that movie is, going as far as to tell us the plot.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Aylee told us that her Grandmother just came back from India, where people live in extreme poverty, but their religion tells them that they need to be happy with what they have. There they have virtually nothing, but are very happy.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It seems that sometimes we don’t appreciate how lucky we are, to have a house, food, and above all many people who love us. We seem to take love for granted, but it is not something that is granted at birth.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Eric told us that this morning he was raging with the projector, complaining that we had all screwed it up, and tangled the lines, and was stressing himself out ridiculously. At that Sarah came down and said, “You stress too much Eric.” And before his incredulous eyes, she set it all up for him, reducing his stress level.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">This vacation Anna went to Washington DC, and was excited to go visit a church that she had gone to when she was younger. She would go, it would all be silent, and she would think, and it would be perfect. She got there…. And there were a bunch of people taking pictures and talking in very loud voices.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">She later went to the national gallery and saw a Picasso, and sat there staring at it a long time and thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So I realized you can’t really decide how things are going to turn out but you have to let them happen,” she said. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Sophie and Anna get hard-core points for jumping in a pond in Vermont in November.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tal announced that it was HOLIDAY TIME!!! "DON’T FORGET TO BRING YOU TEACHERS EXPNSIVE ELECTRONICES or quality wines from</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Chile. Preferably whole </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">wooden </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">crates.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">No, not the wine in the cardboard boxes, but in bottles in a case."</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">"Any student knowing of restaurants serving marvelous French cuisine in would do well with a half dozen or so a gift certificates, but of course no one has that!” Tal said looking at Kamille.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal is a corrupt and sad little man.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anna read </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Still I Rise </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by Maya Angelou, warning us not to get too distracted about it mentioning sex but focusing on the deeper meaning.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; mso-table-layout-alt:fixed;border:none;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt"><tbody><tr><td width="5" valign="top" style="width:5.0pt;border:none;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></p></td><td width="540" valign="top" style="width:7.5in;border:none;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may write me down in history</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">With your bitter, twisted lies,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may trod me in the very dirt</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But still, like dust, I'll rise.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Does my sassiness upset you?</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Why are you beset with gloom?</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Pumping in my living room.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Just like moons and like suns,</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">With the certainty of tides,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Just like hopes springing high,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Still I'll rise.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Did you want to see me broken?</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Bowed head and lowered eyes?</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Shoulders falling down like teardrops.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Weakened by my soulful cries.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Does my haughtiness offend you?</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Don't you take it awful hard</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Diggin' in my own back yard.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may shoot me with your words,</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may cut me with your eyes,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You may kill me with your hatefulness,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But still, like air, I'll rise.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Does my sexiness upset you?</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Does it come as a surprise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">That I dance like I've got diamonds</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">At the meeting of my thighs?</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Out of the huts of history's shame</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Up from a past that's rooted in pain</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Leaving behind nights of terror and fear</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I am the dream and the hope of the slave.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#262626;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I rise.</span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Events from 8/9 science</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">As we settle down into the class some people run outside for some last-minute living pattern collecting (which we should have got over break). When we are all here Claire declares she deserves extra points because she’s bleeding. Eric is not impressed.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“YOU HAD ALL WEEK!!!!!!!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">After a brief introduction to class (in which Eric says that all living things have patterns for a reason) Eric starts to talk about the strange contraption that Donna got on EBay. After some Very deductive reasoning, Eric theorizes that it is a projector of some sort, judging from the fan, and tilted mirror at the bottom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">After that we go downstairs and start to watch </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Micro cosmos, </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a movie about bugs. While starting Claire leaves food lying around. Calder confronts her by saying, “You should treat your school like your house.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I DO treat school like my house!” says Claire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">As the movie begins, it inspires various </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Awwwws</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> (referring to how cute the bug are) and </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">ewwws</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> (to how nasty).Claire at one point joins in the </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">awwws</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">, and takes big steps forward from her campaign to kill all bugs. Then two snails start to “kiss” and mate. This is too much for the class, the entire sequence with the snails is filled with OOOs and AAAHs and EWWWWs and “WOW, SNAILS GETTING FRESH!”</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">ALL TAL</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tal reviews special lit assignments, Hands Back 3</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">rd</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> character sketches. On Luke’s he stops, and asks why he wrote it,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, I love Rose,” comes the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Why?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, she is so calm under pressure.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">At this Tal tells us about his thesis, which is that anything you love in someone else you want to love in yourself, or you don’t’ have in yourself but want. Being calm under pressure is something Luke wants to be able to do. Tal asks how to be calm under pressure. The answer is to STOP AND THINK! Take time, be patient, have faith.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal says that partly it is our age that we are looking at everything around us and wanting it, just like a large mouth bass is voracious and wants to catch all the fish it can. After an awkward silence Tal says, “Sorry, that was a terrible analogy.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal wants to know if Luke feels like he is leaving his mother (growing up), and if some of those motherly feelings are going to Rose. Luke says probably. We all speculate that maybe males are looking for love, for a motherly figure. Tal tells us that that Character sketch has a story in it. Then he reads a Character sketch that has a story in it. It is Luke's, on his dad and how he doesn’t connect when he can, and that he loves him, and doesn’t want him to die, and will make the most of the time he has with him.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">To get us into story mode Tal reads us a story written by an old student, Vladimir. It is about Vladimir leaving his home in Russia, and coming to the United States never to see Russia, or his friends, again.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then decide this story is about leaving things, but not loosing them. This is how I think Luke wants to be with his dad.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tuesday </span></span></u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Meeting.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">From amongst the usual early morning squealing (people yelling the names of random fruits, saying somewhat inappropriate things, and talking very loud about what they did last night) Tal quietly asks if anyone has anything, and all the same talking stops, and Rose raises her hand.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">She noticed Sarah in math really trying, and how Rose enjoyed watching her face light up when she understood.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“And even though she is going through hard times, she is still trying really hard and doing really well,” Rose finishes</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal then makes fun of Yared, who appears to be talking to his zipper.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yared tells us that his brother just got his drivers license and now is not driving with Yared and his dad because he can drive himself. And from this Yared feels very separate from Yib, and lonely.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Jesse tells that for school her sister had to bring an ad, and was looking through a fashion magazine, but chose an ad for Smile Train, that helps children with cleft lips and palates, instead of something about Clairol hair color.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal then tells us that the things we choose tell a lot about us. He uses the cubist art we are doing in math. The image we chose tells a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">whole </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">lot about us. Even if we didn’t pick an image really important to us, and just chose the first image we came across, that tells something too.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span style="font-style:normal"></span>Anna then tells us that she was talking to Tate about the movie </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Gandhi, </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and she could tell that he really listens. Tal then reflects that of the three Vietnam War movies he mentioned to Tate, Tate had remembered and watched one, and tried to rent another.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span style="font-style:normal"></span>Then Evan says that he went to sign up for basketball at Otter Valley, and when he saw the schedule, he realized how much his mother does for him, driving him around helping him do he things he wants.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal asks if he will have “snap off” warm up pants, that he can snap right off like a whip to get off when he goes into the game.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then Tal goes on a little tangent on how dumb the name “Frost Heaves” is for Vermont's basketball team… “That name means that the team is a cold shooting team that throws frozen bricks at the basket!” he says. He gets even sadder when he finds out that their mascot is named “Bump."</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sophie reads the poem </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">what I’ve learned so far </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by Marry Oliver.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span style="font-style:normal"></span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">What I Have Learned So Far</span></span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">looking into the shining world? Because, properly<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Can one be passionate about the just, the<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All summations have a beginning, all effect has a<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">light is the crossroads of -- indolence, or action.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Be ignited, or be gone.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i>Tal are told that when he told his friend that we would be going out into the woods in the rain and wind in December in Vermont to clear trails that she was happy and that it will “MAKE US TOUGHER!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal tells us to invite people to the contra dance so we can get money and have more fun.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All Tal</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i>We read a Place description with a story in it by a boy from Paideia, about playing basketball with his dad.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">From details in it we decided that the story was about his growing up and following his dad, but also doing his own thing and having the boy teach his dad.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then were told to write a story idea in five minutes. Not a definitive one, but just to get an idea.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider’s was about his Family, and loving them, but sometimes feeling like they aren’t as close as they could be.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We later discuss an idea Tal suggested at morning meeting, about restricting one freedom for us, and expanding another.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Ideas vary from being blind folded all day, to running the school like a jail.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“It’s already like a jail,” he hollers. “You have to do what I tell you, and you can’t leave until a certain time.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In the end we settle on the idea of being tied to someone who you usually aren’t with, and having one be blind folded, and one not.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal says he will deliberate and perfect the idea for us.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wednesday </span></span></u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Meeting</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i>People settle down from disappointment that the trail-clearing trip was canceled.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal is yelling random pieces of knowledge like “WE ARE ALL IN PRISON!” and “FEEL THE WALLS CLOSING IN! WHEN THE DOOR SLAMS BEHIND YOU, YOU KNOW IT”S REAL, BROTHER! CLANG!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Finally we get to meeting and Rowan is the first called on.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So I was lying in bed last night thinking about the idea of being tied to someone all day and I thought that last year I would be all worried about who I would be with but this year I realized that I would be happy with being with anyone.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Can we all be someone anyone would want to be with?” asks Tal.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Can we all be a person others would take pleasure in being with?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sophie asks why he is always looking at her. Tal says that he likes to look at someone who reacts, like Sopie, who smiles and and listens, and sometimes others of us look catatonic.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Now Eric tells us that instead of taking the Ripton bus home Rowan came home with the Lincoln people, and that when he got home, they all got out and left all the doors open to the car and that the dogs got </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">inside </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">the car and that it was total chaos until they finally just dragged the dogs inside.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span style="font-style:normal"></span>Eric than says that they considered moving to Lincoln where it was all hippie but instead he moved to Ripton and became old and stodgy.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mia then enters to tell us about wreath orders and that they have to be in Monday. It comes to light that Kiley and Rowan may beat Rider’s record from last year. We are debriefed about the contra dance by both Mia and Tal, the latter of whom says we are sissies if we don’t dance.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Don’t stand out there being a tool, DANCE!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yared and Luke and Tal then demonstrate how to ask a girl to dance. And then Tal decides it’s time to go on with meeting.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Finn’s mom came home last night stressed and Finn saw her dad helping her calm down. Finn thought about other school systems, and the videos Simon had sent out about it, and how her mom couldn’t get one-on-one aides for her kids unless they can’t function with the other kids.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But she was also watching her dad calm her mom, and saw him helping her. Tal says her seeing that might be a story idea.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire then reads </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The Czar’s Last Christmas Letter: A Barn in the Urals </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by Norman Dubie.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; mso-table-layout-alt:fixed;border:none;mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt"><tbody><tr><td width="559" valign="top" style="width:559.0pt;border:none;padding:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt"><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">You were never told, Mother, how old Illya was drunk<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">That last holiday, for five days and nights<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He stumbled through Petersburg forming</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">A choir of mutes, he dressed them in pink ascension gowns<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And, then, sold Father's Tirietz stallion so to rent</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">A hall for his Christmas recital: the audience<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Was rowdy but Illya in his black robes turned on them</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And gave them that look of his; the hall fell silent<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And violently he threw his hair to the side and up</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Went the baton, the recital ended exactly one hour<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later when Illya suddenly turned and bowed</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And his mutes bowed, and what applause and hollering<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Followed.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All of his cronies were there!<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Illya told us later that he thought the voices</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Of mutes combine in a sound<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Like wind passing through big, winter pines.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mother, if for no other reason I regret the war<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">With Japan for, you must now be told,</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It took the servant, Illya, from us. It was confirmed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He would sit on the rocks by the water and with his stiletto</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Open clams and pop the raw meats into his mouth<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And drool and laugh at us children.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We hear guns often, now, down near the village.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Don't think me a coward, Mother, but it is comfortable</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Now that I am no longer Czar. I can take pleasure<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">From just a cup of clear water. I hear Illya's choir often.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I teach the children about decreasing fractions, that is<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">A lesson best taught by the father.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Alexandra conducts the French and singing lessons.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mother, we are again a physical couple.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I brush out her hair for her at night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">She thinks that we'll be rowing outside Geneva</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">By the spring. I hope she won't be disappointed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yesterday morning while bread was frying</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In one corner, she in another washed all of her legs<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Right in front of the children. I think</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We became sad at her beauty. She has a purple bruise<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On an ankle.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Like Illya I made her chew on mint.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Our Christmas will be in this excellent barn.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The guards flirt with your granddaughters and I see...<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I see nothing wrong with it. Your little one, who is</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Now a woman, made one soldier pose for her, she did<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Him in charcoal, but as a bold nude. He was</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Such an obvious virgin about it; he was wonderful!<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Today, that same young man found us an enormous azure</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And pearl samovar. Once, he called me Great Father<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And got confused.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He refused to let me touch him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I know they keep your letters from us. But, Mother,</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The day they finally put them in my hands<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I'll know that possessing them I am condemned</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And possibly even my wife, and my children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We will drink mint tea this evening.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Will each of us be increased by death?<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">With fractions as the bottom integer gets bigger, Mother, it</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Represents less. That's the feeling I have about<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">This letter. I am at your request, The Czar.</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And I am Nicholas.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Jesse then makes the announcement about the Wulfmans annual Holiday party, telling us that it is a potluck and we should bring something, and that parents and siblings can come to.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All Tal</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We come inside from playing with tarps out in the wind to find Rick Skogsberg, come for his second lesson on poetry.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On the board is a poem by him.</span></span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">POETRY</span></span></u></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Is a nasty critic</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wet and snapping</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Biting itself</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On the page</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Teeth like razors</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tongue of pearl</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i></i>Rick gives us a brief review of things from last time, “but let’s start before I turn this into a lecture.” He says.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“When you become a poet you have your first poet love, and Norman Dubie was mine</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">,” says Rick.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He gives us a packet of some of his poems. We spend the rest of the time reading through them and discussing them.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Here is one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">A Day Like Any Other</span></span></u></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">broke across my disappearing body</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">dawn was on my knees when I jumped</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">up and began waving my arms in the air</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">trying to raise the gaze</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">of that far off figure of</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:12.0pt;text-align:justify;text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">a man fading into the near distance.</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">About half way though the poems the power went out, and we finished he lesson with only the extra lights (that automatically come on and cast two yellow jets of light and nothing more). We were left with the assignment to read the last poem </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Power </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">and figure out what is wrong with it.</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The lights being out caused quite a frenzy in the pitch dark basement, as people hurried to get their things, and after shrieks, stumbling and several repeatings of the words, “Oh my god who is that!?” we got out, and through.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Thursday </span></span></u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Meeting</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We arrive at school and there is no power. The lights are off, the printer doesn’t work, and (again) the basement is pitch black.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “GET IN HERE, YOU NEGATIVE CREEPS!” hollers Tal.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Tal starts us off with a very encouraging remark, telling us all that the people who make checklists for them selves usually do the best work, still getting it in on time and doing a quality job.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS!” says Oliver.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Maybe, but my example is Yared,” says Tal. “last night he wanted to get ahead. Did you?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah, I got ahead,” says Yared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then Tal says that throughout Rick’s talk yesterday Rio was taking notes, and lots of them. And that if anyone has an image of him (Rio) as lazy, they have the wrong image, and he is probably better than a lot of us. Tal also added that Rio looked very scholarly, with his books under his arm.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Okay who's got anything?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Reed raises her hands, and says that she noticed Kiley taking part and commenting on Rick’s talk yesterday, and that she knows that that kind of thing was hard for Kiley last year, and that she has come a long way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire then tells us that yesterday she was on the phone with Bryn and was talking to her about her story. And she realized that the ninth graders from when she was in seventh grade always stand out, and the next ones never seem as real as the ones before.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">At that point Sarah and Anneke walk in, the Anneke wearing a VERY large red sweatshirt. “What the heck are you wearing?” asks Tal. “It’s my dads and I'm sorry if it offends you,” She says to Tal.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We all laugh.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal then says how last night, around the same time Claire must have been talking to Bryn, that he remembered Bryn reading the last words of the play last year, and that she was perfect to read them. How amazing she was. Then Tal worries that he is getting too spiritual.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He then recounts how he did a letter of recommendation for an ex-student, and was paid with a sack of garlic. But inside the sack of Garlic he found a thank-you $120, and at first felt guilty because when he had asked for payment it had been a joke. He told his friend about his guilty feeling, and she said that he was being crazy and that now he will simply be ready to give someone else something when they do something nice for him—in other words—he will pass on the niceness. When she explained this to him he felt better. Calder asked him if he would use the money to buy Calder a new pair of football boots, and Tal said absoulutely not, he has already used the money to buy gas and milk.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tate said he’d came home the day before and the power was out and he thought that he and his mother would have to do all the work, but when he got home his younger brother had come home on the bus before, and instead of jumping on the trampoline, or running around outside, he had come home, set out candles, and brought in wood for a fire. Tate had always thought of him as little, but he realized he could do everything Tate and his mom could do.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then Luke tells us that in Middlebury he saw a college student in town that was just happy, and Luke wants to be able to be just happy, not for any reason, but just happy.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then Anneke tells us that her parents had a party with these important legislature people and they invited Sarah’s dad to. They ended up roasting flatbreads over the fire, and then they realized the party was scheduled for tomorrow night. And then Anneke’s sister got home and complained that she didn’t have any food.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Jesse came down the stairs this morning and she saw one of their sheep staring at her, and they were just there staring at each other for a long time. And Jesse thought about how the only creatures capable of destroying the planet are humans, but all animals have to pay for it. Tal asked how she felt about standing there staring at her sheep, and she said, “I thought he was dead!” We all laughed.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then a discussion erupts on how it’s two sheep and one “shoop,” and we decide to move on.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yared then reads </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Remembered Music </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by Rumi</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(26, 26, 26); "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tis said, the pipe and lute that charm our ears</span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Derive their melody from rolling spheres;</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But Faith, o'erpassing speculation's bound,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Can see what sweetens every jangled sound.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We, who are parts of Adam, heard with him</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The song of angels and of seraphim.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Out memory, though dull and sad, retains</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Some echo still of those unearthly strains.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Oh, music is the meat of all who love,</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Music uplifts the soul to realms above.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The ashes glow, the latent fires increase:</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1A1A1A;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We listen and are fed with joy and peace.</span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All Tal</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal reads a poem that was written by Chase.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sleeping next to the red warm fire,</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">From the day’s work I retire.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Until the cold winter morning comes,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I wake to find myself on cracker crumbs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I get up and go to school,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later I am solving problems on a math room stool.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Two hours after at 10 o’clock,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I go to science and get a smock.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I find myself in the big room with all my peers,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And we sit with open ears.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When I am home I throw a ball<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When my brothers start to brawl.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When the day comes to an end,<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I watch the sunset slowly descend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We talk about it, and marvel on it’s simplicity, but ingenuity.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> From it we get Chase’s story idea, about his brothers.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> We discuss other story ideas. Sophie takes steps forward in hers. We discuss Sarah’s, and how it relates to her current mental state and thoughts. Then Tal tells us how to write one. Simply figure out one thing you know for sure and from there figure out how you figured it out. Tal says we should have fifteen pages by Christmas break. Story ideas MUST be in Friday! Tal says.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Friday </span></span></u><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Morning</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We meet at the skating rink. We immediately divide into two groups. People who want to play the fast hockey game, and the slower game. There are also those people who just want to skate around.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">People play their games as music from Sophie's iPod play throughout the rink, songs such as </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I Like It</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> by Enrique Iglesias, and </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Bad Romance </span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">by Lady Gaga.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">At the beginning of the game there were some college students practicing on one end of the rink, so players from the faster game kept flying through the middle of the slower game, saying “sorry!” as they flew through the crowd.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">After our time was up, we returned to the sweat-smelling locker rooms. All except for Rider, who adoringly watched the Zamboni start on the ice.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then left the rink to go to the college building Johnson, where we were going to look at the projects that John McLeod’s architectue students had made.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When we arrived, we were given a brief overview of what the project was by the students that were there (not all of them were). They were all ideas on how to construct a bread oven/gathering place in the College organic gardens. Every student had made a design, floor plan, and model, which we spent about half an hour looking at\</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then went to the studio, where the Flatbread pizzas (our lunch) were going to arrive.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then the pizza’s arrived. About Twenty-four of them. Apparently the person who had ordered them had calculated for the entire of John’s class to be there.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">However, we are NBSers. In a feeding frenzy the first seven went. We kept on eating until there were only about ten left.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then we made our way to the community gardens to see what the gardens looked like, and where certain projects would go.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On the walk back certain sevie boys ran ahead and attempted to scare people by hiding in the reeds and jumping out. To no success what so ever.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When we arrived back at school we had Rider’s project on the American Revolution. The amazing thing was that he didn’t have slides to show us. He drew on the board, and moved his hands, and talked. I usually take pages upon pages of notes, but here I found that I could listen, jot down the occasional date or person, but I retained the information just as well.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We ran out of time and decided to finish it on Monday.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">7) Last Week:</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider’s Project…</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">American Revolution: The Colonial Era (1600-1773); Prelude to the Revolution (1763-1776); The Revolution (1775-1783); The New Nation (1784-1800);</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Puritans, religious freedom, colonists, French Indian War, Taxation, East India Tea Company,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">the Quartering Act, Stamp Act, the Sons of Liberty, King George, repeal of Stamp Act, Merchants Boycotts in Boston, the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, Patriots and Loyalists, Militias; Declaration of Independence, the War, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, Ticonderoga, Valley Forge, Saratoga, George Washington, The Treaty of Paris; Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Before moving on to One Flew over of the Cuckoo’s Nest, we finished “Finding Freedom: Writings from Death Row, by Jarvis Jay Masters.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Masters is still in San Quentin on death row, so as the final writing assignment all the 8</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> and 9</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> graders wrote a letter to him.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Here is a selection of the letters we sent.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Dear Mr. Masters</span></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Dear Jarvis, your book has given me something I will carry for the rest of my life. It has taught me how to be and to believe in my own religion. Your book was like a mirror. You have shown me what it is like to be in jail. I feel all of us in the world go through fazes where we think were in hell, but were not. This book has taught me to love my life. To love every single second of it. I know that you think where you are right now is a kind of hell, but in a way you have made it into a better place. You know everyone, there are people that love you, care about you. In the book it shows how you guys show your love for each other. And out here we show our love the same way. You are not missing anything other then the crappy things getting build. The way you showed the guys suffering, how they wanted to be free and how some killed themselves because they thought that was a kind of freedom, to me that shows a lot of power. I want to ask you, how did you pull yourself together when you were surrounded with all the guys begging for life, and begging for something to come love them and comfort them? You seem like you are in your own state. If someone asks you a question you answer, if someone tells you something you listen you don't argue. And how did you cope with the guys yelling in the morning while you were trying to meditate? Even though your in a square place with nothing interesting, you seem like you have brought life to all things that are dead. The jail cells, the people, the place. You are in peace with everything and for most people even out here it is hard to be happy and enjoy the things there around. You have taught me to look around and love the things I am seeing. The way you described your mom getting beat and hurt. That got me closer to my mom and love her more. The book showed me something, a guide in life, something I can fallow. I love everything in life although sometimes I don't think so. I love the way you wrote the book, and the book has more power in it because you wrote in in jail. It shows how we can still live life where ever we are.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Thank You,Your brother and Friend </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yared</span></span></b><span style="font-weight:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Dear Jarvis, </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When I read the first paragraph on page 149, which said: </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I’ve realized that everything is a continual process of coming and going. I don’t hold happiness or anger for a long time. It just come and goes.” </span></span></b><span style="font-weight:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It reminded me of a book that my class read in Literature last month. The book was called “Of Mice and Men”. One of the main characters is named Lennie. He loves to pet mice in his pocket, but he always pets them to hard and they die. The problem for him was not that he didn’t have enough love; it was that he had too much love and he didn’t know how to control himself. Freedom, in my opinion is just that. It is learning how to use your love. It is overcoming the fear that your love is not enough, and it is being able to let go of what you love in order to grow. To grow up and change, we must allow ourselves to leave the things we are attached to in order to move forward and make room for new things. It is like a child. The child has a blanket or a stuffed animal when they are younger. But as they grow, they find themselves still having this attachment. But the truth is, the only way they can grow up, is to enable themselves to not hold on so tightly. It was like when Freddie found that his last relative had died. At first, he was trying to hold it in. But all at once it came out in a flood of violence and raw confusion. If he were to stay in that state, to be permanently trapped in the feeling of utter rage, then he would not be able to live, to move forward, to go on with the little freedom he had and expand his mind. Once we are at a place where we are willing to give away all positions and to let go of those who we love, only then can we free ourselves from the illusion that life is what we have. If we can press forward, keep moving toward what we want, we will be just a little closer to freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> When you told the inmates to flood the tier, you took a risk, to save your enemies and those that mistreated you. The rest of the people wanted to kill them, wanted to make the them pay for how they acted. But you found a way to let the rage go, to simply thing through the situation and understand what risk must be run. You put yourself on the line, to protect the guards that had treated you like dirt. And yet, I think that is what we all should do. When we are slapped, we should turn the other cheek. We should kiss the feet of those how steal from us, and walk along side those who have lied to our faces. This is one of the hardest tasks. When we are hurt, we want to hurt back. When we are cheated, we want to cheat back, and when we are slapped, we naturally want to slap back. But we are all brothers and sister. We are all struggling to survive in this world that we have turned into a living hell. And only when we accept that others may be feeling the same way, can we help others to help themselves. Would you slap your sister if she wouldn’t get you toilet paper? Would you kill you brother for not giving you a spoon? When I observe the actions of the people around me, I realize how inhuman we can sometimes be. We say we are right, that we are always right, but yet can everyone be right? Proof is just a cover for instability. When we are put in a place of discomfort, like when you were telling Alex to kill himself, I find that we unconsciously defend ourselves. We put up a wall so we wont get hurt. But every once and awhile, someone finds a way to penetrate that wall. When you were talking to Alex, something got through; you found a way for him to realize that any life is worth living, even if we are unfree. You helped him help himself, you let go of the comfort of being kind, and it turned out that that bluntness was what Alex really needed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> To walk away is one of the hardest things in the world. To love something but leave it is like being stabbed in the back. I often find myself wondering why things must leave. Why we can surround ourselves with everything and everyone we love. I think that if we focus too much on external joy, we will not be able to find happiness within ourselves. When we focus on what we like, we can’t get to know what we don’t like. When we play safe and don’t risk anything, we become slaves to our own desires. Only when we know ourselves and who we want to be, better then external pleasures, can we teach ourselves to hold on, but not to tightly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> I have a dream. When we are free, we will be floating, gently visiting different places and holding our weight with our own wings. We will be willing to drift, higher and higher, watching the landscape shrinking below. We will give those who have holes in their wings a hand, pulling them along only until they have patched the hole, then letting go and moving forward. We may attach to a passing figure, holding hands as we rise and rise, but we will let go and know it’s okay. We will simply be without forcing ourselves among others. We won’t join groups, but will dance with the shadows. We may fall at one time or another, but we will trust, that others will care enough to hold us in our time of weakness and release us when we are strong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Thank you for sharing your wisdom with me. I can see from your book that you are finding freedom. I once heard a quote saying: “Jump off a cliff and build your winds on the way down.” I think you have jumped and I can see you are building you wings. All though you are on death row, I think you are learning how to live. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:16.0pt;margin-left:2.5in;text-indent:-2.5in;mso-text-indent-alt:-2.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-list:l0 level5 lfo1;tab-stops:155.0pt 2.5in;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Best wishes in the creation of your wings,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Yours truly, Jesse Marie Wulfman<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Dear Mr. Masters,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> My name is Kiley, and I am writing to you after reading your book, Finding Freedom. We read it in school for our literature class, and I really liked it. I think that it is really cool that you published a book and became a Buddhist and did something with your life, even though you were in jail. That, to me, seems like it would be a really hard thing to do.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> I liked the scene about the dream you had, where you were watching yourself die. I don’t know why I loved this scene so much, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that the entire story I read, the one you told through your book, your life story, feels like a dream, existing in another world that wasn’t the one I am living in now. So it was like reading about a dimension within a dimension. It also was just showing death, from an onlooker’s perspective as well as your own. And death isn’t something pretty, that’s also what I saw. Another one of the scenes I liked was when you talked to Alex as well about suicide, and about how you wanted his TV. I thought that was really cool of you to do and great that you could speak in a language he could understand. It makes me think that if everyone spoke the same language and understood one another, people would stop fighting, you know?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Anyway, death was also really present in some parts of your book, like in the scene with Bryan or really in any of the scenes. But my favorite scene about death was Maxism. I think he’s got it right, Max does, about how we should look at death. He knows he is going to die soon, and he knows nothing he does or says can stop it. But he accepts it. He hasn’t gone crazy like some of the other people in San Quentin, to spend the rest of his life lost inside himself. He accepts what is going to come, and he even comes up with a philosophy for it. Emerson once said that we are always passing through an infinite amount of circle toward a horizon we will never reach. I think that when you get that feeling, of happiness or realization or just something that you can’t understand, you have passed through one of those circles. And even though bad feelings may come later, you have this new knowledge that will always be part of you as you continued towards the next horizon (by you I mean people in general). But I think that Max passed through one of the circles as he read the poem. Maybe people finally reach the horizon when they die. Maybe the horizon is heaven, an end to the journey through circles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> I also liked the part about the ants and the sugar water, because sometimes bugs seems like little rocks or robots that have no feelings, are just there to be a nuisance, and that they don’t really matter. And we’ve all killed bugs. But when you think about it, the bugs aren’t that different from ourselves really, in that they are just one big part of the whole picture, like our earth, which is completely small and tiny compared to what’s out there. Humans love compassion and feeling loved, so why shouldn’t ants? And I think that everyone should take some time out of their busy lives to notice or help a bug instead of swatting it away. Maybe we can learn from them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Thank you so much for reading my letter. I really enjoyed your book, and I hope that my letter finds you doing well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Kiley Pratt, <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Dear Mr. Masters, <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> In school this year, we read your book, “Finding Freedom: Letters from Death Row.” I was very moved by many of the sections pertaining to your home life when you were a kid. I guess it is because I have a fear of abandonment. I have never actually been abandoned or alone, I suppose that I am fairly privileged, but it’s the fear that haunts me. When I was three my parents split up and I was a bit confused, I didn’t really know what to think. When all that you know is your parents, you become attached, which is natural because you are absolutely dependent on them for everything, food, clothes, love. But when you find that they are not perfect, you become confused. These people, who were like gods to me when me I was young, now seem like average imperfect mere mortals. That is what I am facing as a teenager; I am learning new things about myself and the people around me every day. While I see the imperfections in my parents I also need to see the good qualities that they possess. These past two years, my seventh and eighth grade years, I have been seeing new things about myself that I never would have seen when I was younger. Recently I have started running. I think I’m running to get to myself. Or maybe to get to a part of myself that can sometimes be hard to reach when I’m with people. I think that that is something that you attained through Buddhism. Although the methods are different, they result is similar. By running I can be at peace with my own thoughts. I sometimes run down to a graveyard to think, talk to the graves and just sit on the cold grass gazing up at the sky, wondering what is out beyond my slice of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"> <i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I came across a tree growing in the pavement of a parking lot between cars. My first reaction was “how can this be possible?” But I wasn’t in school, I’d never learn these things. I smashed the little tree because I knew I’d never go to school. There was no room for wonder in my life.”</span></span></i><span style="font-style:normal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When you are young, everything seems so magnified. It seems huge in your mind, and you can’t really see past your own life to anything else. Someone could call you a vandal for this action, they could say that you were a misguided kid and you didn’t deserve anything more than what you had but I wholeheartedly disagree. The people who would say that are refusing to look past their own lives into the life of somebody else. I don’t think that you smashed the tree out of anger and hate but out of desperation. Out of wanting something more but not quite knowing how to get that, or knowing that you couldn’t. You didn’t want to give up, to let it go, but you had to. I see you as a person who is strong enough to make the best out of absolutely any situation he’s put in. The first scene in the book is proof of that. You walked into your cell that first day and cleaned it top to bottom before you did anything else. That to me says determination. I know that you can and will overcome this prison sentence I have faith in you and in that in the end, all that matters is staying true to yourself and your beliefs. Thank you so much for giving me a slice of your wisdom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Claire Skogsberg</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-6501454560373058062010-11-15T06:56:00.000-08:002010-11-15T06:59:45.856-08:00Climbing Up to Visibility<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRDHcHuGgiuYEGAOUcWu81sSNT_u06xKMrLa4z8y1zko7Bn5dELkIP16h_peIsA51zuEolCiUD5u9jsALGIFpqBCFMv5v3i411wjYKxxDThRwVeuo-TGeoRtQSlu0dFRcv_Nqk4RV0_gA/s1600/images.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRDHcHuGgiuYEGAOUcWu81sSNT_u06xKMrLa4z8y1zko7Bn5dELkIP16h_peIsA51zuEolCiUD5u9jsALGIFpqBCFMv5v3i411wjYKxxDThRwVeuo-TGeoRtQSlu0dFRcv_Nqk4RV0_gA/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539791304727739282" /></a><br /><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">It’s the small window of time in the morning when classes are switching, from math to science to study. Sarah wants to talk about her project.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, can I focus on Bobby Sands? Oh, and I have U2’s song ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’ Can I play that?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Of course.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I’m just going to research my project,” says someone else.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I am such a bad reader. I’m slow. I’m like…” a voice calls out. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, do you like my John Lennon drawing?” asks Yared. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yared, I am helping Sarah on her project right now. I can’t look at your drawing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So you don’t like my John Lennon drawing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I can’t say cause I haven’t seen it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, do you know what this is?” Yared says. “ It’s the bird.” He draws a crude six-fingered hand on the white board. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yared, that hand has six fingers. That’s a terrible hand.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> “You don’t like me, do you, because I’m black!” shouts Yared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Miles, Miles, not cool, bro,” comes another voice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Sorry, sorry!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Oh my god, my game that I made that I made for math, it’s called Geomatrictionary. It’s really fun,” says Rider. “I think I’m going to market it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah, it’s really fun,” says someone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah, totally.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Let’s hug.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Okay, that’s weird.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Don’t take my computer,” comes a shout.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Uh—awwww.” There is a brief scuffle around the computer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I’m going to eat it. The computer! It taste like chicken. Robot chicken!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anneke enters the room. “I was late because I went to the doctor. They gave me like all this stupid medicine. It was like I was two again. Great, now he is writing everything I say. No Tal, Non, no, no, no!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Anneke, I heard your voice! You’re back!” exclaims one of Anneke’s peers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“No, no, he’s typing everything I’m saying!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Hey, Rider, let’s look up sports cars,” says Miles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“No, I’m going to do doing my work.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, I’m going home because I have the sniffles,” says Evan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Evan, are you a wuss?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, that’s not what I said.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Anna, tell me about your retreat.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Okay. It is called Metta-Earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Metta Earth Retreat? Anna, Why don’t they call it an advance? Why should you be retreating. You should be advancing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Okay,” she says, smiling.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> ***<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“You know what I like to talk about,” Rider says, interrupting. “The difference between ‘precise’ and ‘accurate.’” No one is really listening, but he’s telling us any way. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Hey Tal, we finally got some guitar music in the big room,” says Ollie. “My guitar is finally in tune.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“You should play “All Blues” by Miles Davis,” says Rider. “That song is sweet.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Miles Davis is the boss!” says Yared.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I am, aren’t I?” says Miles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Play ‘Chameleon’ by Herbie Hancock,” says Ollie. “Or ‘So What,’ by Miles Davis. I’m learning that on guitar.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Wait. How does it go?” Yared says, strumming his guitar.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I’m named after Miles Davis,” says Miles.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Goddammit,” says Yared. “I was just practicing it this morning. Now I can’t remember it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Clearasil rapid action medication,” says Claire, prancing into the big room. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> ***<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In the lead up to the trip there is the usual high social/hormonal excitement. Apparently the car one is riding in is the most important factor for happiness in the next 48 hours. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But under the hype is the quiet movement of emotion that runs under everything we do, everyday. Insecurity? That’s the abstract word for the feeling of invisibility, a sense of powerlessness that rises when one fears he will not be able to articulate the developing inner world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> Rio feels like others are criticizing him for what? Being lazy? Out of it? Not caring or intense. Never working hard or with focus?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Or is it that you feel like you are not getting something inside of you across to them?” I aks him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So they may have a picture of you, but you are aware that you are struggling to bring out anything that would change their picture of you. So what they see, and what you then feel about what they see, becomes the picture of yourself?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“And so, who here has the power to change that picture?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I do.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“But it’s hard for you.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah,” he nods. His face is reddening and his eyes are filled and watery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Rio, you feel like no one sees what you do?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He nods. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“No one knows what you really care about.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Who is responsible for them understanding and seeing you.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I am.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“But you feel like some kids in class are mostly just giving you shit without really caring about you. Without really knowing anything about you?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He is nodding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So when DO you work, when are you all out?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“At hockey.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Why?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Because I really care about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Did you set a goal about hockey.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“What is it?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I want to make it to the NHL.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I look at the class. “Do ya’ll understand that it doesn’t matter if he does or doesn’t make it to the NHL, but that he has a goal. Did you write it down?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“So now when you go to hockey practice you’re thinking about that goal?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“And when you are at practice what are you doing consciously?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“When the coach says to do laps for conditioning I always work the hardest so I am first.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“That means you are going to get better. If you do that every time you will be come better than others over time. If you keep doing that you will be great.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">He nods. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“But no one here sees that. It’s not present. And so your story keeps having the same conclusion. Rio is quiet. HE seems passive. He seems to “not care”—he seems like your average 15 year boy, sleepy and catatonic in the morning, distractible during the day, at his absolute fluent freest being with a ball at his feet or a chasing after a puck or ball.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I look a round, trying to figure out how to get to whatever is in there and bring it out.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Hey. Someone go get that poster in there.” It’s Rios’ poster. I had been looking at it the other day. It seemed extraordinarily detailed. Filled with ten quotes about freedom and revolution, and each quote cut out into the separate words and arrange in jagged, downward falling zig-zags. One of his quotes was from Rousseau: “Man is born free yet everywhere he is in chains.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But in the rush of the day I have not had time to really look into the poster. To understand what it is saying, in its layers of collage, in the various images. If there is intention embedded in Rio’s work, neither I nor anyone in the class has really looked at it. We have all unwittingly participated in the the situation in which Rio feels invisible, even though his work is hanging on the wall and he is sitting at the table in front of of us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“The poster there, it’s above the printer.” Rider scampers to get it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Rio, tell me what you were thinking when you made this. What all is here?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, the eye-shaped thing, that’s an eye. It’s what I see. See how the eye is split and there is that whirlpool is going down through it, that’s how I sometimes feel, water going down or draining out.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I hold the poster up so everyone can see it. “Tell me more about it. What about this?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“There is the cut out face of a man, the size of a passport photo. That’s James Van Reims Dyk, of the Flyers.” The Flyers re Rio’s favorite hockey team.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Van Ram’s Dick?” I shout. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal, shut up. That’s so dumb!” someone complains.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Oh I get it.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tal! He’s telling a story.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Okay, Rio, tell us about the guy. Why is he on there?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, He was really poor when he was growing up. He never had much money and he couldn’t afford new sticks, and when he broke one he would use duct tape so he could keep using it. And he built his own rink behind his house so he could play all the time.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“And you admire him.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“I feel like him sometimes.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Even though he is not the best player.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Tell us more.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, the guy in the corner is me.” In the corner is a nine-year old’s drawing of a USA hockey player holding up a champion’s trophy. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“We got it. What else?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well the arrow sing pointing down says ‘one way,’ because there is only one way to go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And the poems and quotes?<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Well I arranged them like water dripping down, going from cup to cup, and they are all ending up at the bottom, where I put that part that looks like waters made out of words.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“What else?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Well, that shoe, it’s kind of corny looking, but what it says: ‘Looks good…feels good.’ That’s sort of how I feel, like people see me on the outside, but what’s on the inside is much different.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“What else?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“That ice climber.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“The dude in the crevasse?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Yeah, that’s me trying to climb up.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The class has been listening the whole time, and I have been showing them the poster as Rio tells us everything. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Y’all, this whole thing is conscious. His poster is the map of him. There’s a whole story here. None of us have been able to read it, or taken the time. That’s not really our fault, but it tells us that what we see is not really what is actually there. Or what is actually there is much greater than what we see.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">To listen to Rio talk, the afternoon before our trip to Montreal, is to see a the miraculous consellation that makes each of us up. I’ve made time for us to look long enough to see him. It is true, in the first half of the conversation, I was doing the work. I was saying for him what he had not yet been able to say. When I held his poster up, he had a picture of himself, an artifact that was wholly his. When he looked at that self-made reflection of himself, he could begin to tell us what he was made of, of the materials and images he’d used to make himself. He is all hope and intention, a boy creating himself. When he could see it the words came easy, already formed, as they must have been, since, in the poster, he’d already said them. We just hadn’t seen it or heard it yet. We needed to listen and look. And he had to talk, to say it, so he could see it again, too.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-51690287258234202572010-11-15T06:41:00.000-08:002010-11-15T06:55:39.393-08:00Thirteen Ways of Looking at North Branch School in the Morning<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The NBS weekly notations<br />By Aylee<br /><br /><br /><b>Monday</b><br /><br />In meeting here is what we heard about. Finn went to Bridget's house because her mom wanted to collect some oak leaves and she had a lot of fun jumping on the trampoline with Juniper. Tal talked about his neighbors trees and how he wants to cut them down. Claire listened to the German Beatles and at first thought that they weren't as good but realized that she liked them just as much and that it didn't really mater what the lyrics were or if she could understand them. Rider said that when Hugh Brown came he was intrigued because hugh talked about “street values”. Here we talk about “huge ideas” like the meaning of life and how should we live but Hugh talked more about actually living those ideas and putting them into action. Hugh had talked about when he was at a party or something and he saw a guy picking up a girl who was wearing a really short skirt and the girl was mad and embarrassed. This was against Hugh's morals, and he believed that respect should be given to women (it should) and so he marched over and told the guy so. This did not end well (it ended in a scrap) because the guys friends were there but Hugh had stood up to what he believed. Also Yared and Rider went to Berklee College of Music and they had a good time. They were both wearing Berkley gift-shop merchandise on Monday<br /><br />Eric has observed that instead of the occasional boredom and uninterestedness of some NBSers in science class, we have started to say interesting things, we have taken what we know and made something of it. Instead of just learning about the facts that have already been discovered, we make of it something of our own, our own discoveries, such as having a lively debate on if ideas were alive or not in science class today.<br /><br />Tal said, off of Riders comment and Eric's comment, that it was like house, we have the facts, the foundation, so now we need to build. It can't be only ideas and concepts, it has to be concrete, real, livable in-able. Ollie spent about 4 times more time on a science assignment than he has ever spent. He was working on the cooking project and made pomegranate ice cream with mint whipped cream and fried goat cheese stuff, served with fresh pomegranate seeds. It was amazing.<br /><br />Tal blabbed about how he severely dislikes/hates the word chuckles except when used as Charlie's nick name. He also hates the word chortle. Tal is toying with the idea of banning the word "chuckle."<br /><br />Rose has been thinking about how electronic impulses are what make us have different personalities and it made her sad. She felt very small and pointless but then she talked to her sister about it and her sister had heard that the same amount of electronic impulses we use is the number that powers a whole city. So that made her feel significant again.<br /><br />Luke played really hard in his hockey game because there were only about 2 subs. He felt good after he did that. Calder had his first soccer meeting at the field house- and was elated to be playing soccer again<br /><br />Tal talked about how when Su White told us the story about how a man went to hell and every one was starving because the handles of their spoons were longer than their arms therefor impossible to eat with but then he went to heaven and everyone had the same spoons except they were feeding each-other across the table. (It was an awesome story-thank you Su) and while we were listening Tal watched Claire's expression of undivided attention. Then at the last line about heaven, claire smiled and she was very in-the-moment. Tal said that after Hugh finished talking, saw Tate clapping quite vigorously and Tal was happy to see Tate happy and visibly enjoying Hughes speech so much. Tal also said that Aylee, (me) is doing very well and being very aware and helping the school in lots of ways, like passing out the lit books without being asked. I did this simply because I knew I had to be done and Tal was overtired.<br /><br /></span></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire saw me, yes me again, singing to a song in her project and she was happy to see me happy and enjoying things. Also Claire's project was awesome<br /><br />Rider read the poem which was:<br /><br /><b>The Journey</b><br /><br /><i>One day you finally knew<br />what you had to do, and began,<br />though the voices around you<br />kept shouting<br />their bad advice --<br />though the whole house<br />began to tremble<br />and you felt the old tug<br />at your ankles.<br />"Mend my life!"<br />each voice cried.<br />But you didn't stop.<br />You knew what you had to do,<br />though the wind pried<br />with its stiff fingers<br />at the very foundations,<br />though their melancholy<br />was terrible.<br />It was already late<br />enough, and a wild night,<br />and the road full of fallen<br />branches and stones.<br />But little by little,<br />as you left their voices behind,<br />the stars began to burn<br />through the sheets of clouds,<br />and there was a new voice<br />which you slowly<br />recognized as your own,<br />that kept you company<br />as you strode deeper and deeper<br />into the world,<br />determined to do<br />the only thing you could do --<br />determined to save<br />the only life you could save.<br /> </i><br />~ Mary Oliver ~<br /><br /> <b>Tuesday</b><br /><br />Kiley was in the book store and she picked up Justin Beiber's book and read a little and realized that he is just a normal kid, and that all the fame and popularity was just a “chance thing;” it was just by chance that he had a good voice and that he got so famous but he is still just a teenager like us.<br /><br />Patrick said that he thought that he had lost his hat that his dad had given him and he got really upset because it is special to him. He doesn't want to lose it because it is from his dad. But then he found it so everything was better.<br /><br />Anna went to a coming of age thing at the Metta-Earth institute by my house and spent a lot of time there. While there she forgot about what time it was there and she worried a little about her home work but after a while she felt more free because there was nothing she could do except enjoy where she was. She didn't have time to do her home work which she got all freaked out about. But really since she had been thinking and experiencing things at Metta Earth that was work enough and Tal said that that can sometimes take the place/come before home work. Tal also says that if you sit around writing all the time you wouldn't have real life experiences to write about.<br /><br />Claire said that her mom and dune picked her up and her mom was saying how she felt like her own mom didn't care about her. Claire, being the smart and opinionated girl she is, openly stated that she thought that every parent loves their child. When they argued about it Claire got upset and went and laid on the wet ground in her yard. She says that she doesn't usually do that but it felt good.<br /><br />Ollie said that he was very excited about soccer. Yared was sad and says he plays soccer in his head because he can't play with his body.<br /><br />Rose was reading a book and in it the people say goodbye to each other just by touching the others arm and looking into their eyes instead of saying bye. Rose said how she notices that Ollie doesn't like when people say "I love you" because he doesn't feel like it is real. She says that maybe he is right in that when people had less words to use they were more meaningful.<br /><br />Claire read poem:<br /><br /><br />Upon The Image Of Death<br /><br /><i>Before my face the picture hangs<br />That daily should put me in mind<br />Of those cold names and bitter pangs<br />That shortly I am like to find;<br />But yet, alas, full little I<br />Do think hereon that I must die.<br /><br />I often look upon a face<br />Most ugly, grisly, bare, and thin;<br />I often view the hollow place<br />Where eyes and nose had sometimes been;<br />I see the bones across that lie,<br />Yet little think that I must die.<br /><br />I read the label underneath,<br />That telleth me whereto I must;<br />I see the sentence eke that saith<br />Remember, man, that thou art dust!<br />But yet, alas, but seldom I<br />Do think indeed that I must die.<br /><br />Continually at my bed's head<br />A hearse doth hang, which doth me tell<br />That I ere morning may be dead,<br />Though now I feel myself full well ;<br />But yet, alas, for all this, I<br />Have little mind that I must die.<br /><br />The gown which I do use to wear,<br />The knife wherewith I cut my meat,<br />And eke that old and ancient chair<br />Which is my only usual seat,-<br />All these do tell me I must die,<br />And yet my life amend not I.<br /><br />My ancestors are turned to clay,<br />And many of my mates are gone;<br />My youngers daily drop away,<br />And can I think to 'scape alone?<br />No, no, I know that I must die,<br />And yet my life amend not I.<br /><br />Not Solomon for all his wit,<br />Nor Samson, though he were so strong,<br />No king nor person ever yet<br />Could 'scape but death laid him along;<br />Wherefore I know that I must die,<br />And yet my life amend not I.<br /><br />Though all the East did quake to hear<br />Of Alexander's dreadful name,<br />And all the West did likewise fear<br />To hear of Julius Caesar's fame,<br />Yet both by death in dust now lie;<br />Who then can 'scape but he must die?<br /><br />If none can 'scape death's dreadful dart,<br />If rich and poor his beck obey,<br />If strong, if wise, if all do smart,<br />Then I to 'scape shall have no way.<br />Oh, grant me grace, O God, that I<br />My life may mend, sith I must die.</i><br /><br /><br /><b>Wednesday</b><br /><br />Miles said that he had a good talk with his mom about his sister and father and school and he said that it was good to have that kind of conversation with her.<br /><br />Rose heard chase say that he liked “all his sevies” and that made her happy because the fact that he said 'my' implied that he belonged to them and they belonged to him. It is good that the sevies are getting to be friends already. They are already forming a group. Rose hopes that everyone can say that they are part of a group like that because it is a good feeling to be included. Also Jarred got all excited about who will be in his class when he comes to NBS in two years I think. Tal said that when he moved here from Atlanta, he was moving away from a pretty perfect situation, he had a good status at Paideia and Henry was in their "15 year plan” so he was worried when he sent henry to Quarry hill School. But then when Henry came home he said that he “liked his Quarry Hill school” so that mad Tal feel better. The idea of possession and being possessed. A child should wan to belong in the world and to his or her place, Tal said.<br /><br />Anna saw lots of boys playing in the snow at lunch and it made her happy to see them happy and together. I might add that it is also a small miracle that the boys have been having snowball fights every day since there has been snow yet we haven't had anyone get hurt or mad yet. Tal added that Patrick, the schools youngest member, has been having so much fun at lunch out in the snow that he has been forgetting to eat. Tal says that he needs to work on self-regulating and when Anna sees them outside she should remind them to eat a little. Funny, I seem to recall this happening to me in 3rd grade. But the lesson is that we need to self regulate ourselves, take care of ourselves, and havve fun snow-ball fights.<br /><br />Jesse had to make dinner with Nathan the other night. Nathan was very unhelpful but Jesse made dinner. And for dessert she made crème puffs. She was thinking about random acts of kindness and she decided to bring Sophie and Kiley crème puffs.<br /> <br />Simon felt bad for making fun of Calder, who has to get braces.<br /><br />Tal asked Calder to put the leftovers from dinner away while he did wood chores and when he came in he saw that Calder had washed the dishes and cleaned the counter too. Rowan did extra chores in the morning and made Eric's life a lot easier<br /><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sophie wrote Patrick an email saying that he was doing good in school. Which is very true.<br /><br />Tal noticed how hard Ollie is working in soccer practice for Synergy because he just joined and it is hard to do what the other guys have been doing. He has to work really hard all the time.<br /><br />Eric said that the 'compost crew' worked very well together the other day when they were working on their song for Sophie and Patrick. They were all working together and Rider played the drums on a recycling bin which actually sounded very good.<br /><br />Simon had a good time in carpool.<br /><br />Reed read the poem; "<b>Thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird" </b>by Wallace Stevens<br /><br /> <i>Among twenty snowy mountains,<br />The only moving thing<br />Was the eye of the blackbird.<br /><br />II<br /><br />I was of three minds,<br />Like a tree<br />In which there are three blackbirds.<br /><br />III<br /><br />The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.<br />It was a small part of the pantomime.<br /><br />IV<br /><br />A man and a woman<br />Are one.<br />A man and a woman and a blackbird<br />Are one.<br /><br />V<br /><br />I do not know which to prefer,<br />The beauty of inflections<br />Or the beauty of innuendoes,<br />The blackbird whistling<br />Or just after.<br /><br />VI<br /><br />Icicles filled the long window<br />With barbaric glass.<br />The shadow of the blackbird<br />Crossed it, to and fro.<br />The mood<br />Traced in the shadow<br />An indecipherable cause.<br /><br />VII<br /><br />O thin men of Haddam,<br />Why do you imagine golden birds?<br />Do you not see how the blackbird<br />Walks around the feet<br />Of the women about you?<br /><br />VIII<br /><br />I know noble accents<br />And lucid, inescapable rhythms;<br />But I know, too,<br />That the blackbird is involved<br />In what I know.<br /><br />IX<br /><br />When the blackbird flew out of sight,<br />It marked the edge<br />Of one of many circles.<br /><br />X<br /><br />At the sight of blackbirds<br />Flying in a green light,<br />Even the bawds of euphony<br />Would cry out sharply.<br /><br />XI<br /><br />He rode over Connecticut<br />In a glass coach.<br />Once, a fear pierced him,<br />In that he mistook<br />The shadow of his equipage<br />For blackbirds.<br /><br />XII<br /><br />The river is moving.<br />The blackbird must be flying.<br /><br />XIII<br /><br />It was evening all afternoon.<br />It was snowing<br />And it was going to snow.<br />The blackbird sat<br />In the cedar-limbs.</i><br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></div>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-74283826955228440272010-11-09T03:48:00.000-08:002010-11-09T03:54:23.645-08:00Say You Want a Revolution<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOA2i5SK5p_t5Kq0FHZc6q8kNrHadZIZwd8qCikhqc4_8olxlcjY9HUsOKzVMouWf2huTcxKX9ztpsVzhKD8laS814DhSCT0d5FbUKO7qVb7u0T8ZaCRwqnPuFxkf3JNS0y0xZw_W-KK4/s1600/the-beatles.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOA2i5SK5p_t5Kq0FHZc6q8kNrHadZIZwd8qCikhqc4_8olxlcjY9HUsOKzVMouWf2huTcxKX9ztpsVzhKD8laS814DhSCT0d5FbUKO7qVb7u0T8ZaCRwqnPuFxkf3JNS0y0xZw_W-KK4/s320/the-beatles.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537516567055767298" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We heard projects, first from Kiley, on the </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Russian Revolution: She asked us: What would you be willing to physically revolt against? Violent or peaceful revolution ? Is violence sometimes necessary? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman';font-size:small;">Definition of communism. Early history of Russia before the Tsars. Russkaya Pravda. Early Russian Leaders…Ivan the Great, Catehrine the Great, Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great. Serfdom.Pre-revolution events…peasant revolts against Catherine the Great began a long-standing history of fear of peasant revolt…The Decemberist Revolt, 1825—3000 rebel soldiers marched into St. Petersburg against Czars’ troops…they wanted freedom of speech. Nicholas 1—1796-1855…Alexander II, (the liberator) ended serfdom throughout Russia. In 1829 there were 23 million serfs out of 67 million people. This way revolution would be avoided. Alexander the III. Afraid of what might happen to him, …his advisors—feared freedom of speech and press and were against Democracy…Tsar Nicholas Romanov II/ Alexandra Feordorovna…Khodynka Tragedy. Vladimir Lenin, the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, the Duma, Bloody Sunday, 1905 Revolution, October Manifesto…the sailors of Kronstadt, the British Hemophilia Line, Grigori Rasputin, WW I (1914-1918), the impoverishment of Russia during the war…The February Revolution, Trotsky, the July Days, the October Revolution, the peasants throwing out Provincial Government while World War I goes on. White Army, Red Army, 1921 Famine, eye witness accounts of the murder of the Czars family, Stalin and Communist Russia… “The Twelve,” by Alexander Block..</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Remember the evil which is now in the world will become yet more powerful, and that it is not love that conquers evil, but love.” Olga Romanov. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">In Claire’s Musical Revolution in the 1960’s project, we learned about the Elvis Presley, early Rock and Roll, Buddy Holly, the Beatles and the British Invasion, the key events of the 1960’s in a time line, surf music, the Dionysian vs. Humanistic impulses in the 60’s, Vietnam War in which 58,000 American soldiers dies, the Lyrics to the Beatles’ “Revolution,” Hitchcock’s film Psycho, which came out in 1960, “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley , the Liverpool Lads and the Cavern Club, Woodstock, Hippies, the SDS and the Port Huron Statement, Bob Dylan, the Kennedys, fashions, popular culture, The Archies, the Mamas and the Papas, MLK, the March on Washington, and many other items. We were also treated to a musical “coda’ of the Sixties in a sound montage made by Claire’s half sister Lily. Our questions: what made this a time of change? What was coming out of people all over the world during the early 1960’s. What force did music have to voice ideas and feelings that many people shared. The All the kids were divided up into groups: The Beatles, Stones, Crickets, Mama’s and Papas, The Velvet Underground, The Who, and each group had to make a SDS Port Huron Statement.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">On Friday: we heard Su White tell about the parable of the Empty Bowl; we did an exercise to find out the economic status of the rest of the world, dividing up into the percentages of people who live on less that $785 per year (55%), those who live on $785-$9300 (30%) and those that live on more than 9300 (15 percent). </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then we had a guest, Bridget Nardiello, who did a short workshop on “what I believe.” She challenged each of us to begin thinking about our beliefs, and we began making lists. At first it was hard: Ask your self to say out loud what you believe, then multiply that by 100. Then we listened to a little boy from Texas, 6 years old, who made a list of 100 things and we heard him read 30 of them. Then we began our own lists, and soon enough the lists were growing like wild plants, everybody putting everything on and end. We will keep these lists growing the rest of the year. The beliefs will change, mutate, expand, disappear, become less true. But we want to begin to think about it. The beliefs are no more than hopes until they are said. When they are stated as beliefs, then we can begint travel toward them, or try to live them out. Then we went down stairs to make the “trees” that will hold these beliefs, a forest of trees, of birch trees leaning towards each other. On large sheets of paper, with black paint and popsicle sticks, we each made our own version of a birch forest, which we then pinned up on the all. Later we will begin adding our beliefs as leaves.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later Bridget sent a note to the kids and asked them be thinking about how to move the beliefs from words to actions. To be thinking about how our big and small actions can make or unmake the world. Or, even, choosing not to act because the action will not add to the world, but will make it smaller. In the end, this becomes a question of: am I making the world more beautiful, or less so? Am I giving or taking? Am I protecting others or creating fear in other. When something bad comes at us from an external place, how do we field that negative force, what do we let it become in us—at our very best, godly selves we transfigure cancerous, negative, toxic forces into something that elevates us and others around us.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">This lead us into the second larger discussion of the day with our third guest of the day, Coach Hugh Brown, formerly of Atlanta, GA, now director of the Synergy Football Club of Shelburne, Vt. Hugh picked up where Bridget left off: what do you believe, or, What drives you? He listened to what we had written and then had us think about how those beliefs need to come off the page. It can sound good, but the ideas have to serve, deliver, and take on dimension. What makes us work and live? What value will you stand by in the real world, on the street, face to face with others. Hugh talked about what a gentleman is, using as his source Robert E. Lee (this was not planned); about the power of transforming dreams into goals (as in turning hopes into beliefs) by writing them down; he told stories of Emmit Smith, the importance of living with passion and emotion, the power of one’s perspective, which, most often, is the one inviolate power we all possess. Drop out? Cop out? Hold out? Or all out? How do we shape and direct our lives once we know what we believe?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Hugh also handed out SFC patches, which contain a very specific symbolism: Gold, the color of champions; red, the color of blood and sacrifice; black and white, and which stands for our diversity of origin. Hugh theb received a thoughtful tour around the school by the students, who were proud to show him what all we are doing here.</span></span><!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-4390815324679956152010-11-01T11:43:00.000-07:002010-11-01T19:16:53.657-07:00Dignity and Halloween<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHpuaX0wk_eOiSqEOzm0QSktAroaAmbnzpqLAENIPQ3eP6hmtKyE2FyvSaWCa1xHE2KwWWHeXyOA5okY1e0VgFZHJVrQVS8hb5Rbm5OSsfHkJbbO7Y7bM0HYMu5eSfmQu815fIIyHS8s/s1600/robert-e-lee.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 216px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHpuaX0wk_eOiSqEOzm0QSktAroaAmbnzpqLAENIPQ3eP6hmtKyE2FyvSaWCa1xHE2KwWWHeXyOA5okY1e0VgFZHJVrQVS8hb5Rbm5OSsfHkJbbO7Y7bM0HYMu5eSfmQu815fIIyHS8s/s320/robert-e-lee.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534654751424029474" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Talking about keeping the building in order. Cleaning up after ourselves quickly becomes a question of communal morality and personal ethics. The problems: How are we going to get all the science jobs done? How do we increase motivation? What is the reason we are doing this? For a prize or for the rightness of doing it. What is the right mentality? “What do I HAVE to do,” or “What I can I do?” Is it a question of people not caring or people not making the effort to completely demonstrate that they care? The lost and found? Is it working? Compost in trash? Are people prioritizing science jobs over regular daily jobs? Or are people prioritizing school work over jobs, or vice versa. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“We must be more mindful and expend the effort to care.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Grafitti on building and furniture. For me this is not okay,” says Donna.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Why?”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Because I care about this building. Because Gary Rutherford, my Husband, and Nick and Devlin’s Dad, built the building.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“People are not doing their jobs or splitting the jobs instead of doing it together.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“People distracting other people who are working on school work or cleaning.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It’s not fair how some people are given frownies. It’s kind of arbitrary.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“When the room is trashed, it is because we are not being mindful.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Everyone is not honest about whether they have done a job or not.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“People leave their binders everywhere.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“We should be doing jobs together.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eric says, “When I have to be spending so much time cleaning up after big activities, it makes me not want to plan big activities. I don’t want to scale back the size of what we do, but I am finding that I have to spend so much time picking up after us that I can’t keep doing it.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“When things get broken nothing happens.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">These are the problems. They must be stated before anything can be straightened out. It will take us the whole year to straighten them out. Then we start over again.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is a planning going on for Hallowe’en. At age 12, 13 and 14, they are still in love with Hallowe’en. There is a string of emails about the class plans for Friday, about everyone wearing their costumes.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Hey Everyone, Halloween is on Sunday, so we should all wear our costumes to school this Friday, the 29th. It will be a lot of fun if everyone wears a costume, so wear your costume. Thanks!!!!!! Love, Anna”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I’d like to add that if you think that you are too cool to wear your costume- you’re not, and if u don’t you will feel sad and be shunned plus you will be missing out cuz its really fun. Love Aylee”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Shun the non believers. from Tal”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Tal, I believe, I will wear my costume with pride!!! Patrick”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Also if you do wear a costume you get to be in the costume picture and if you dont wear one you don’t get to be in it sorry all you losers who don’t. Anneke”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Shun the non believers! I am working on my costume now! Icarus (Tal)”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Yes and if you are in the costume picture, future NBSers will see the picture, and know that you went to NBS. If you are not in the halloween picture, no one will know that you went to NBS. So even if you feel humiliated to wear a halloween costume to school, wear it, or else no one will ever know that you ever came to North Branch. Anna”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Shun the non-believers Chaaaarlie, Says Miles”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"What Anna says is almost right. If you don’t wear your halloween costume, it will be that you never EXISTED AT ALL," says Tal</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; ">“Or slay the non believers. Aylee”</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Or wear your costume if you want to have existed. It is plain and simple. Anna”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Carving pumpkins on the patio. It is drizzling and gray, but there laughter reigns. Eric says this is the best activity ever, because everyone knows how to carve a pumpkin. There is something glorious about mastery, about knowing how you like to do a thing, about being able to carry out your vision.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Scoop and flip,” cries Tsering. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yared says he does not like pumpkins. He has cut his hand on his carver. “I don’t like how they taste, how they look, their color, the smiling or frowning faces, or their slimy insides. Tal, do you think Hallowe’en is a white people’s holiday?”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I cannot say whether this is true or not.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Tal, I am making a Manga pumpkin,” says Ollie.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Ollie, that is the worst pumpkin I ever saw.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Thanks, Tal.”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Check it out Tal," says Rider, as he displays his pumpkin, Vanna White style. His pumpkin says "soul."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Does that say “Scowl?” asks Luke.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“No, it says ‘Soul,’ you idiot!”</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">****</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The topic of “dignity” came up. I ask if any could give a definition of it. I tell them the story I know about Robert E. Lee. How Lee made the decision to surrender at Appomattox, and when he showed up, Grant was waiting, ragged and unkempt and in mud-spattered boots, while Lee came ring in on his great horse Traveler, dressed in an immaculate dress uniform, with gold epaulettes, polished brass buttons, shaved and combed, his leather boots shining, sitting bolt upright in the saddle, his held high.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We discuss how this is an image of dignity, carrying one’s self with pride in adverse circumstances, of keeping the beautiful, noble parts of one intact even in defeat. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; ">Dignity is a characteristic not normally associated with adolescents, but it seems to be clear to us what it <i>is</i>. And Characteristics are what we have been looking at for character sketches as well. What makes up a person. Mannerisms and manners. Habits of being. How one carries oneself. The secrets of a person only we can know or so. Their loves and dislikes. The secret to their being. A picture of all they are in body, and a description of the spirit…</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">***</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s like Halloween Summer camp: Baking pumpkin seeds, popcorn balls, and pumpkin bread. Watersheds Charades, and all the costumes and characters here in class.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A doll, a fat tomato, two hooded robbers, Michael Jackson, A clown, Dogbert, Pippi Longstocking, a co-op shopper, Audrey Hepburn, a male bridesmaid, Rachel from “Glee,” Harold and Maude, Cindy Lauper, Leopold’s Mozart’s Ghost, Sherlock Holmes, Cinderella, Johnny the Greenhaven Worker, a Vermont Hunter, two Gypsies, Barack Obama, a Zombie, a cross-dresser (Rio in shorts), Winston Smith from 1984, the evil bunny from Monty Python, Matisse’s Icarus, and a pirate lady.</span></span></div><div><br /></div></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-42197119704050098882010-11-01T11:41:00.001-07:002010-11-01T11:53:01.335-07:00Notes from the Week: By Oliver<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; ">Monday</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Finn had a good time with her aunts trying to figure out her Halloween costume with her Mom and Aunts, even though they were acting very childish. Kamille had dinner with her mom and sister and it was fun because she hadn’t been wioth them in a while. Rowan over the weekend felt sad, and he didn’t know why so he layed on his kitchen counter, spreading many germs to his table, and started to Cry. He realized that he was crying because he was turning thirteen the next day and he felt like he was losing his childhood. So he got off the counter and played with his Playmobiles and listened to the Beatles. Two things which represented his childhood.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I then complained about how fast everyone was talking and how slow I was writing their thoughts.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Chase said he had a good time Bowling with Rowan and Patrick, and it was good to bond with them.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Eric said “I heard you guys played some weird game that I’d never heard of” I said “Bowling?” and then the class spent around twenty minutes laughing, while discussing how Eric must not do what Bowling is.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Patrick said that over the weekend he saw Chase and Rowan while bowling, Luke and Rio at Hockey, and Reed, Rider and Finn at Agway. We all laughed. Now what could they be doing at Agway? Picking up the latest 12 inch zipper pair of Carhartt Overalls? Someone asked Eric if he had bought any Carhartts at Agway lately. Eric replied with “Oh, I only go to Agway when I’m feeling especially rich. Usually I buy my clothing by the pound.” After another long period of time laughing at how Eric buys his clothes by the pound, Calder said that Tal said that if we didn’t win the Wiffleball game against the board, that we would all be flogged. I added in that we would be castrated.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon was at a coming of age thing that he goes to every week. They talked about their favorite childhood games, and for the rest of the time they played house. Event though he didn’t really play it a lot when he was younger, it was still good to play it. Someone asked if this was a step up from the Sex Ed class Anna had attended last year, it was. Anna said she was in Maine with her Grandmamma, and usually her Grandmamma was taking care of her but this time she wanted to take care of her. She felt like it was a sign of growing up. Rider had a man night with his sister’s boyfriend, Ned. And it was good to do that with him. When asked what a man night was, Rider replied that it involved going to PizzaPut (where all the men hang out) eating Steak, and watching the Matrix.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Kamille had dinner with her mom and sister and it was fun because she hadn’t been with them in a while.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I looked to my left, and Tsering was drawing a second Fantasy Football Logo, on the top it said Kardashian’s Cannibal Crew, with a lady standing with a piece of freshly chopped human meat from Greg’s Meat Market. She had to redo it because, in the last one she had spelled cannibal wrong.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Anneke went to see her grandmother with her cousins, and one was a 3rd grader. The 3rd grader wanted to explore her grandmas large house. Anneke went along even though she had explored it many times in the past. Going through secret passages. She thought that at her Grandmas she would just be alone or with Abi. The little cousins were excited by little things. Anneke wishes she could do that but she thinks she can’t because she knows too much, that it makes things not exciting. Like when her cousins were getting excited because they found a little door, and they didn’t know where it went. Anneke wasn’t excited because she knew it lead to just a garage. Rose read a poem</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b>A Ritual To Read to Each Other</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i> If you don't know the kind of person I am</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and I don't know the kind of person you are</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>a pattern that others made may prevail in the world</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>storming out to play through the broken dyke.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>a remote important region in all who talk:</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>though we could fool each other, we should consider--</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>For it is important that awake people be awake,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>the signals we give--yes or no, or maybe--</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>should be clear: the darkness around us is deep. </i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">William Stafford</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later For All-Tal at the end of the day we talked about Cleanup problems, compost, and whether to combine Science jobs with regular jobs.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tuesday</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We had a guest Mickel Zuidhoek from Australia, but he was also a supporter of the Dutch National Team (for soccer). He is a carpenter who lives in Manchester VT who is interested in starting a high school. We introduced ourselves. And passed out our notebooks. Morgan said last night She’d had finished her homework, her dad was home and her mom was at some meeting, and he asked her to play Russian Bang—fun to do that with him, for like three hours.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider said that last year Tal talked about Emerson’s Circles or Rings, and how we are always expanding, and he felt like he hasn’t been expanding lately. We then had a long talk, and it ended with a synthesis of; Rider wants to be connected to Chase and back and forth. They had a connection and Rider abused it. Calder can’t connect to Chase and Rowan has a connection with Chase, but is jealous of Rider and Chase’s sometimes. Rider is trying to figure out how to use his power and keep being a good person.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rowan in the middle of the night Friday at Sebastian’s Birthday Party, while Alec and Sebastian and I were inside watching “Austin Powers,” Sully and Rowan were outside in the snow on the trampoline, talking about how Sully felt like he was growing up too fast. They were talking about real things and this was the first time Rowan had done that. He liked it. Simon was looking at his Math Eval over the weekend and at first getting mad for the little flaws. But then he saw how far he has come from last year, and he didn’t concentrate on the flaws. Finn said playing soccer with her Brother in the rain was fun, because neither of them were getting competitive. Eliot and Turner were watching videos from long times ago, like graduation, and it was good too. Anneke, said after Claire left, her sister and her got in a fight over music. Her sister started swearing and she felt bad, because she felt like her little sister was growing up too fast, and she was supposed to be showing her the way and she felt like she wasn’t.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire was visiting her stepbrother in Washington, and her stepbrother introduced her as her little sister, and that felt good, and after reading the Lit she was thinking about her Grandpa, and then she wrote him a note.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Claire read a poem.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Eating Poetry </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mark Strand</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b>Eating Poetry</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>There is no happiness like mine.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I have been eating poetry.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>The librarian does not believe what she sees.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Her eyes are sad</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and she walks with her hands in her dress.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>The poems are gone.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>The light is dim.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Their eyeballs roll,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>their blond legs burn like brush.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>She does not understand.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>When I get on my knees and lick her hand,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>she screams.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i><br /></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I am a new man,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I snarl at her and bark,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I romp with joy in the bookish dark.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b>Wednesday</b></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Evan had fun drawing Evil corn with Claire during science, a very educational act.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Jesse and Claire made a Birthday cake for their mom, and then they messed it up and Jesse was freaking out, but her mom told her to stop worrying, that she only cared about them being together, and Jesse thought that was nice.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider was thinking about the way people dress, and how on Tuesday I was wearing sweatpants and a Howard Dean shirt, and he thought it was a lot more real than my skinny jeans. I cringed at the thought.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rose after the wiffleball game was talking to Cindy and Michael Seligman. They said we’ve come a long way from our competitive nature at the beginning. Then Micheal said he loved us, and Cindy said that Rose went too easy on us.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Last night, Patrick wrote a Character Sketch on Yared and he noticed how all the little things are meaningful. There was then a rant about Character Sketches by Tal. Claire had done her Homework, and was watching the intellectual, riveting show of “Gossip Girl,” and a chat bubble from me popped up and it was good to talk to me.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Eric said, he noticed how Finn loved everyone’s little quirks, because she noticed how he was talking to himself, and she laughed happily. Jesse read a poem by ex-nbs’er Eliza Carver</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The Waking</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>When we come to it there will be no surrendered flags.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>There will be no monument of divinity, or mountain of truth,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Here, the stair spirals up against our weary feet,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Against our stubborn quarries, and our indefinite words.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Here, coiled up tight, we wait for something to clasp your hand.</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Here, where we stand before our silent words,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>There will be no heroes to pick you up, or set you down.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Here, where something turns or wavers before our tired feet.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Our eyes travel before us, seeking for fertile lands.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Where imminent delight will fill out footsteps</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>And here, at the same time</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Something inside us is overflowing with joy,</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Upon waking one morning we will out stretch our arms.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>To draw down a curtain of understanding,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Of realization, just one day out of many days.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Again and again, we find nothing but our hearts,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Set as empty shells thrown over the stair.</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>When we find ourselves again,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Upon infertile and deserted lands,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>We will be nothing but reflections in our eyes.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>But in our hearts, that is where we will come to it.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>When our paths have been washed away,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>When the land has been flooded and scraped clean.</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>We will take to the light, past our doubts and indecisions.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>We will live, in circles upon circles,</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Out of shells filled with forgotten triumphs, and scars.</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>Nothing will be left but the foundation of a heart.</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; ">-Eliza Carver NBS 08</span></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b>Thursday</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Calder said that Tal said that Today study was important to do well because he was at the Doctor.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Evan said Dalia came over and they played and it was fun.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Kylie told of how her dad was getting really into her Halloween costume, as was she and it was good to do that with him.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon, on the bus first started talking about Justin Beiber, and whether or not he had been castrated, but the conversation turned into what it was like being in 9th grade.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rose said that she was with Jared looking at the fantasy football logos, and he was really impressed of Annekes Teddy Bear drawing, and he was asking Rose if he would be as good of an artist as Anneke is. She said that she thought Anneke was good at art, because she was having fun with it. Eric added in that when he saw Anneke’s art, he was amazed, BUT unlike Jared, he was not wondering if he would be able to draw like that.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sarah said yesterday Yared gave her a hug for the first time, and it was the only good thing that had happened all week.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rider noticed that Claire wrote I love Tate on a graphing calculator, and he thought it was cool out of all the things she could’ve written.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Yared yelled, “GODAMMIT Tate! You’re taking all the girls!" </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; ">Reed read a poem by EE Cummings</span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>I carry your heart with me(i carry it in</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>my heart)i am never without it(anywhere</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>by only me is your doing,my darling)</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>i fear </i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'times new roman'; font-size: small; "><i>no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want</i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and whatever a sun will always sing is you</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>here is the deepest secret nobody knows</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)</i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><i>i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)</i></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b>Friday-Halloween</b></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We had costumes galore. Ranging from Co-op shoppers to Michael Jackson to Harold and Maude to a Clown to Winston from 1984. Tal talked about how he liked Bob Dylan costumes, and Literary themed costumes.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Miles mentioned how the night before he was at Evan’s playing video games and it was good to be with him.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Morgan was saying that after soccer at the field house, Kylie was getting anxious about finding a wig for Halloween, and her dad drove them all around Burlington looking for one while they listened to Reggae, and played a game involving heated seats.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tal made me stand up and model my costume, a co-op shopper. Complete with a booty-infront, gardening shoes, and a bra.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon had fun with Eliot at clay.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We talked about how dumb Zombies were, and all they do is run around and slap people.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tate/Dogbert. He was working on costume with his brother, Owen, good to do that with him.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We then demonstrated miming. Tal decided that Calder, Tsering, and I are the worst mimers alive.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Tsering/Big fat tomato talked about how she hung out with Hattie, for the first time in a week, and they gossiped about the Bridge School gossip.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Calder/Sherlock Holmes told of being with Henry, his brother, after school, and it was good to be with him, because he hadn’t seen him for 3 weeks, he was happy.</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Simon read a poem</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The charge of the light brigade</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Half a league half a league, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Half a league onward, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All in the valley of Death </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rode the six hundred: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">'Forward, the Light Brigade! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Charge for the guns' he said: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into the valley of Death </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rode the six hundred. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">'Forward, the Light Brigade!' </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Was there a man dismay'd ? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Not tho' the soldier knew </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Some one had blunder'd: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Theirs not to make reply, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Theirs not to reason why, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Theirs but to do & die, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into the valley of Death </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rode the six hundred. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon to right of them, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon to left of them, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon in front of them </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Volley'd & thunder'd; </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Storm'd at with shot and shell, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Boldly they rode and well, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into the jaws of Death, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into the mouth of Hell </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rode the six hundred. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Flash'd all their sabres bare, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Flash'd as they turn'd in air </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Sabring the gunners there, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Charging an army while </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All the world wonder'd: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Plunged in the battery-smoke </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Right thro' the line they broke; </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cossack & Russian </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Shatter'd & sunder'd. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Then they rode back, but not </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Not the six hundred. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon to right of them, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon to left of them, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Cannon behind them </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Volley'd and thunder'd; </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Storm'd at with shot and shell, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">While horse & hero fell, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">They that had fought so well </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Came thro' the jaws of Death, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Back from the mouth of Hell, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All that was left of them, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Left of six hundred. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When can their glory fade? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">O the wild charge they made! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">All the world wonder'd. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Honour the charge they made! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Honour the Light Brigade, </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Noble six hundred!</span></span></div><div> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">-Alfred, Lord Tennyson</span></span></div></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-44639485438566699272010-10-17T08:20:00.000-07:002010-10-17T18:33:21.578-07:00"I love a place and things that live there"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH2KxM-tTE9YIAFsmqOrsZPO-kksoB07Jy0Nv3RtQKOweqgPhdf2hRcyhHmfiExlZ2a1zwhzf9O7BIN9_Q8iulp16SieDEHSXlDU1DkxEu48UPbilfY4InoEbq_7mM-owN1b2_YPlTX6s/s1600/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 276px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH2KxM-tTE9YIAFsmqOrsZPO-kksoB07Jy0Nv3RtQKOweqgPhdf2hRcyhHmfiExlZ2a1zwhzf9O7BIN9_Q8iulp16SieDEHSXlDU1DkxEu48UPbilfY4InoEbq_7mM-owN1b2_YPlTX6s/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5529039480432796146" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Notes</span></span></span><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">: Recorded By Claire</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> We began the morning with meeting. Tsering had a great time in Burlington on Saturday with Eliot, Morgan and Kamille. Tal went on a rant about how he thought that it was stupid that everyone was shopping on Saturday instead of being outside in the beautiful weather. After Tal had stopped making fun of everyone, she went on. She said that while she was picking up her brother from the Teen Center, she saw a meaningful quote on the refrigerator, “Your life is not about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself.” Tal pretended to ignore that meaningful fact and went on to laugh about the goblin movie that Tsering’s brother was watching.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rowan went home from the carwash on Saturday to find his long lost third cousins from Israel at his house. While he was home sick from school he got a call on the telephone from, ‘some weird guy from Israel who wanted to meet them.’ At first he was a little creeped out, but then he realized that they were family and it was all okay.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tate watched “The Pianist” and really liked it. He was very enthusiastic and very adamant about the movie. I thought it was great to see him so excited about a movie, it inspired me to see it. Evan had a fun time in the mall in Burlington with Chase, girl-watching. He was glad that they had had a chance to connect. I thought that it was really nice to see how well the newish seventh graders were fitting in with the older kids, or in Evan’s case, the taller old kids.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On Saturday, instead of going to Finn’s house, Reed decided to go home and spend the night with her family which is something that they haven’t really done since Bryn got sick. She said that they just hung out and played cards and they just enjoyed each other’s company in a very relaxed and easy way.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Reed read the poem, “The Ritualists” by William Carlos Williams.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In may, approaching the city, I</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Saw men fishing in the back wash</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Between the slips, where at the times</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No ship lay. But though I stood</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Watching long enough, I didn’t see</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of them catch anything</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">More than quietness, to the formal</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rhymes of casting-that slow dance.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tuesday Morning:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Calder got an email from his brother, Henry, asking what was up. Calder realized that he wanted to tell him everything. He wanted Henry to feel what he was feeling which I think just means that he misses him and wants him to come home.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke went out to dinner after the soccer game with a bunch of people, Simon included, and even though they were playing an immature game, he felt much closer to Simon than he did last year. He felt that he could really relate to him and I too think that Simon is doing awesome this year.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Aylee was left at school after everyone went to the soccer game and her mom was really late so she had to bike with Mia all the way to Mia’s house. She realized that even though Lydia wasn’t there, it wasn’t weird, it was just fun.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kiley was chatting with Sophie over Gmail and it felt really good just to talk to her, not necessarily about meaningful things, but it was just nice to talk to her. Simon rode up to the soccer game with Kiley and connected to her which was something that he wasn’t able to do in seventh grade.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yared was on Facebook last night and looked at pictures of the soccer game because he couldn’t be there and he thought that we looked really professional . Tal went on to say that we out played them by a ton! During the game, Tsering had counted how many passes we connected: 132 and the other team: 17. They only won because they were bigger and faster. They beat us 3 to 1.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse read from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I will make the true poem of riches,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To earn for the body and the mind whatever adheres and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Goes forward and is not dropt by death;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Be the bard of personality,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I will show of male and female that either is but the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Equal of the other,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Do you concentrate in me, for</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I am determin’d to tell you with courageous clear</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Voice to prove you illustrious,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I will show that there is no imperfection in the present,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And can be none in the future,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I will show that whatever happens to anybody it</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">May be turn’d to beautiful results,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Than death,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I will thread a thread through my poems that time</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And events are compact,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Each as profound as any.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All Tal (afternoon):</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal began by having everyone check themselves off for what they have yet to turn in and what they have turned in. He then showed us all who was scheduled to do their projects:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Kiley: November 1</span></span><sup><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">st</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire: November 3</span></span><sup><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rd</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse: November 4</span></span><sup><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This sparked many others to raise their hands to do their projects before Christmas break. After Tal explained for all of the seventh graders and a few ignorant older students (just kidding) how to do a project, he went on to read some place descriptions. First, he read Luke’s about going to the first night of Yom Kippur with his dad. In the place description, he saw Tal’s daughter Dalia and Dina. He saw the way his dad was with Dalia and he loved it. He loved his dad and he loved little babies like Dalia.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal then read Calder’s place description about concrete steps. It was the morning after the play last year and he felt empty. Empty and sad that the play was over, he felt alone. His mom was upstairs, sick. Henry was at a sleepover, and Tal wasn’t going to pick him up until the afternoon. In the place description, he was calling his dogs but they wouldn’t come back. It seemed like he was calling for the great feeling of the play to come back but it wouldn’t come. He just needed to wait to find that feeling again.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After that, we went downstairs to the basement to work on our art projects. We started off drawing an eight- tone drawing. Then we took cool shapes from the drawing, copied them onto three different colored sheets and cut them out. We then arranged them on the page and traced them. Today, we finished tracing them and picked a watercolor color scheme and painted the drawings.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wednesday Morning:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon had a piano lesson and he had a lot of homework so he was distracted. He talked to his piano teacher. He thought he would be mad but he was very understanding. Simon was very happy that he could talk to his teacher and have him understand. Aylee and her mother J’amy came to Ultimate and Reed thought it was really awesome that they came because they are both really good ultimate players. Eric went on to say how proud he was of Aylee because she got through a run in with him and she is an excellent athlete and in general he is so impressed by everything she does at school.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night Luke talked to his brother on the phone about hockey and friends and school. He really enjoyed talking to him because he hadn’t talked to him in 2 or 3 weeks. Sarah thought about how in the lit book it said that the time almost stopped and how our lives are just a spark. Our time here is just a spark. It all goes by so fast, we never know exactly what our purpose it on this earth before our lives are over.Tal referred to a poem by e.e. cummings which begins with the line, “Once like a spark” and ends with the line, “and so to dark.” By the time meeting had ended, Ollie had found the poem on line and he read it to the class.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After school yesterday Jesse went to Anneke’s to give her place description to her. Anneke felt that when she wasn’t at school she was really missing something and she was really glad that Jesse came over.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Oliver read “The Munich Mannequins” by Sylvia Plath:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Perfection is terrible, it cannot have children. Cold as snow breath, it tamps the womb</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where the yew trees blow like hydras, The tree of life and the tree of life</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unloosing their moons, month after month, to no purpose. The blood flood is the flood of love,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The absolute sacrifice. It means: no more idols but me,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Me and you. So, in their sulfur loveliness, in their smiles</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">These mannequins lean tonight In Munich, morgue between Paris and Rome,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Naked and bald in their furs, Orange lollies on silver sticks,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Intolerable, without minds. The snow drops its pieces of darkness,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nobody's about. In the hotels Hands will be opening doors and setting</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Down shoes for a polish of carbon Into which broad toes will go tomorrow.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">O the domesticity of these windows, The baby lace, the green-leaved confectionery,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The thick Germans slumbering in their bottomless Stolz. And the black phones on hooks</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13pt; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Glittering Glittering and digesting Voicelessness. The snow has no voice</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> All Tal:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal talked about how Gus Biederman came to visit the other day. He said how in eighth grade, Gus said, “God did not make me to do Algebra, God made me for plowing the fields.” He said how Gus realized he wanted to be a farmer when he went to work at North Hollow Farm. He went to do this farming program in Scotland and when he came back, he was disgusted with the whole teenage scene. When Eric saw Gus outside talking to Tal he said that Gus was one of the reasons that NBS is the way that it is today, so Thank You Gus! Tal said that it was very revealing that Gus came here. It is a safe place at North Branch, a place where no one has to be afraid, a place people can come back to. We all support each other and love each other.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal read an email that Sophie McKibben (an alum) had written. Sophie is another person who was great and is part of the reason why NBS is the way it is today. She told of how she is now at United World College in Norway and her room overlooks one of the most beautiful fjords that she has ever seen. We discussed a how she realized just how much she missed North Branch. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She said that it becomes clear to her how much these three years mean, and how NBS has taught her to love, cry and to ask questions asked of her by crazy old grouch.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal said how last night Calder and him spent the entire night making a movie on iMovie called “Pond Plunge 2010” about Tal taking a dip in the pond on Sunday. Tal asked it anyone had anything they wanted to talk about in their self eval. Patrick tentatively raised his hand. He talked about how he respected Calder for doing such good work. He said how it was very different this year to not be at the complete top of the class all of the time. He wasn’t used to having to try as hard at school because the curriculum at his old school was not as hard, plus he wasn’t in a class with kids two years older than him.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Patrick talked about how he felt sad about how he hadn’t made any real friends like his old best friend. He feels like his friend has moved on too quickly. There is a hole without his friend that hasn’t yet been filled up. He misses his friend and the way that their friendship used to be.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal said that when Hadley came to talk about her dad dying, people didn’t really know what to say, so we stayed away from her, so we gave her the message that we didn’t care. We did care, we just didn’t know how to break down the barrier of awkwardness and not knowing how to relate. Tal said if Patrick missed his friend, then he should call his friend. Then Tal went on a rant about awkwardness and how awful it is when you forget someone’s name and you have to ask someone else, and how if you don’t work to stay close and in the light of the friendships that you love, they will dim and you lose precious time and whatever love that is possible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finn said that she thought that if you don’t work at friendship it won’t work. Tal made a few inappropriate comments about where someone’s head shouldn’t be but sometimes is, but we won’t get into the details. Patrick said he feels close to Yared because Yared listens to him. Tal went on another totally random rant about jock straps, mainly because someone said Yared was a jock. Tal asked if this meant that Yared was a jock strap. The class discussion went into the weeds for a minute and then Tal asked Patrick some more questions. Patrick also feels close to Rider. He said that rider sort of seemed like a jock, too. Now everyone launched into a debate about being jock straps for Halloween. Rider gave a metaphor about seventh graders. He said, that when a new seventh grader comes, they latch onto an older kid so they don’t sink. It is easier to latch onto a flotation device (older kids) than another sevie and sink. Patrick said it sometimes feels like a race to fit in. We discussed this for a while.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal, while guiding this conversation expertly, said that when you are with someone, someone you like, if they are charmed by your crappy car, then they are the one for you. Sophie related Patrick’s feelings to her own seventh grade experience. Rider said that he was amazed at how much Patrick is like him. Rider said that he was just like Patrick when he was in seventh grade. When Rider was in seventh grade, he felt that he had to tell everyone how great he was to believe it himself. No matter how fast people seem like they fit it, you will get there. It is different for everyone.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon was sad because he was missing the class trip to Montreal to go to Spain. We said that the way to make Simon be there was to bring him back meaningless crap from China Town. Tal also said that it is important for Simon to love the time he DOES have with his mates and not hold too tightly to a few hours galavanting around in Montreal with a bunch of creepy middle-schoolers. Tal read part of a story from his old school Paideia to illustrate how wonderful and crazy we all are.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thursday Morning:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night Rider was thinking of someone to send his place description to and he realized he could send it to any one of us at the school. That made him feel good because it showed that he was able to trust all of us.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Oliver said he was really looking forward to lit class where we will be discussing the ending of our lit book “Of Mice and Men.” Simon had a good time making cookie dough with Oliver, Sophie and Kiley. Finn called her friend last night even though she felt like she had changed. She realized her friend had been having a hard time in middle school and she felt a lot better that she had called her. Last night Anneke was doing homework with her sister and she fell asleep while Anneke was reading the lit. She thought how hard and painful it would be to kill her sister like George had to do with Lennie. Last night Luke sent his dad his place description. It was the first time in three years that he had ever shown his parents anything he had written. His dad wrote back and said that he really liked it and he thought that Luke was a good writer and that he loved Luke, and this made Luke feel good, so good that he emailed Tal to tell him about it.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Calder came home from the soccer game and he was watching Dalia in the back seat of the truck and he thought it was amazing to watch her grow.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rio read a poem that he wrote called “But a Dream:”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Vines weaving in and out between my toes,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where am I,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Am I awake or is this a dream,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Fakeness wrapped around my wrists.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was not long till I will be gone,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But a memory will hold.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I will remember,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Imagine what I miss,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not able,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Too far away.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Fiends disperse,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Unknowing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I love a place,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And the things that live there.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Packed around me,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Holding tight.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tick tock, tick tock,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In reverse,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soul spilling out,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Flooding the rocks that hold up the wall that we build,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Packing it together,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As one.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where have we gone?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where have we been?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Am I awake or is this a dream,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hope is what,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We need this,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">More and more.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Friday:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rowan went for a run with his brother and they were talking about soccer and friends and school.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Ollie said that on the bus he was sitting with Sebastian, and he said that in school the other day, they watched “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” in school. Ollie told him how we watched “Of Mice and Men.” Sebastian was curious so Ollie told him all about it.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rider said that every Thursday he has been coaching the Ripton school little kids soccer, and he thought that it was awesome how even thought everything was totally chaotic, they were completely free and they knew exactly what they wanted.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night, Anna’s friend Piper spent the night at her house. Usually Anna feels that Piper isn’t completely</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">open with her but tonight, she felt totally free with her and they had a great time.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night, Yared was with his dad and he asked Yared to help him with dinner. He did and they had a really good time together cooking. Tal went on a rant about his giblet, of which he feels embarrassed, neck beards, and different weird hairstyles. It was appropriate and related to everything we were talking about.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Eliot was on his way home from school and before they got there, he got out of the car and ran home. He really enjoyed that because he hadn’t really gotten to be outside much this year after school. Yared was on Facebook last night and he saw that Eliot had said, “I hate George, I hate George, I hate George” (referring to the lit book), and at first he was angry with Eliot. Then he realized that he couldn’t get mad at Eliot for his opinion and he saw that he had no reason to be mad.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We then had a discussion about George. “I hate tragedy,” says Tal, “but half of life is tragedy. But then again, the other half is comedy.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last night Rose was reading a poem about an eagle taking Muhammad’s boot, at first Muhammad was angry but then, a poisonous snake dropped out and he saw that the eagle had taken it to save him. That is what George did to Lennie by killing him. He saved him from jail, from being lynched or being shot by another man. This is the poem Rose read.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hearing a voice calling him to prayer, Muhammad] asked for water</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to perform ablutions. He washed his hands</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and feet, and just as he reached for his boot,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">an eagle snatched it away! The boot turned upsidedown</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">as it lifted, and a poisonous snake dropped out.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The eagle circled and brought the boot back,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">saying, "My helpless reverence for you</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">made this necessary…"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Muhammad thanked the eagle,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and said, "What I thought was rudeness</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">was really love. You took away my grief,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and I was grieved!"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yared read the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You do not have to be good. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You do not have to walk on your knees </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meanwhile the world goes on. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">are moving across the landscapes, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">over the prairies and the deep trees, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the world offers itself to your imagination, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">over and over announcing your place in the family of things.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">5. Last Week</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rying to get the energy for the last class --i have to quell the current conversatioon:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"breakfast is the most important meal of the day...."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Tal, can I start lit class"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Tal, i'm really looking forward to lit class."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"My whole family was sleeping and I was just crying in my bed while I was reading lit..."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Once George says I'm not mad at you and I never have been, then Lennie is happy and that is where he wants to be."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"going off topic, Lennie was imagining his Aunt Clara, he was punishing himself, it seems like it wasn't his fault, he couldn't control his strength or his fear. In the clearing he was afraid George would be mad, and then the rabbit comes out of his mind and those rabbits were his fears."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"It's like what you were talking about with Gus the other day, who wanted to have a farm but he can't have it now and so maybe he is holding on to the idea of it so tightly that he can't live now."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Hey Yared, carrying a lit book around in your back pocket is cool.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Hey Tal, so is carrying around a luger..." says Miles, referring to Carlson, who shot Candy’s old dog. He is holding a toy gun we used in one of our plays three years ago.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Lennie is almost like every animal in all the Steinbeck books--like Candy's dog, like the horse the </span></span><i><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Red Pony</span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">..."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The conversation rolls and rolls around without end.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the girls bought a life size baby doll in Burlington, a baby with blue eyes. She brought it to school to take care of it. Something to hold on to. Something better than a boring old conversation. A ninth grade boy became the father, but they were divorced and they were having disputes over the custody and possession of the baby, and also fighting over what its name would be. There are disputes about neglect, abuse, and restraining orders. Other students became uncles, old boy friends, lawyers, judges, social workers, flirting love interests, concerned parties. Some kids, on the outside of the game, wondered what all the fuss was about. All of them pretending to love it, hold it, fight over it, steal it, dress it, take care of it...</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are taking care of this innocent thing that they want to love. Then there is some playful threatening of the child, some rough handling of it. In the game, as it should, this becomes upsetting. The game isn't a game, it is an enactment of real feelings.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We have a conference about the baby. The girl who brought it in doesn’t have a close sibling. She wants to take care of something. She still loves to play with dolls. And so why not here? She doesn’t want people in the class to play meanly or do the baby wrong. She wants everyone to respect the life that the doll represents and to respect her reasons for bringing the doll.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By the end of the week nearly everyone had played the game. Nearly everyone has sat through a class holding the baby, carefully, or cradling it, or patting its head. Everyone who touched the baby, touched it with gentleness. In the middle of a wiffleball game, we turn around to see someone else stroking the baby’s cheeks. There is a seventh grade boy solving an algebra problem with the baby doll bouncing on his knee.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:'times new roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The doll, and the caretakers, are not unlike Lennie and George in <i>Of Mice and Me</i>n. We want to take care of Lennie, of their dream, of Lennie's innocence. The doll represents life, the dream, the world we will or want to enter. The baby doll is the fragile thing we are holding, here on the cusp of adulthood, a riveting game of real life played out by children. The baby doll it not a game. It is human being. It is humans playing at being human. We see the baby needs to be taken care, of like George loved Lennie. It is not okay to tease a small thing or mishandle someone’s dream. So the dream object is handed around and around, like words in a conversation we are learning to love.</span></span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-30520134397773623782010-10-10T10:06:00.001-07:002010-10-10T18:59:04.858-07:00Let It Enfold You<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4KeAmOc_IxlWuMV89PL47G2zemjYrQVpDtqoXXSU0Vjz9NPlGvakQ-ZR67d_AfhSVCOIPPRbe81pfstfxz7R3qqlKLrNaC806REV3smqW4cuncle6PON0KmMpMO_e6cGY4gX-rrYtJXA/s1600/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 254px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4KeAmOc_IxlWuMV89PL47G2zemjYrQVpDtqoXXSU0Vjz9NPlGvakQ-ZR67d_AfhSVCOIPPRbe81pfstfxz7R3qqlKLrNaC806REV3smqW4cuncle6PON0KmMpMO_e6cGY4gX-rrYtJXA/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5526465801349866722" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br />Yared has learned the “Star Spangled Banner.” He played it for me this morning. It was the best version I have ever heard. It made me cry. Actually. Though I will pretty much cry if any of these kids figures something out, takes pride in it, and then shows what they did.<br /><br />We all clap and the clapping is for real.<br /><br />“I played it for my dad last night. It made him cry. Okay, it wasn’t a cry, it was more like a “sniff” because he thought it was cool. Maybe he wasn’t crying about that, maybe he was crying about something else, like his pencil broke.<br /><br />“Really, Yared? Tell the truth…”<br /><br />“Okay, it made him have appreciation that I am learning something.”<br /><br /> ****<br /><br />I ask them to tell me what they, or we have learned, after the first ten minutes of the day. They tell me all the things we just heard together. The concrete details. I am not after the concrete details. I want them learning to make meaning out of the concrete details.<br /><br />“But what have you learned that no one else has heard, that only you know?”<br /><br />There is a subtle shift. Voices alter as they speak about understanding; about hoped for ideas based on theories, supported by the concrete details.<br /><br />Calder tells me he is going to read the poem tomorrow and it is either going to be “Clenched Soul” by Pablo Neruda, or Robert Hayden’s “Monet’s Waterlilies.”<br /><br />“Go with Hayden,” I say.<br /><br />“Alright. Do you want me to read it to you?”<br /><br />“Yes.”<br /><br />“He reads and yes, I am so happy, and proud, that my son is telling me that he is going to read a poem tomorrow about Monet’s waterlilies.<br /><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">****<br /><br />Rio sends me an email to tell me to create a Fantasy Hockey Team. A parent in the school with a love of words has scrambled his email message into a Haiku-esque sounding anagram:<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">link to my hockey fantasy:<br /></span></span></i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Tal makes the team<br /></span></span></i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">go to the wall.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />I read it aloud to the kids to illustrate how clumsily written words can be arranged to have new meanings which may have been living in them already. This inspires Jesse.<br /><br />“Want to hear my Haiku I wrote in 2nd grade?”<br /><br />“Sure.”<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"Fire trees have come./ Sparks are fluttering down./ Watch, burning the fall ground" <br /><br />“Beautiful, Jesse.”<br /><br />This leads to a discussion of whether or not small children possess poetic powers. Or, more to the point, what poetic powers do they possess that are not available to the seasoned, experienced writer?<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">****<br /><br />One of the ninth grade boys walks into the room.<br /><br />“Tal, nobody likes me.”<br /><br />He leaves the room.<br /><br />“He said that last week,” someone says.<br /><br />“The more important question: If there is some truth in what he says, why does nobody like him?”<br /><br />“That’s not true, Tal.”<br /><br />“What’s no true?”<br /><br />“That nobody likes him?”<br /><br />“What do you mean?”<br /><br />“I think that sometimes people think that others don’t like them but it’s just because they don’t see it. The only reason people are irritated at him is because they care about him. Plus he's being dumb."</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It is clear then. He is right, they aren't liking him now. Be he needs to look at why.<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">***<br /><br />While playing Bimini Ring toss, Tsering announces:<br /><br />“I am the Ring Master!”<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">***<br /><br />The kids seem possessed or stuck on the idea of whether true love or romantic love or eternal love exists.<br /><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The topic keeps coming up.<br /><br />I tell them a story of what it looks like. What conditions may be necessary for it to be real.<br /><br />“Someone I love told me this: My friend has known what it feels like to be on fire, burning, in the middle of a room, where no one sees her. My friend said it was hell on earth. My friend cried out and no one moved. She screamed and people kept talking. I told my friend I have known what it feels like to be a softly blown sheet, to be lifting and rising in the sun and breeze. And to settle down gently, to land with breeze riffling over. And then to want to rise again on the next breeze, but to feel a stake driven down into to some corner of my sheet, and to feel myself ripping as I rise, again and again, until there is nothing left of me but a tattered rag. I told my friend I would never let her burn alone in the middle of the room. I told her I would always hear her. My friend told me she would never stop letting me rise and become. She said, 'That's not a promise, that's a truth.' And so what is that?”<br /><br />“That’s love. A form of it. What were we telling each other?”<br /><br />“That the other one matters. That part of the deal is that you will look out for each other.”<br /><br />“Yes. We each put the other at the center. When you know that someone you love is doing that for you, has put you at the center, you feel a wonderful, indescribable feeling of joy and safety.”<br /><br />They are all looking at me.<br /><br />“We can do that for each other very easily here.”<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">****<br /><br />I read Anna’s sketch, about her father leaning his head back in the car while the rain falls in on his head, listening to Dvorak. While we write our responses we listen to the 4th Movement of the “New World Symphony.”<br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">***<br /><br />“So, who do think is hotter? Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift?” someone shouts into the room.<br /><br />There is shocked silence.<br /><br />I feel this question may be turning us from our appointed mission. Before I can launch into a diatribe and rant, someone enters the conversation.<br /><br />“Who is Kim Kardashian?” asks a seventh grade girl. “Is she a cannibal?”<br /><br />Five minutes later, there is a discussion on whether vegetarians or cannibals get more energy from their respective food choices. <br /><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">***<br /><br />In morning meeting:<br /><br />Rider says: “I am thinking about my new niece or nephew that is going to be born. And I was thinking if that wa a good thing or not, this new child coming into the world. And then I was thinking about if I have done anything to make this a better world, and if I have contributed to making it a world a child should want to come into.”<br /><br />“Well, thinking about it is a huge first step. You can only think of it that way, in that direction. You are creatinge the opportunity to think about how you will live and act.”<br /><br />“On the bus this morning I was singing gospel songs with Tsering. And before I got on the bus I thought about what I would do on the bus that morning, and if I would create anything, and then when I sat with Tsering, I thought about what I was doing with her, and what I was creating by sitting and singing with her.”<br /><br />“That thinking is your genius. That’s where you become a person who is worthy to take up space. It’s called being conscious and present in this moment, to an incredibly developed degree. And y’all, how hard is it to do that, to have a still enough mind to be asking those questions every moment?”<br /><br />“It’s hard because you have to be aware,” someone answers. “But if you can do it it’s not hard. You just have to have the questions in your mind.”<br /><br />I say to them: “I have these questions in my mind every moment I am in here. I say, ‘I am here to find the light in every kid and to make every kids grow and expand. So every interaction I have I am asking myself, will this make the light in the kid come out, somehow, some way? Every time I talk to a kid, I think about what I am giving and what that may lead to, and how I can give my best and get the best out of the kid in front of me. I do this mostly by asking about five hundred questions. When I ask questions of someone it says I care about that someone. No one will be invisible to me, ever. I will see the kid in front of me and I will make sure that that kid can be seen clearer after I am done asking and seeing and listening.”</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“I mean, how much energy is squandered shouting random crap into a classroom like, “Who is hotter, Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I mean, where can such a question lead?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">What is created? What if, on the other hand, every question you ask serves the purpose of revealing the truth around you, in you, or in someone?”</span></span></span></div><div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“These are all rhetorical questions,” I say. “Watch this, y’all:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Tate, where do you live?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“New Haven.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“In a one story house or two stories?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Two.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“And is your room upstairs?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Yes.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“And what can you see from you window?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“The woods.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“And do you have anything special that you love when looking form that window?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Well, when I was little I would look at the green clearing and I used to watch a family of bunny rabbits that came out there, but then they left.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I look at the class. “Do you see how easy that is? It took a minute and 12 seconds. In that time I revealed Tate to all of us by asking five questions. In five questions. Do you now know more about him?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Has he shown something of himself. Do you see that he is ‘somebody?’</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Have I become somebody to him?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">By asking him questions, what have I told him?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“That you care about him.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Yes, and did I lose anything by doing that? Did I risk anything?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“No.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“And what did I gain?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“You got a friend, you got his gratitude for asking.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“Yes, I made him feel like he is somebody. His life has substance. His life exists for us.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">We see him, in past and present time, in a place we have never been.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">He becomes.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I become to him, as a person who cares.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">It is so easy to do this, y’all. You only have to get out of the place you are in.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“What would happen if I had asked him about a cannibal named Kim Kardashian?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Where would we be?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“No where.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“In a no place.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Tate is still sitting next to me, smiling shyly, looking down at his doodle of a sword in his notebook.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">***</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I have been ranting about the soulless pop music that I have been hearing hummed around school. I have been hearing the name of Justin Bieber too often.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I have decided to fight back. It’s a never-ending struggle and I am a soldier.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“You clowns, do you realize that they are feeding you music made out of crap, money, and Chemicals and if they can get it in front of you enough you will start talking about it and start talking about Justin Bieber as though you knew him.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">They have secret wires running this crap into you and they are stealing your money and leaving you sucking on a piece of air candy with the IQ the size of a chigger’s eyeball?”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">“They are sucking your soul out with these poison things.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Don’t let them do it. But if you have the junk in you, today I have a temporary antidote.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I play them “Hear my Train-A-Comin’” by Jimi Hendrix.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The song is dedicated to Yared, who loves the blues and Hendrix.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Tomorrow</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">I am bringing is John Coltrane to make them hear another dedicted soul.</span></span></span><!--EndFragment--> </div></div>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-2159865919976579392010-10-03T07:07:00.000-07:002010-10-06T04:47:23.995-07:00Icarus and the Heartwood<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8rfUMFNkqnRJXt9KaPZHGkTqcJWcSrjYKZmMi1DGNw8TnkKF02zc7VOCbQfe3Xjlv5OZ9Rr45SGcHQD59gpMJceaCX37zGIh1A2LV8xeT4fluyXwNrpax-FsnMfmf9obVzpV5m80ZF6I/s1600/MATISSE+ICARUS.JPG.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 243px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8rfUMFNkqnRJXt9KaPZHGkTqcJWcSrjYKZmMi1DGNw8TnkKF02zc7VOCbQfe3Xjlv5OZ9Rr45SGcHQD59gpMJceaCX37zGIh1A2LV8xeT4fluyXwNrpax-FsnMfmf9obVzpV5m80ZF6I/s320/MATISSE+ICARUS.JPG.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523823967747184866" /></a><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;color:black;"><span style=" text-decoration: none; "><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJU-KajUjCkA0vNAOMLY2EmA94M_o9rRFnve0m3pusLkvaDVVxUflk9RomYYSCDO278iquAF3I6TzmlnsH4Dj0Ej90AugwQvys472fWEUBm5U_cIC4VBRQFh_LLbmt2m4f5CSpFr4RxZc/s1600/MATISSE+ICARUS.JPG.jpeg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">I tell the seventh graders something I learned over the weekend: that</span></a></span></u></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span style=" ;font-family:Georgia;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">when Monarch butterflies go into the chrysalis, the body of the caterpillar does not simply grow wings, or transform as a normal embryo does. Rather, in the first 24 hours in the chyrsalis the body of the caterpillar completely disintegrates into cellular soup, a liquid form. From this cellular soup the body re-forms as a butterfly.</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Now it has been said that the middle school years are this time of “being in the chrysalis,” (it must be this cellular/hormonal soup that frightens most adults away) but somehow we try to get them out and to the state of a fluttering butterfly somewhere somehow sometime someway. But this disintegrative cellular soup concept adds a whole new dimension to the metaphor. Emotionally, psychologically, socially, intellectually, there is a lot of soup swirling and cooking and reforming in the time frame of these years.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">By necessity some of this cellular reformation occurs in enclosed spaces—the inner work of the adolescent’s heart and mind, in the time alone, here at school—all the work that must happen for the day when the cells reform and the body splits the chrysalis and flies free.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I tell the seventh graders this.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tsering says, “I want to be the first person who ever went inside the chrysalis, ‘cause I want to see it turn into soup and see if it sparkles.”<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>****</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sarah comes to me and shows me a book she pulled off our shelves. “Revolutionary Letters,” by Diana Di Prima.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Look what I found!” she exclaims.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">We open it to the inside cover.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>1971, City Lights Books.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, this is some serious hippie and beatnik poetry,” I say.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Oh yes,” she says. “I read some of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They are all about things we are talking about now.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Why don’t you write some revolutionary letters of your own.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, maybe I will.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>***</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, Tal, come see the bathroom. Yared is playing his guitar in there and there are tons of people in there!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, for my project, I am going to have a guest appearance. He’s going to be from the Czech republic. He was there during the Velvet Revolution.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, I want to do the Industrial Revolution. That sounds the most interesting.”</p><p class="MsoNormal">A student says, over the din of the pounding and breaking of tiles: “It doesn’t matter what others think about your mosaic. It only matters what you feel about it.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, we should watch <i>1984</i><span style="font-style:normal">.”</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, can you tell what my image is on my mosaic?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Is Yared crabby?” I ask.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“No, he’s happy cause he was playing his guitar.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“See, Tal, I got my lit response right here.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Oh, you’re working on the crossword!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Hey, Tal, we already got a half a math problem done!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tell me one thing you’ve learned in the last 24 hours,” I say.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I’ve learned what fluvial and benthic means.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I’ve learned that Kiley loves her sister very much.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal, my place description is 900 words long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Is that too long? Actually, it’s not 900 words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It’s 950.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Hey, Anna, I love your skirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And, um, I feel like my cheek was punched.”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>***</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A seventh grade boy bursts into the room.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Tal. Tal, take me off the Mosaic list. I finished!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Okay, you are off the ‘bad’ list.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As he scampers down the basement stairs he yells out, “Yay, I’m a good boy!”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>****</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">After Rowan’d speech the discussion turns to questions of how to live in the world after something bad happens.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The scars that happen to us, little and big, our fault or not our fault, what do we do about that. What place and privelege do we give past experience. How much control do we let the past have over us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Up at Annie Nicholson’s house there is a massive sugar maple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Inside it, sticking out about ten feet up, is the handle of a Civil War calvary sword.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A soldier came back from the Civil War to his hill farm in Vermont in 1865 and placed his sword in the tree and the tree grew around it. The tree has the power to consume<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>a weapon if we let our weapons go.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Rider says: “My dad knows a guy who was cutting down a tree. And he kept wearing down chains and breaking teeth off his chainsaw.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He changed the chain three times. And then he realized there was an old ski embedded in the tree.”</p><p class="MsoNormal">“So if you let a negative experience stay too deeply in you..what?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“But those experiences are a part of you. They become a part of the tree.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“But do we keep the scar of foreign object on the outside where it shows always, or do we grow new beautiful layers around it?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“You don’t want to forget it. It’s a part of what you know. It might teach you how to live.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“So the new rings grow around. Maybe there is a bump or irregularity where the event occurred, but the tree will keep growing.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Does the tree have the power or keep itself from deforming itself?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“So you men, how much will can you exercise in your life when some of the things that happen are out of your control?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Yes.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“You mean to say: your sister might be sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Your brother left and doesn’t say he loves you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Your parents had a fight or got divorced.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>You were mean to your sister and regretted it. Your grandfather died. You didn’t say ‘thank you’ even though you felt grateful. You promised you would try and your didn’t. You will be sad, confused, angry, disturbed, bewildered. All those</p><p class="MsoNormal"> things will happen. Big or little. They will happen every day and every week. Do you understand what I am saying?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“Yes.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“So how will we use those things?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>How do we let them into us and be a part of us but not let them become us. Or, how do we transform those things. Here’s a way of looking at it. Inside any big tree is the heartwood.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The heart of an oak. Heart pine.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The center, the old stuff, the inner core, the greatest density, the early rings. That is where the soul of the tree is. No matter what happens, the tree exists. The acorn that the tree came from remains in the tree. It will always be there no matter what foreign objects enter. No matter what happens, the tree’s code and essence is embedded in it in far greater proportion than the ski. The ski is a nothing but a sliver. Nothing can really penetrate the heart wood. The heart wood is dense, beautiful, golden with color.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That’s the part that is in place and be kept close.”</p><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 259px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgOFWlVWaG1UJTT6yFrD9jTIOr_LrbOtx3OtAOSGGSo08yZKd-t5wyFiSRsIUyqIVcRnwgdZ4IobnmdoIzvRf3ZCelLhCPD-67pXWZKQKwgveVBrCN5I0QLGWFWF68N14jLZKS28MHdM/s320/Heartwood+disrupted.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5523822621496634178" /> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“The tree has roots and the tree has limbs. It is so much bigger than whatever happens to it.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Even if it gets struck by lightning, there may be a scar but the tree will keep growing.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;color:#333333;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">I tell them: “My friend says she won't let toxic things make her live as a toxin; nor will she let the toxins infect whatever is good that wants to live in her.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">My friend says she will choose how to let the scars become a part of her, only a part of her, and make her great and mighty. My friend lets the beauty she is grow around the knives, swords, or skis that are jabbed into her. My friend believes that the tree she is is so magnificently pure that she can grow, ring after ring, becoming bigger and greater and more fully herself no matter what is thrown at her. My friend decides who she is and what directions she grows.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>*****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It is late on Friday, the last of the speeches.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Y’all, my favorite car in the train is the caboose. It is the most beautiful car, the red one, with a little tower where the conductors sleep. Engines are grimy and powerful, the freight cars are necessary but rusted and gray, but the Caboose is the most beautiful. As red as the heart of Icarus.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“And the caboose is where the famous people stand to make their speeches,” says Luke.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Yes, and now we have the caboose, the last of the speeches.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In the space of the final hour of the week it comes clear, again, why we have this school; or, I should say, it comes clear what we can do in this school, in any school, when the kids are let out to do the talking. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We give the kids a chance to say what matters. No matter how fluently or fumblingly, how exquisitely artistic or raw; no matter how much poetry or stumbling and um-ing and tears and snot. No matter how difficult, no matter the amount of tension, we have a chance to tell each other what matters.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">And we will listen. And the kids sitting around the table are listening with all their hearts open at 2:50 on Friday afternoon. The room is absolutely still, the rains in tapping on the roof, it is gray outside, and once again, we are saying to each other as Mother Teresa did: “We belong to each other.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">When this happens, we are living in and outside of ourselves in the best possible way.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Lennie shouts to George:</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“I got you and you got me!”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">This is his ecstatic truth, and one of the handful of truths that should really matter before death comes. To know someone has got you and you’ve got someone. There is heartwood all around us and in us. Our task is to see it and show it every chance we get.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-15579137166735961392010-09-26T15:57:00.000-07:002010-09-28T11:45:51.290-07:00Where the River Runs Deep<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1_otzNCcLidoHuOEmYBWikzCLe03QUSSVqnZlRpsvrnrnuk8nS49yegfXayODJsPw6dH2T1cDcnC-ClmlORCHb1vVYR57eQHRWIdVjMUW6ok_4Wb7_cZqJU1zcf2R3lPwhC_vgkbZ1Mo/s1600/yeats.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1_otzNCcLidoHuOEmYBWikzCLe03QUSSVqnZlRpsvrnrnuk8nS49yegfXayODJsPw6dH2T1cDcnC-ClmlORCHb1vVYR57eQHRWIdVjMUW6ok_4Wb7_cZqJU1zcf2R3lPwhC_vgkbZ1Mo/s320/yeats.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521362133050935506" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I hand out copies of “Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner.”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I only chose this poem because we can “get it” in one class period, and still there is so much to see.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I want them to know how much there is to see in a small space. To look, as though through a microscope, and see a whole landscape.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No one should try to understand this poem yet, or tell us what it means. That would be like trying to tell us what a microscopic cell </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">means</span></i></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> before making any observations.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">SO for now, all we are going to do is look and listen and make observations.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I read them the poem. We start in with the questions.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“How can his mother be sleeping?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What’s flak?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“There are only two rhymes: the second line and the last line.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“But also there are rhyming words in the fourth line. ‘Black flak’ and ‘nightmare fighters.’”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What is the ‘dream of life?’”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why is he loosed from it?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Great question.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Why does it not say ‘severed, ‘separated,’ ‘divorced,’ ‘torn,’ ‘removed,’ ‘ripped,’ or ‘taken’ from the dream of life?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“When was it written?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What’s a ball-turret?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I show them pictures of a ball-turret on a B-17 Flying Fortress.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I draw a picture of one on the white board. I demonstrate the “hunched’ posture of the ball-turret gunner.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They may be beginning to see it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So what feelings come out here?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It feels like he is vulnerable. He’s in a glass ball.”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Where?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“In the belly of the plane.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“The belly?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Some one practically jumps out of a chair.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He ‘fell’ from his mother’s sleep. When he was in his mother’s womb he was hunched.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He was warm, and bloody, and protected.””</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You mean the blood was not the blood of death, but of life?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And when a child is born what happens?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“They wipe the blood off and…”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"And do what?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Wrap the baby up and keep it warm and give it to its mother.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So when the child opens its eyes it sees what?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Its mother. Protection. Warmth. Love.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And what does it “wake” to here?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Black flak, Nightmare fighters. Death. Blood. Terror. War.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Is this boy/man free?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No, he’s born into the womb of a war plane.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So did he get to live, to know the dream of life?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No. The poem is only five lines…It’s like it barely lives.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He only lives for four lines before they wash him out with a hose.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“How about this five line poem,” I say.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Row Row</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Row your boat</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Gently down the stream</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Merrily merrily merrily</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Life is but a dream…</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Did he get to have this dream,” I ask. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He was practically born frozen.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Cold.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Like what.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It says his wet fur froze.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“How does that picture form in your heads when you hear the words? Is he wearing fur?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah, didn’t pilots wear fur coats then?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So he seems like an animal.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Vulnerable. He’s just born.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He was scared and hot when the plane took off. His sweat froze.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then he gets shot.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The ball-turret is full of blood, but he is not even there.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They have to wash him out.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No feelings at all.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He’s like a little animal that was born blood-covered but did not get to open his eyes to the dream of life or his mother’s eyes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They keep talking. I keep trying to stop them, but they keep seeing other things, all the. connections between the words. Finally someone begins to draw out a bigger view.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It seems like normally you would want to say this is a picture of freedom—flying high above the earth, seeing everything, looking down over the landscape and seeing everything.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Except?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Except he is trapped in this state.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“State of…”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“War. This state of being. The state of the government placing him in plane. Hunched up like a fetus."</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He’s not free because his only choice is to shoot and die.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Someone points to the Matisse poster, “Icarus”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> which hangs next to the white-board.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">It’s like he is that guy, falling from the sky.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“There he still seems alive, because we can see his heart. The red spot on his body."</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Y’all, did you know that Matisse made that work during World War II?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On the board are the dates of World War II.—1939-1945.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jarrell wrote his poem in 1945. The poem I hand out for Thursday was written in 1939. “In Memory of W.B. Yeats,” by W.H. Auden.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They will make connections I can’t imagine.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I read a story called, “The Kiss.” It has happened over and over: the kids may be thinking about what a kiss is, or wanting to know what a kiss is, but they have no way of really knowing.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I had been talking about what a kiss might be, what it shouldn’t be, how one might feel when a real kiss happens.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A kiss is not gotten, it is given. This I know.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the story I read, a kiss is given by a dying woman to a teenage boy. The woman is in a convalescent home and her skin is practically falling off her body and she can’t speak. Only a moaning whisper escapes her dry lips. The boy is there for community service, to wheel the old people around the facility, help them play Bingo, and light their cigarettes.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The woman wants the boy to hold her hand. As he passes her in the hall, she reaches out to him and pulls him toward her. Then she pulls him ever so close to her face, and she places a kiss on his cheek. The boy is not sure what to do. He is terrified, never having been so close to death.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But he feels the only thing to do is to kiss her back, and he places a kiss on the soft skin of her cheek. He doesn’t know what he is doing, but he does what must be done.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What has been given?</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What has been created?</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How has death been held at bay? Earlier in the day we discussed whether it was possible to become immortal by living well, by making lives grow out of our lives, by making something that would outlive us, as Robert Hayden said we must do, as a way of making Frederick Douglass liver forever.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Can we live forever, in some manner, even in this cage of mortality?</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If we must die, how may we also not die. It was proposed that we live on by living well, by giving something of ourselves to the world beyond, and that would be a measure of freedom within the limitations of earthly existence.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Like in Wislawa Symborska’s poem, where she says the written word is the ‘revenge of the mortal hand,’” says Jesse.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“That’s what she is doing by showing the boy what a kiss is.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“The old woman was giving something of the utmost value before she died. As though she couldn't die until she gave that kiss away,” says someone else.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And what did her insistence on giving that kiss to the boy create?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It created love, in him for her…So her love is passed on, so he can know it. And now we know it from him.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Later when we talk about “In Memory of W.B, Yeats,” we began to see that the only thing that counters death is words spoken from the heart, given out freely, even as the shadow of death hovers all around. “In the deserts of the heart, let the healing fountain start.”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If each of us is “in the cell of himself almost wholly convinced of his freedom,” then this is the way out.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s a rainy, misty morning up on the North Branch River. The woods re mostly green but a few leaves are touched by yellow and red, the ferns are browning, shivering in the breeze and shining in the rain. We are gathered under the trees in the wet grass, wearing mud boots and waders glove. Nylon pants are duct-taped to keep the river out. Two dogs are racing around, and licking our faces as we have morning meeting.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, why are you so grumpy.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Not grumpy. Sleepy. Tired. Friday. Long days behind. Long day ahead.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A ninth grade boy leans into his mate, causing them both to stumble. I give him a stern head-masterly glance.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What?” He exclaims. “I’m awake, eager, and ready to learn!”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are holding hands, lined up five-abreast in an all-school phalanx.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Eric has them follow him, first walking then running, making them turn and re-turn.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are imitating the width and rush and flow of the river. In the turns the outside “water” must speed up. The inside water must go slow.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They head through the woods to find the river, which has filled up over night with all the rain.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They’ll be walking down-river, making observations about erosion and flow-rate, ostensibly quietly and meditatively. But already I can hear the shouts and laughter downstream in the woods as the water pours in, filling their boots where the river runs deep.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-6599148427664619452010-09-26T15:52:00.001-07:002010-09-27T14:20:58.539-07:00In the Vein, Notes from Week of Sept. 20, By Anna Caliandro<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oaOMeVVvI0YC7p8D5aP6RA1ZPA0plgyMyUhUOup-V7vA-nWnLiu1nBhYj2WL_07tPsbyVAHmc3TjSPiQyF4uMoYvXgZHaxkZcBRUtvAxbe2VsPR6zYfxpCG7veh3e1q4yn1SbodlICE/s1600/images.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 279px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_oaOMeVVvI0YC7p8D5aP6RA1ZPA0plgyMyUhUOup-V7vA-nWnLiu1nBhYj2WL_07tPsbyVAHmc3TjSPiQyF4uMoYvXgZHaxkZcBRUtvAxbe2VsPR6zYfxpCG7veh3e1q4yn1SbodlICE/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521706345869898354" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; "></span></span></span></p><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Monday- I sat at the table, turning sometimes from person to person to say Good Morning or to have a conversation with them. I crossed my legs, and uncrossed them, and fidgeted as I always did, in anticipation for class to begin. Finally class began, and we all stopped talking.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Does anyone have anything?” Tal asked, as he always did, his hair sticking up haphazardly, sounding exceptionally bored but everyone knew that he wasn’t. “Sarah.”. Everyone’s eyes moved to Sarah, who opened her mouth to speak.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Okay so yesterday I didn’t go down to the sauna because I was making cookies, but then Anneke and Eklutna walked up to my house and started making the cookies with me.” She sounded delighted and awestruck at the same time. “And I felt </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">really </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">good to be with the two of them, because the last time that I had been with the two of them I had ended upstairs crying in the Bathroom during a Christmas Party. So we made cookies, and listened to Bob Marley, and I really, really enjoyed that.” She said with sincerity. A few more people raised their hands. Ollie had a good time at the Trevor Hall concert with Rio. Then, when prompted, added in saying that he had fun with Sophie and Anna as well.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finn talked about how this weekend she was at home for the majority of the time, and she played cards with her brother. She said that she felt really good doing this because it doesn’t happen very often.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse talked about how she had had a Birthday Gathering. She had started feeling excluded from the other people there, and then she started acting as if she were someone who she was not. Then later that night, they were all sitting around, and her friends started talking to her about this and making her feel better. Yes, the very same ones who she felt excluded from.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rider went biking with his Dad, and it felt good to do something that they both loved, just the two of them.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Y’all guess what?” Asked Tal excitedly. A few people said what.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I tried to see how long I could go this weekend without cussing, and I went 14 minutes!” He said excitedly. We applauded his efforts, which clearly were extremely deep- hearted. Apparently saying Crud Muffins is just not the same…Then someone read </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 26px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"If a Tree Could Wander," by Rumi</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Oh, if a tree could wander</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and move with foot and wings!</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It would not suffer the axe blows</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and not the pain of saws!</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For would the sun not wander</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">away in every night ?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How could at ev'ry morning</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the world be lighted up?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And if the ocean's water</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">would not rise to the sky,</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How would the plants be quickened</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">by streams and gentle rain?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The drop that left its homeland,</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the sea, and then returned ?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It found an oyster waiting</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and grew into a pearl.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Did Yusaf not leave his father,</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in grief and tears and despair?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Did he not, by such a journey,</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">gain kingdom and fortune wide?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Did not the Prophet travel</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to far Medina, friend?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And there he found a new kingdom</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and ruled a hundred lands.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You lack a foot to travel?</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then journey into yourself!</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And like a mine of rubies</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">receive the sunbeams? print!</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Out of yourself ? such a journey</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">will lead you to your self,</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 20pt; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It leads to transformation</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of dust into pure gold!</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A woman staying with Jesse and her family who is training to become a doctor came to talk to us about Lyme Disease. It was very interesting, and obviously beneficial, because I left in the fear that I had a tick crawling on me.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the afternoon Reed read her speech. Reed’s speech was about her sister, Bryn, who has been sick since January, and hasn’t been able to move. Reed would go running in the golden light, and try to run not only for herself, but for Bryn as well. She felt that she could only attain freedom, or at least come close, understand it until she could free her sister, who she loves dearly. An instinct inside of her said to run for Bryn. She felt sometimes as if she were running from Bryn- running from all the bad feelings that her sister was having that affected her as well. But she realized that it was not running from her that was important, but running for her.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Ollie read his speech. It was about his feelings about love. Sometimes he has trouble loving people, sometimes he cant see that it’s real. He would get frustrated at seventh grade girls who would sign their emails with hearts next to their names. He didn’t like it when people would love him- he didn’t try to be good, he didn’t try to be some loveable person. Because he felt that if someone said that they loved him, he had to return the love.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I thought about maybe it’s not that he is afraid of love, but that those four letters mean more to him. He doesn’t want those pale imitations, the hugs to give the illusion that you are warm and welcome, and the hearts in the signatures of emails to serve the same purpose. He doesn’t want anything that’s fake. He wants the real thing, nothing less. Perhaps that is what we all should want.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It is the second week of our Wiffleball League, and it is just as fun as ever. It’s a competitive thing- we all really, really want to win, we dearly want to rise up and push everyone else down. Actually, this is the exact opposite of what we want. We don’t play to win, or at least most of us don’t. We play to get to know each other. We play to laugh, to learn what it feels like to run even if you don’t make it to the base. Sometimes I have trouble with trying, I have trouble completely throwing myself into something in the fear that all of me will not be good enough. I’m learning something from playing Wiffleball, we all are. It’s okay to swing tremendously hard at the ball and for the bat not even to make contact. It’s okay if you can’t make it to the base before you get tagged. It’s okay if you are not great, what matters is that you try. In a way, wiffleball is just a smaller version of what we are as a school- we want to keep on trying, even if we fail. It’s all right if we fail sometimes, what matters is that we are trying, and through that we begin to free ourselves.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tuesday: We sat down for another day at North Branch, and Morgan, a new seventh grader raised her hand.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Fairchild?” Tal asked, calling on her. He always called her Fairchild; I think that her middle name is Fairchild. Tal has a theory that when we tell the person who we love what our middle name is, that we will just drive the person crazy with love. Morgan, or Fairchild to some, talked about how the afternoon before, her mom had been driving to her new Piano Teacher’s house. But on the way they got lost, and ended up driving around lost for a long time, never actually making it to the lesson. But that was okay, what is important is that Morgan ended up talking to her Mom for a long time about school, and it was really nice to do that with her.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rider did the best job on his job for Science Class, so he was appointed the new checker for Science Jobs. He was looking through the prize bin for winning, and was looking at all of the prizes in the prize jar, that said things like “you’re in charge!” (For a class) or you get a plate of hot cookies. Rider was thinking about, and felt really grateful to have a teacher who was so dedicated to making everything good for his students.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke’s mom told him to go outside to pick Raspberries, so Luke went outside to go pick the raspberries. When he stood up to go inside, a soft, golden light filled the area around him, as the sun set into the distance, and he felt so happy with what he had.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And do you get this same feeling when you are on the Facebook?” Asked Tal, skeptically.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Uh, well no I guess not.” He paused. “I mean not unless I’m talking to someone who I really care about.” Tal looked as if he had gotten the answer that he had wanted.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A girl named Jesse sat, her back to the glass door that opened up into the hallway, raised her hand.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Jesse.” Tal said.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So last night, I was talking to my brother, who is Spain, and I felt really good talking to him.” She paused. “And then at the end, he said that he loved me.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Did you say that you loved him?”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.” Said Jesse. But tears had begun to roll down her cheeks.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why are you crying?” Asked Tal.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well,” She said, and I was shocked at how collected she was and how even her voice was even though she was crying. “I guess that sometimes I just don’t feel like he loves me.” We talked about this some, and by the end Jesse had a smile spread across her face.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We exclaimed over various expressions:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Push the Envelope!”<br /></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Think outside the box!”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"And what exactly does “Push the envelope mean????!!!!" Tal cried out in despair. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire read "The Second Coming," by W.B. Yeats. This poem was described by her dad to be the best poem ever written. We were reading a very good poem about W.B. Yeats in Lit Class, written by WH Auden.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"The Second Coming"</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> W.B. Yeats</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Turning and turning in the widening gyre</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The falcon cannot hear the falconer;</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The ceremony of innocence is drowned;</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The best lack all conviction, while the worst</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Are full of passionate intensity.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Surely some revelation is at hand;</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Surely the Second Coming is at hand.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When a vast image out of Spirtus Mundi</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Troubles my sight; somewhere in the sands of the desert</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A shape with lion body and the head of a man,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Is moving it’s slow thighs, while all about it</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The darkness drops again, but now I know</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That twenty centuries of my stony sleep</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And what rough beast, it’s hour come round at last,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We started Place Descriptions, and Tal read two previously written ones to help us start on our own. First he read Henry’s, which was about his former Hockey Locker room. It was mostly dialogue, with only a few descriptions of the physical place itself. He was clearly disgusted by what was said in the locker room. We knew that, partially because the eighth and ninth graders had heard Henry talk about it the year before, and we knew of his unsatisfaction, but it was still apparent in the place description how he wished that things there were very different.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Tal read Rider’s place description, about once when he was trying to think of a place to write about for a Place Description, and then he had looked down at his hands and the place description unfolded from there. We talked about how his hands were sort of his way of getting to a place, of getting to a feeling. He talked about his hands were there- to hold something- to hold someone. Looking at his hands, his worn hands was his way of holding onto what had happened. It was his way of seeing more clearly into himself.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Rider read his speech. It was about once when he was a seventh grader, he had sat crying in a conference, and then a girl sitting next to him had reached out briefly to touch his leg, to let him know that she was there, that she was not alone, and that she loved him. He had felt this thing, just where they cared about each other, they loved each other, not romantically but platonically, he felt like there was something interwoven.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then he wrote about how recently, he would sit in class- he would sit in class, listening to someone talk about something true, and he could process everything, he could analyze it, but he couldn’t feel it- there was something missing in-between, there was some kind of gap. He wrote about how he wants us all, the people of the school to have something, some kind of love that is interwoven- for us to be able to reach out to someone else, to let them know that it is okay, it will be all right, they are not alone, and that he loves them.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Calder read his speech. It was about how when he was younger, he would play with his older brother, Henry. Henry was who was always there, his brother and his friend. Then Henry started to grow up, and Calder didn’t have someone who was always there to play with anymore, and he felt like he had to grow up as well. He couldn’t be a free little kid anymore, or at least something was telling that it wouldn’t be right if he were.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then his family adopted a new sister, Dalia, and now Dalia was someone to play with, someone to take care of and build legos with. His speech was about growing up, but not forgetting his childhood, bringing everything with him, not forgetting a thing.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In his speech, Calder described how he used to design the perfect boat. I thought about this. Metaphorically, we are on a boat since we are born, and it is going to sail no matter what. But what we need to do is to learn how to sail that boat properly, for Calder, he needs to sail that boat just right so that he embraces everything, uses everything that comes at him, but doesn’t leave anything forever. I think that we all need to learn how to sail our own boats, we all need to understand what we need to find in order to pursue that freedom, what we desire forever.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wednesday: Meeting started out with Tal making fun of one girl’s Ray Ban Sunglasses. “We need to strip down to the core- no hiding, no fake plastic, just what is true.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal talked about how when Paideia had been a hippie school, someone decided to come out at the graduation as a Transvestite. He said that we need to come out of our little places where we are comfortable. We need to stop covering ourselves up.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“That doesn’t mean that I want you all to come to school tomorrow Nekkid. Just stop covering up who you are.” He said, staring pointedly at a few certain individuals. “ARE YOU GETTING ALL OF THIS, ANNA????” he barked at me.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yep, I’m getting it,” I said, smiling.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Get the Nekkid part. It’s not Naked. It’s Nekkid. N-E-K-K-I-D. You got that?”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes Tal,” I said, laughing a little.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Eric said that that morning, Simon had burst into the science room excitedly, and was eager to show Eric his rock that he had brought in. We had a homework assignment to bring in a rock that was changed somehow by water. He said that people have not been bringing in good rocks, they have just been finding rocks to have that coveted red check next to their name on Eric’s checking off clip board.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We had an assignment to do a freedom poster/sculpture/mobile/ or whatever we wanted it to be so long as it was about freedom. Now we have an array of freedom creations in the school. Tal talked about how he liked giving relatively vague assignments, because then there is more room for originality and creativity, so things always end up better that way.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anneke talked about how the night before, she had been trying to get nails to stick to her beer bottles for her sculpture. Then she sort of gave up, and was just sitting in the middle of a lot of beer bottles feeling sad about her work Then her dad came home and saw her feeling bad about her work, then spent a long time helping her with it so that it would work.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our school has hit… well I’m not exactly sure what to call it… But I will say that now we have our Headmaster yelling, “I’M A DONKEY ON THE EDGE!” Every so often. He is quoting the Donkey, from the movie, Shrek. Not only is he yelling this, he also started yelling “SHUN THE NON-BELIEVERS!”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Ollie read a poem.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"The Window, at the Moment of Flame?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alicia Ostriker</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And all this while I have been playing with toys</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A toy power station a toy automobile a house of blocks</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And all this while far off in other lands</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thousands and thousands, millions and millions—</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You know—you see the pictures</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Women carrying their bony infants</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Men sobbing over graves</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Buildings sculpted by explosion</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Earth wasted bare and rotten—</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And all this while I have been shopping, I have</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Been let us say free</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And do they hate me for it</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Do they hate </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">me</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18pt; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the afternoon, I read my speech. I wrote it about how I have trouble with letting people know me, because I live wanting to be perfect, to create absolute perfection. So in that, I become less perfect. I wrote about Bruce Springsteen, and how I loved the music because there didn’t seem to be any barriers, there wasn’t anything that wasn’t true; it was perfect to me because it was free. It was just open, and that was how I want to live, and love, and how I want to be free.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Anneke read her speech. It was about how she had a friend named Luke, who she started to like romantically, and he started to feel that for her too.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She kept on liking him, and they started to “go out”. Shortly after the “going out” began, it ended, and Anneke felt relieved, because things had been awkward between them and it hadn’t felt good and this way they could go back to just being good friends, but she was also mad that it had happened. She kept on liking him, and they still were friends but things weren’t the same. Luke asked her to come to the Fair with him and his friends, so she did, but then she found out that Luke had another Girlfriend. And she was hurt and rejected again.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We talked about how freedom was to live without the fear of rejection, to keep trying even when there is a chance of rejection. That is what Anneke did, by writing this speech; she wrote what was true even when Luke could have rejected her.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We live either in the fear of failure, rejection, or death. We talked about the fear of death. It’s not that failure or rejection will lead to death. It is we live with the constant awareness that death will happen, it will come. We live subconsciously knowing that we only have so long, so each thing has to be precious. Wednesday Morning, Tsering had come up with a Breakfast Tutorial on the spot, that was hilarious. This was her living without fear of rejection, just doing what she wanted to do.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I thought about how this is our only way to be free- living beyond fear of rejection and failure, because that is the only way to live. Because if we live just where it is safe, where we can never fail, we won’t really do much of anything. We’ll just live in a box our entire life, and that really doesn’t sound like freedom to me.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thursday: Rowan talked about how he went out and played football with his brother, and it was really fun to do that with him and he felt really good. Finn talked about trying to work on her Place Description the night before. Then she went outside to try to bring her dog inside, and just ended up lying on the grass for a long time, just noticing everything. Simon talked about how he is having fun with Evan on his Fractal project for math. Calder talked about how he went to soccer practice the day before, then he went home and got his homework done very quickly. And it just felt really good. Tal talked about how he doesn’t want to just look at life- he doesn’t want to be taking a picture of life; he doesn’t want to be someone driving by looking at a beautiful leaf. He wants to be in the vein, in the vein of the leaf and in the vein of life. He wants to be pulsing throughout it, not just a “peeper”, he wants to be in it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rose talked about how Anneke lived beyond the fear of Rejection, and kept on trying to make things between her and Luke work even if she could fail again. She talked about how if you always live in the fear of Rejection, you may die- meaning that quitting doing something kills your desire to keep going, to keep trying. Rose said that you die if you stop doing the things that you reject you, a part of yourself does, not you physically but you lose a large piece of yourself when you stop trying.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We have to drink life up, we have to jump on it, or else we may miss something true, we may miss something good in the mix of chaos and confusion. Simon read his speech. He wrote about how he always tried so hard, he always tried so hard to make something great. Then when people would say something good about a piece of writing, he would exclaim “BUT IT HAD A TYPO!” He always focused on what he hadn’t done right, as opposed to what he had, and so he ended up not being able to see good in what he did. Simon wrote about Mozart, about Socrates, people who he looked up to and admired. I thought about Simon as a person. I am in the same carpool as him, and he is always thinking of some new question, he is always thinking and asking. I don’t usually have an answer. I thought about how Simon, in a way is a little bit like a Philosopher, he always wants to know more and to understand more. He is always thinking about the next thing that he wants. He is trying to get to something higher, even if it’s hard; he wants the best thing, the highest thing.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Aylee read her speech. It was about how she hated winter. She didn’t like the cold; she didn’t like the lack of sun. She would go to places like Maho Bay, which she thought was like Paradise. She would want to stay there forever and not go back home to where it was dark and wintery. She wrote about how she started to notice the details- she started to notice a caterpillar turning into a crysallis, turning into a Butterfly. She started seeing the world, she started experiencing it. She had all these glimpses of Freedom that was how she could hold at least a part of it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal; font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Tsering read her speech. It was about how when she got into North Branch, she knew that she wanted to go, there was no question about it. But she would always wonder if what she decided was right- if she should have traveled a different road. People at her old school would tell her that she could come to MUMS with them, but she didn’t want to, she wanted to go to North Branch. She knows that what North Branch is good, she is glad that she is here. It was about wanting to know that what she was doing is right, what she should be doing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Kamille read her speech. It was about a girl at her old school, Beamen Academy, and how the girl was always bullied. She didn’t have any friends. Kamille saw the girl, and felt sad for her. Kamille wanted to go be with the girl, to be friends with her, but she was afraid of being judged by her other friends, so she didn’t, she stayed where she was safe. She didn’t feel free this way- she didn’t feel free to go and be with the girl, and she wanted to feel free to be with her. She wrote about how she wanted war to end, she wanted the world to be happy and to be free. She had her own kind of freedom, she had freedom when she would read quietly, when she was with her friends or her family, she had happiness and freedom. She wants this for everyone, she wants freedom not only for herself, but for the world. She had that opportunity to give that girl at her old school happiness and more freedom, but she didn’t take it. But she can try to free people when there is a chance now, she can do what she can. We all learned that Kamille is a very big-hearted, caring person.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In lit class, we are reading </span></span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of Mice and Men</span></span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. It is about George, a strong, smart man, and his companion, Lenny, a man with some sort of mental disability. George is always thinking, but not feeling, he is always being logical and analytical. He thinks about when water is safe to drink and when it is not. Lenny is more emotional, he acts off of impulses. He carries around a dead mouse with him that he can stroke. When he sees something soft or that looks like it would feel nice beneath his fingers, he reaches out to touch it. We talked about how Lenny and George are sort of each other’s opposites, but yet they complete each other because they are so different.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I thought about how since Lenny has some sort of mental problem, he can’t really grasp the world. He doesn’t know where he is going, he doesn’t really know what is socially acceptable and what is not. He doesn’t understand the world. He reached out to touch a girl’s dress once, and she yanked that away because that would be seen as not right by most people, but Lenny just wanted to touch it. Lenny carries around a Dead Mouse, instead of a real mouse. A real mouse would run away, just as the dress was yanked away from him. I compared the mouse to the world. Lenny can’t grasp the world, but he can hold onto a mouse. That is his way of holding onto the world, even if he can’t understand it. It’s something that won’t keep on slipping away from him, like the world does.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">FRIDAY: Jesse wrote a Place Description called “In the arms of an Angle.” No, she couldn’t have been in the arms of an </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">angel,</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> it had to be in the arms of an </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ANGLE. Miles talked about going outside to look at the sky after Aylee’s speech. And he just was there, thinking about how beautiful it was. Jesse talked about how she had gone to Mike Hussey’s house the night before and played with Phoebe and Tom. She was remembering when she used to do that with all of her siblings.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Rose talked about how she was glad that Bryn, Reed’s older sister who graduated from North Branch last year came to the Parent meeting. She was lying on the floor because she’s been very sick, but she was still there. Rose said that she was really glad that Bryn was still trying. Sophie talked about how she had gone home and laid down on her bed for a really long time. She just laid there, and thought about everything that she had been needing to think about, and she felt really good doing that.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yared read a poem by Robert Frost</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Spades take up leaves</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No better than spoons,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And bags full of leaves</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Are light as balloons.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I make a great noise</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of rustling all day</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Like rabbit and deer</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Running away.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But the mountains I raise</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Elude my embrace,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Flowing over my arms</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And into my face.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I may load and unload</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Again and again</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Till I fill the whole shed,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And what have I then?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next to nothing for weight,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And since they grew duller</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">From Contact with earth,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next to nothing for color.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next to nothing for use.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But a crop is a crop,</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And who’s to say where</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The harvest shall stop?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Morgan read her speech. She talked about her sister, Kiley, and how it was hard for them to get along. About how they were always competing, always trying to dominate the other one. After her speech, we talked about how the</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">both need to stop trying to always dominate the other one, and then they will be happy. We talked about how the thought “I want to love this person” has to be the thought that they act off of, and then they will be happy. I think that that is universal, if we could all just live by the thought “I want to love this person”,</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">than maybe we’d all be at peace with each other, maybe we would all have freedom and happiness.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We walked down to the river, and made sculptures in the silence. For a long time there were no voices, and the deafening sound of the river rushing and people’s feet moving across rocks and placing them carefully was what filled the air. I worked steadily, trying to make something good, trying to make it be the kind of thing that someone would think was amazing. I was trying to make a cavern out of rocks, and it would work well, I’d start to feel proud of my work, but then I’d place another stone in just the wrong place and it would all fall down. But I didn’t feel angry. I’d just keep working. I didn’t feel like I had to be the best, I wasn’t letting that desire to make something be better than everyone else’s rule me. I was just trying, and that felt amazing.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We were put into groups, and then we had to go find a spot on the river with our group. I was in a group with Finn and Rowan. Our team was named “Team Awesome”. And we were quite awesome. What we did was we found a place that was relatively shallow, but where there was still a good current. One person would hold up screen I the water, and another person would mix up the dirt and rocks on the bottom of the river, and then the screen would catch the debris flowing in the river. Then we would search through all of the debris to find little bugs. Then someone would have to draw the bug. I had fun, I thought that it was interesting until a large bug fell into my boot. But I was still having fun, I was still having fun working with them.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We walked back to the school, and more people read their speeches. First, Sarah read her speech. She wrote the speech about love. She wrote it about how she found that she liked a boy, but also didn’t know why. It caused her some confusion, as she didn’t really know the boy that well. But then when she started going to school with him, this feeling only grew. And she started to let it grow. She started letting herself love him, and she had once been so hesitant and unsure of this.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I was amazed by the speech, because of how much wisdom it had in it. She let herself love, she finally found a place where she could love, and through that she began to find her freedom. She wrote about how it used to just be something abstract, never a concrete thing, but then as she started feeling love it grew into something more, and she knew what love was, and she knew what freedom was.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Patrick raised his hand. He said that "if you find freedom, you find love. And if you find love, you will find freedom."</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Evan read his speech. It was about his parents, and how sometimes, like all parents, when they didn’t get along, it made Evan feel bad. But he started to find a place where he could be, where he could be free beyond fear and beyond worry. He played Basketball, he felt good then. Once he sat sitting, looking into a water tank, and saw his own reflection, twisted and stretched from how it actually was. He thought about how that was how he was with his parents, sometimes it didn’t look quite right, but it was always there.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Miles read his speech. It was about his parents going through a divorce and his sister not being there all the time. It was about how sometimes he was lazy, sometimes he didn’t do much. But during a hard time, when his family was going through changes, he started growing more, he still found happiness. We talked about this a lot. We talked about how it’s sort of the worst age for a divorce to happen, when the son is a teenager. It could have brought Miles down, but in a way it actually brought him up. It started making him stronger.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Sophie read her speech. It was about how she wanted to be beautiful. When she was little and she was going to her first skating show, she imagined herself looking beautiful, like a fairy. She imagined herself wearing a beautiful costume and skating across the ice looking beautiful.</span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But then she had to wear a hideous costume, and she started to cry because she didn’t want there to be something that was not beautiful.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Sophie started to question herself, she started to question her own beauty. She was critical of herself, she was always comparing herself to other people who she thought were more beautiful.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I thought about how this makes her a little stronger. She is so able to see her own faults that she just keeps on trying, tries to make the faults go away, and that is good. I think that what she needs is to find a balance, between self criticism and loving herself, where she isn’t vain, and where she isn’t insecure, so that she can see herself as beautiful, but also see the beauty around her, to step away from her own beauty and see everything fully.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal talked about how he wants to be in the vein. He wants to be pulsing throughout life, not just looking at it. I thought about that a lot this week. I want to go fully into something, to give all of myself without my eternal fear of rejection. I want to be at the heart of myself, but also to go through, to beat throughout life, and throughout myself. That is what we are all trying to do. We are writing these speeches, we are giving the best of ourselves, but also what is hard to say. But we are doing that, and perhaps, since we are moving beyond our fear of failure, we are a tiny bit closer to being free, to being in the vein.</span></span></span></p></i></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-21085460188145382762010-09-26T15:10:00.000-07:002010-09-27T14:27:49.946-07:00To Do All Things<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5nB3p57ACehrAkMqjLWtd48SFvDDMRL8QmQzfLK8lXDEZZrdV358RRvoYzg1W-Qn2BCNWT0KQSb4sVaZca-JqGw5FkbeQd3R09O_6I9GZBE6-X_MJHqNB0l5dbYkusTvBfR0mYlGO1eg/s1600/images-1.jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 212px; height: 238px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5nB3p57ACehrAkMqjLWtd48SFvDDMRL8QmQzfLK8lXDEZZrdV358RRvoYzg1W-Qn2BCNWT0KQSb4sVaZca-JqGw5FkbeQd3R09O_6I9GZBE6-X_MJHqNB0l5dbYkusTvBfR0mYlGO1eg/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5521708115498474978" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sarah brings in her Freedom poster project: 27 sugar cookies loaded with icing and sugar sprinkles. On the bottom of each one is a small piece of paper, soaked with butter, with a penciled quote about freedom.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At 8:45 a.m. I eat my cookie. My Quote: “You have freedom when you are easy in your harness.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are all bringing in their projects. Claire has paper mached a large branch, which she will paint white.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It stands in the sun-light in a Christmas tree stand. Legos and beer bottles and computer wires suspended from the ceiling. A Freedom Flag. At least 250 quotes. There are two mobiles, a giant green and blue paper bird pasted with quotes. Reed bounds up to me with a box entitled: “Pandora’s Box of Freedom.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Look, look what Finn made!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Beautiful. What are you, hee agent?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finn bounds up. “She didn’t make that, I did.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know, she was telling me!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke strides in, putting his belt on, which he had loaned to Yared for the weekend.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, Tal, I sat with Dalia on her first Yom Kippur!”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Did she sit with you?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“For a second, but I had to hold her foot because my dad was hogging her.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There is morning talk of the weekend. Reflections on the field trip to Eric’s house and the upper reaches of the North Branch River; a concert that some students and the head teacher attended the night before;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A lyme Disease presentation. Deer ticks. 36 hours. Bacteria. Swollen Lymph nodes.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Doctor detective work. Sceince. Math. Biology. Chemistry. Symptoms. A quiz! We review the answers after. Most everyone…PASSES!</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Later: Who is writing what for newsletter? Who is recording the week’s morning meeting? What time will we play Wiffleball? Who can set up the projector for the Lyme Disease presentation (thank you Miles!).</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The kids are off doing something in the science room. I have thirteen minutes to do a little planning and answer some emails…In comes wise-acre of a ninth grader, who looks over my shoulder…</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal!</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal! You’re checking facebook.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What time is it!</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal! It’s 9:05!</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal, that’s like drinking a jug of rum at 9 in the morning!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jesse comes in wearing a Tiara. Luke has a hat that he made that says, “Punk.”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sophie is wearing her nerdish knee-socks and tiara as well. Yared has on a woven hat from Ethiopia that says, “The Lion of Judah.”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tsering has on a plaid pork-pie hat and blue polka-dotted mud-boots. Rowan has on his San Francisco Giants baseball cap spun around backwards.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon shows me his drawing of an engorged tick with spirochetes in his claws and belt; Claire says: “Can I tell you a tramautic story of how had to get a spinal tap when I was 2 days old?”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire says: “Tal, I am leaving for an orthodotist appt..”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Reed says: “Um, I have a tick story and also can I describe my Freedom Beautiful project.” Ollie says, “Tal, did you see my freedom project.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s those two trash cans out there.”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Calder says, “Tal, do you think I have lyme disease?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Aylee is re-doing her science homework because she didn’t do a sufficient job.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She looks up and says, “I want one of these cookies.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke says to me: “Tal, you know my Freedom poster? I think I didn’t think outside the box. It’s just a poster.”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He is anxious and seeking bolstering.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Luke, that’s fine, we need posters. We can’t have only mobiles and sculptures.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Something has to cover the walls.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It has quotes by Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Malcolm X, and Jim</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Morrison and real people. “</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Luke, that’s great.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But did you quote Jim Morrison’s best quote?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You mean, ‘</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Alright, alright, alright, hey listen, listen, listen</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">man, listen man, But I tell you this man, I tell you this, I don’t’ know what’s gonna happen man, but I’ma I get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames…awrigth awright!’”</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah, that one!</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That’s a very philosophical and meaningful quote about freedom!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know, right?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You want me to add it to my poster?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Absolutely!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Later, on the wiffleball diamond in the cool fall sun, young Luke droves home three runs with a homerun for Malcolm X’s Revolutionaries.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He stomps on home-plate and then jumps into the arms of his cheering teammates, then turns to no one in particular and bellows:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I am the Lizard King!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">****</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This was written on the white-board after school one day: “Living in fear is like having a goat tied to your ankle: you just have to sit there and watch it eat everything up.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The speeches lead us into discussion about what the primary fears are:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">fear of rejection, fear of failure.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We talk about the forms of love. Whether true love, like life-long love of swans, is possible for humans.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What happens to our conceptions of love when we see love disappear between two people we love?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I told the kids if they didn’t get their work done properly, I’d be “A donkey on the EDGE!”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This is said with a certain hysterical threat in the voice.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So now they are really jumping.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And everyone is saying, “I’m a donkey on the edge!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I told them I had learned</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">new phrase:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">if you ask someone to do you a big favor, you can say, “hey, do me a solid.”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So we are saying:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Do me a solid, lickety split!</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or I’m going to be a donkey ont</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">EDGE!”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> smidgeon of one of the many, many amazing, spectacular, beautiful speeches we heard this week.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Eventually the summer was almost over. Then school had started and I had officially become a ninth grader. I came home from my first day and sat down to write my speech. I stared at the blank white space with the curser blinking in the corner under where I had written my name, the date and 'beginning of yr. speech'. I waited for something to come. I waited for so long that the screen saver came on. It was a picture of a beautiful white sand beach with crystal blue water and a palm tree. And I realized that sure, that might be paradise but it was not the only one. There are a million billion paradises and also there are none because paradise is just an idea. It was a state of mind that would free me from the desire for more. And that might be impossible, to stop wanting more. But at least I could try, I could try to get as close as I could to that idea, that freedom, while I stayed who I was, in this place that I lived.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the fall when I was younger my sisters and I used to go outside to where the milk weed was ripe in the field, we were looking for monarch butterfly caterpillars because they ate milk weed. We would go out into the field and search and then we would find one on the underside of a leaf. It would put out its nasty smelling yellow horns and try and scare us away but we were not perturbed. We didn't think they were gross or weird, we just thought that it was fun to find them because it was like a treasure hunt, back when the fat green and yellow and white worms were exciting and then once we caught them and we put them in the cage with milkweed. They ate it and got fatter and fatter until they were stiff and bloated and then they hung themselves upside-down from the top of the cage and spun a delicate green cocoon around themselves. It hung by a black thread and had yellow and white dots around the edge. They hung there all winter and I thought they were beautiful.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">This year my sisters found 12 caterpillars in our field. They came inside and put them in the cage with milkweed. A couple of them were small but mostly they were fat and soon they hung themselves and slowly froze. And when I wasn't looking they became chrysalises. Just like always they were green and perfect. 10 perfect droplets hanging on the ceiling of the cage, and one on the door. Leaving the 12th one. Half way formed, the green coating hanging off its body, it had died. Its skin was stretched, it's body crumpled, one antenna hung limply against it. I stared at it and I shivered. It was awful. It was death. But it was not the end, not the end of this memory of the beauty of transformation. This disruption to the cycle made the perfection be flawed but no less perfect. Because the death of this small being made the lives of the others a little bit more miraculous. And the miracle is in the unopened cocoons that did live, that would turn to butterflies. And all this made me realize that to have freedom, everything cant be flawless, it cant be paradise. If it was then we would be blind, blind to the beauty, the perfection because we wouldn't have anything to compare it to. And freedom is to be able to compare the illusion of perfection to the reality of imperfection, and still love the world because there are so many things to love: My room, my friends laughter, the water in Maho Bay, maple trees in the fall when they turn orange and red. Warm fires in the winter, snowflakes, warm grass, blackberries, making pie crust, cafés, my garden, Kingsland bay, drying my cat off with a towel when she comes in from the rain, when strangers wave, moss, apple orchards.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">* * * *</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the spring when the weather is getting warmer a shiny, spotted, green gem shakes and quivers and splits open. Black legs as thin as spiders-web drag out a small mass of crinkled orange wings as weak and delicate as wet tissue-paper. And there the butterfly stands in the cool morning shade, unfolding its wings. In a matter of time the wings are unfolded and brilliant in the sunlight and the butterfly flaps them and lifts off. It floats up and down in the breeze and then floats back and lands on a flower. It flaps its wings in the sun for a moment as if it is still trying to understand what it has just done. And then in the indecision of an instant it lifts off again and flies away. Then it is gone and all that's left is what was there before. The still trees, the breeze and the sharp sunlight. And a memory of this small birth into the green, orange, red, and purple rainbow of a sea of flowers blooming in spring time.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To see this is freedom, to say it is freedom, to know it, is freedom- but there is always more. There are always new things to love, and when I love them I will have more freedom, because when I get a taste of freedom like when I am under the surface of the water, when I see the butterfly fly away, when I am writing and its making sense, when I am laughing with my friends, when I pick up a red maple leaf, when I smell wood smoke in the fall, when I get a taste of freedom, I know that there is more. And I could say that I have found the point of life, to find that elusive freedom, but I think I knew it all along, sub-consciously I was looking for freedom, because all my life, its what I wanted. And now I know that when I glimpsed that freedom, that was when I am truly happy.” </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span></i><span style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr>***</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A ninth grade boy is sitting next to me, strumming his guitar and trying to write Geometry Blues songs, First it is “Complementary Angle Blues” and then it is “Geometry B. Goode,” then it is Sublime’s “(Geometry is) What I Got,” with the lyric, “Early in the morning, asked my teacher for help…”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I say: “Why don’t you guys go outside and play a game?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soccer? Wiffleball? Frisbee?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Instead of running around like a hyper-active mega cess-pool of testosterone?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“But Tal, if I go play a sport I have to take my pants off.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Rider?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“ I mean, I have to take my pants off, because they will get dirty. That’s why I have to take off my pants when I play a sport.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Rider, if you take off those clean pants, please put on another pair while you play?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We are discussing a speech by Anneke.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“She was writing about her fear of failing.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Or her fear of being rejected.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“If we are talking about fear,” I say, “what are the drivers of fear beyond fear of failure or rejection?</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Can fear be boiled down to that?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It could be also fear of pain?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes, but isn’t being rejected, or failing, also painful?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What about death? Isn’t one of the fears death?”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So how would death relate to fear of rejection or failure.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Maybe because we are afraid of failing to live right in our life, or living life having been rejected.” So we fear death because if we don’t’ succeed, live right, or become accepted, we die having failed. So the feat of death is really the fear of coming to the end of life having lived as a failure and not having been accepted into he world. “</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The end of the day comes and we are in the middle of this conversation:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He not busy being born is busy dying.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Busy being born:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What does it mean, and how can we do it always?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">One of the last speeches of the week has an answer: “To be free maybe there is not one thing I have to do, but all things.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style=" ;font-family:Garamond;"><span> </span></span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-60467660929664569682010-09-12T20:27:00.000-07:002010-09-13T18:03:08.376-07:00Hope is Risk That Must be Run<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5F5jjPio1uogacQI6zjKQJ-Yb0ca5_7F1DXXD4N53_1NuW1tPa49lrlJLLyh0_9NUMIl22dFhp3TUWY_GkXwWMJrSSEgBUfZYNSdZKpdcUzG4ldnXgNENdkwEt-La1wGptDBQ79y8-a0/s1600/images-of-freedom.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5F5jjPio1uogacQI6zjKQJ-Yb0ca5_7F1DXXD4N53_1NuW1tPa49lrlJLLyh0_9NUMIl22dFhp3TUWY_GkXwWMJrSSEgBUfZYNSdZKpdcUzG4ldnXgNENdkwEt-La1wGptDBQ79y8-a0/s320/images-of-freedom.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516566623097489474" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">8:30, Tuesday A.M. I told them: "Stand up and open your arms, stretch them out till they hurt. Really wide, until your fingers are dihydral, like a vulture. Now open yours eyes and don’t blink. Open them wide until they hurt. What are you? Where are you? Those are rhetorical questions. Don’t answer. Just listen to the question. What are you, where are you? Open your arms wider. Your eyeballs are watering because they are so wide open. Stay that way all morning, all day, all year, and for the rest of your life until you die. Can you do that, can you stay like that until you die? Until you perish from this earth?”</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I’m going to read you a poem. It’s a sonnet, which is fourteen lines, a kind of love poem to the world, or what is going to die in the world. How many of you have heard of Frederick Douglass?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Six hands go up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Fair enough…This is by Robert Hayden, called, ‘Frederick Douglass.’”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I read the poem.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and terrible thing, needful to man as air, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">where none is lonely, none hunted, alien, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this man, superb in love and logic, this man </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues' rhetoric, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:27.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Responses?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No answer. No one is ready to be the first. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What could we ask?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No answer.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“We could ask, ‘What is diastole?’ Does anyone know what diastole is?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No hands up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"Systole?"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No hands up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So that would be an easy way to respond: Ask a question. Diastole and Systole are the in and out mechanisms of the heart. Contraction and dialation.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I clench my fist a couple of times.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Or you could ask, ‘what is “mumbo jumbo?’”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hands go up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“We could ask who Frederick Douglass is.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Absolutely.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“We could ask, how do we become so great that someone writes a poem about us.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What is “terrible” about freedom?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why was he able to live through what he lived through and still become great?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Or, why are poems and statues not enough?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What does ‘fleshing the dream’ mean?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I read the poem again. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He wrote a sonnet about freedom called Frederick Douglass. What is your love poem to freedom called. What is the freedom that you know that you can write about? What is the freedom that you would like to know? What will the poem be called? What will be the flesh of that dream. If I say you will be visioning a world, what will your vision be? Visioning the world. That’s what our speeches are going to do.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I waited for a moment.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So. What is the freedom you need? What do you need to be free to do? What do you need to be free from? Is freedom taken? Given? Earned. Who gives it to you? Yourself? Others? What will it look like in this room with these 30 people?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“But to get there, we need to hear a story. So tell us a story about how you came to know what you know. Tell us a story about how you came to realize what you don’t know that you will come to know?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>***</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are all beautiful, I know that when I walk in and lean against the door-frame to say all this. Beautiful faces, some laughing, some talking, some silent, some stone faced. They are all raggedly, nervous, sloppily put together, wearing new clothes, maybe, or the same old raggedy ones from last year, or a new hat, one thing that gives them the feeling they need. A new shirt, something that announces where they have been, the first tendering of the self they want to become, the self they are passing though as they become.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I haven’t sat down yet. And I won’t until they start talking.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yared, go ahead. You want to introduce yourself? Wait. Yared, what’s your name? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yared <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Tekle Bedlu Ezana L</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">acey</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;">.”</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why do you have that long name?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, do we need to get into this?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yeah man, we are going to get into this. This is what we do. You know what I’m saying?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well, in Ethiopia, it is tradiotn to get your father’s name…So that’s my name.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why do you have the name “Lacey?” that doesn’t sound Ethiopian.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Because I was adopted and that is my adoptive family’s name.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Okay. Yared, that is a beautiful name. Proceed. Freedom. Talk to us.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Freedom is to be great, like the people I see who are great,” says Yared <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Tekle Bedlu Ezana</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;">Lacey.</span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Who is great to you?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You mean list them?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah man. We need to know who is great so we can study them and learn how to be great.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well, my mom, my dad, my brothers, my family in Ethiopia, my uncles.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What about me, your old teacher?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah, okay, you can be on the list.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“But is it true you are not always great like the way you want to be, yes or no?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Is it true that something holds you back, you hold you back, the world holds you back, from always being and becoming these great people.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then maybe your speech will be about how you will shake off those chains that hold you back. When you shake off those chains you will be free to become the person your see before you, or inside you, waiting to be born? What do you think?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know when I have not felt free,” says Rio. “In the locker room at hockey. Everyone was calling everyone gay. Nobody said anything with meaning. I didn’t want to be friends with some people who seemed to always were making fun of people.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Why didn’t you stand up on the bench in your hockey helmet and read them a poem.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Because they would say it was gay.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So did you have any power to change anything?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Not much.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And is there ever a place where you feel you are in control of how you feel and think?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Laying on my back at the pond by myself. At night.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Beautiful. And there you have what? A clear feeling. No boundaries? Safety? Freedom?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Peace.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“And here? What is it here? It’s not the concrete cubicle of the locker room. But it is not a calm pond at night. It’s got to be something in between.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Okay.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Do you have some power to change things here. To alter the shape of things?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yeah.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“When things got bad last year with you and your mates, what did you say?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I want the shit to stop.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So what happens when the shit stops?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Good stuff happens.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What else?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Well, there is this song by Trevor Hall. He talks about how we are all under the same sky, at the same table. Even when things are bad in the world, we are all at the table together.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What does this have to do with freedom?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I’m not sure.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well, start writing and find out and then tell us.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ***</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Freedom is learning how to move, and not get stuck, to live and love without fear or caution,” says Anneke. “Understanding that the world isn’t always perfect, and living with that with become stuck. Knowing what to do when the road you were on goes the wrong way or a way you didn’t plan.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What’s the story, Anneke?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I can’t say.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Because.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘Because someone will get mad.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Somebody in here?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yes.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“So you can’t tell the source of your knowledge or the story behind it because you are afraid?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She nods.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“That there is a definition of “not-freedom.” Fear to speak the truth you feel. To not be able to say how you came to know something.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Okay.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Let’s see if we can break through to being true.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I’m not sure.’</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You have your story. The other person has their story. If you can’t say your story, we have no freedom at all. We all imprisoned here. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It’s okay, Anneke,” says Luke. “You can say it.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know, now, that Luke wants her to bring it out. He’s giving her permission. After all, he is probably as afraid as she is. HE wants something to change. If he cares about her, and I think he does, he will want her to speak. Her speaking the truth will help her, him, and everyone. Faith in that equation will take us where we need to go.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Anneke, he’s giving you permission. Go for it. The truth is always interesting, to quote my mentor. Anything else is boring. But the truth, whatever it is, will make us see. Don’t live afraid. Hope is a risk that must be run.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">‘What do you mean?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I mean, if you are afraid to even hope it, it cannot ever be born. You must be visioning the world. You must be fleshing the dream. You must risk hoping that saying the truth will make you bigger, not smaller.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“But I don’t know how.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You know the story of WHY you want to vision another world, where you can move forward with purpose and without debilitating caution…But challenge that is in front of you is HOW you will imagine yourself in that future world. You have a hope of what your friendships could be, the way you want to love and be loved. But you have to make a picture of it. You can’t let the world into you if your arms are crossed. You can’t give yourself to the world if your arms are folded in. That bird will not fly like that. Hope is a risk that must be run. You must risk visioning that world, arms open, in the faith that it will become you and you will become it.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The tears are still streaming down her face. She nods. She knows there is work to be done. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ***</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A boy is standing in front of me, holding a scalding boiled potato drenched in melted butter with a pair of bacon tongs, telling me that he saw Magritte’s “Sky Bird” in Brussels.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Should I write my speech about this?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“About that buttery potato or the Sky Bird?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“The SKY bird!”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Does sky bird have anything to do with freedom?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“In the painting the bird was formed into its shape as clouds.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“A bird as a cloud. Sounds like freedom to me.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">****</p><p class="MsoNormal">On Wednesday night I recieve an email.</p><p class="MsoNormal">"Tal, can I read the poem tomorrow morning. I was looking at a book by Whitman and I found something that related to what we talked about."</p><p class="MsoNormal">"Absolutely!" I write back. "You rock!"</p><p class="MsoNormal">The next morning she before class, before all her classmates, she reads:</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <i>Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come! <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>before known, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Arouse! for you must justify me. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I myself but write one or two indicative words for the future, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I but advance a moment only to wheel and hurry back in the darkness. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I am a man who, sauntering along without fully stopping, turns a <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>casual look upon you and then averts his face, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Leaving it to you to prove and define it, <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Expecting the main things from you.</i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>****</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“All year I was going to build a telescope. I wanted to do something that had never been done. Everyone said I couldn’t do it. And I got so sick of them. But the problem was, it was really hard. And I couldn’t do it. And so I started believing I couldn’t do, that I was the kind of person who couldn’t do it. I don’t want to feel that.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well, they weren’t making it so you couldn’t do it, were they? They weren’t stopping you.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know, but I don’t’ want to be seen as someone who can’t, who gives up.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Hope is a risk that must be run. You got to move. You decide if you give up.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It’s lunch time. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Hey Tal,” a ninth grader shouts as she careens into the classroom. “Would you like to know a fact about my life?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Um, well—“</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“When we went to the fair, my father bought a skunk pelt!”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“How does he feel about his skunk pelt?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He shoved it into our faces. Isn’t that disgusting?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What’d he say to you about this skunk pelt?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He rubbed it into our faces and said, ‘Look what I got,,, ahhh!’”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ***</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There is a large poster rolled up on my table. It sits before me all morning as we sit around the table. There is a card next to it, a collage, with a fragment of a poem by Mary Oliver scribbled on it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the middle of the morning discussions and introductions, I slip the rubber-band off and unfurl it. It is “Icarus,” by Henri Matisse, a print form the Museum of Modern Art. It’s one of Matisse’s paper cut-outs, a black figure falling in a night-blue sky, with explosive stars behind and around him. On the figure’s chest is a bright red spot, his heart.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Does this have anything to do with what we are talking about?” I ask,.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Icarus reached. He went to far and fell into the sea,” someone offers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What is shown here?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He’s falling. Even though he is falling, he flew.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What about this here? What is it?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“His heart.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What about it?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“He had a heart. He HAS a heart. Even if he is falling, you can see it above everything else.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“A red beating heart in all the darkness.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There will be much to say about Matisse’s Icarus. It will be part of our conversation over and over during the year. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Later, after school, standing in the sun in the driveway. Sophie walks over.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What did you think of the poster I got?” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Icarus?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Icarus is up on the wall next to the white-board. Front and center. HE’s awesome. I thought about cutting a slit in his leg so the light switch could protrude through.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, that would be sacreligious.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know, you are absolutely right.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, I worked on my speech. But I don’t know where to go.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, I have no idea what I am writing my speech about.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, I wrote seven pages last night. I ROCKED.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, I think what I wrote isn’t really my speech.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, did you read my speech?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, can I read my speech.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What’s your speech about?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I don’t’ know. The part of me that loathes parts of me? How I over think everything I do wrong. If I am snappish with my mom, I feel terrible, and I apologize a minute later but I can’t stop thinking about it and I can’t sleep.” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“If you feel terrible about being snappish, and you want to apologize and you do, maybe that means you love your mom and you want to be good.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I know, but I still can’t stop thinking about it.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Well, what else…”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I sometimes want to be small, little so I don’t have to do anything. Then I sometimes want my heart to be bigger but I don’t’ know if it can be bigger.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She’s crying now.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You want to your heart to be bigger, but you’re not sure if it can be bigger.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She nods.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Are you kidding, you guys. I have this unbelievable soreness in my left rib cage. Do you know why it is there? Because in the last few weeks my heart has gotten so freaking big that it is breaking out of its cage. It is GROWING like a giant pumpkin! It’s breaking OUT, pushing against the ribs…My heart is as big as a mountain!”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">They are looking at me with wide eyes, some of them are shaking their heads in pity.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I’m serious, my heart is colonizing itself. It wants to grow and love more things. That’s all it wants. So to make more room, I am having a Rib implant, to make a little space.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Tal, you are an idiot.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“No, I am not. I am man with a huge heart. It lets love in, it gives love out. The heart wants to love and be loved. That’s what drives everything, all day long, from your first breath to the last. I believe that. That’s why you guys can trust me and what we are doing here, because you can see my heart is big and it carries things and I am trying to do what you want to do. Death carries us in his broken back, but we carry each other in our hearts, if we will let each other. So Sophie, I think your heart wants to be big. It already IS big. It is hungry to feed itself and be bigger. But you haven’t figured out to feel how let it grow, and maybe sometimes you aren’t sure WHY it should grow.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Maybe, Sophie,” someone offerss, “You just have to love yourself completely, all of you, even your mistakes and keep loving yourself, and say your mistakes are okay, and then you will feel it. Say you are good, believe it, and you will feel and you will fill up.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Right on, Sister!” I say. “Sophie we are going to be here for the next two years. Year one was realizing how much you could take in, come to know, and realize how big you are, how much your mind and heart can grow. The rest of the time we are going to fill it, you are going to fill yourself with you. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She nods, wipes tears away.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But I am worried that we are always talking about my problems.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“What?! This is a school. You are learning, We are learning from you. This is what is supposed to happen. You learn how to become big, you learn how to become yourself.. If you already knew how, you wouldn’t be hear. And I am learning from you. That’s why I am asking all these damn questions. I want to see who you are.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But I feel like it never ends. I just keep going through these thoughts.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It never ends, and I am not going to go anywhere. We are not going anywhere. WE are all here. This is where want to be. If we talk about you and with you every damn day, I don’t care. If we are working on making your mind and heart bigger, if something is happening, if there is electicity in this room because that is what we are talking about, then we will keep having this conversation until my teeth fall out of my skull. And I am very happy to do that. I will be a toothless, wise, sad old man who is finally beginning to understand what is what.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She nods again, smiling.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It is okay to have a speech that says: freedom for me is to believe that my heart can be bigger. I want to be free of the part of me that tells me I am small. I want to be free to love myself so my heart will get freaking huge and I will need a rib-implant like Tal. How’s that for a speech topic?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“It’s pretty good, Tal.” She says.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“As Good as MLK?” </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yup, If you say so.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“I say so.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ****</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;color:black;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hope is a risk that must be run.</span></i></span><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> There will be tension in the room. Risks taken in the hope and faith that the words we write and say will become the visioning of the the world we want to live in. Risks run in the belief that we can construct something better than anyone ever imagined, a place where poetry is in the air we breathe, not only in books. Hope that we can empty ourselves and fill ourselves with ourselves and the best of each other. We want it </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">all</span></i></span><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, because </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">all</span></i></span><span style=" ;color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> is what we are given to work with. Tears will come and be given space to run and flow. Anger? Doubt? Confusion? Mystery? Disgust? Wonder? Emptiness? Fullness…All of it, we want all of it, because that is the flesh of the dream. I will urge them to walk to the edge and trust that if we go together, we will all land together someplace unimaginably beautiful. When we do that with open, hopeful hearts, in the knowledge that our hearts can grow bigger, knowing that what we are and will become will be embraced, we will find a glorious kind of freedom.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-5014233996102598482010-06-06T14:21:00.000-07:002010-06-06T14:26:53.347-07:00Spiraling Towards the Center<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWIqicffRdz0pF6hCau9MJrZ2d-F_FXXKiUkoeeb1Q4tW7i9L812Ra0mVwLIshR-KghW_nYS5zwEJXdzWeK5CCpR5Aa8O57rxGzqKQiANalJUEF_86UAPT9Ne63yNt7D8xPy4E9O0Kfi8/s1600/catcher.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWIqicffRdz0pF6hCau9MJrZ2d-F_FXXKiUkoeeb1Q4tW7i9L812Ra0mVwLIshR-KghW_nYS5zwEJXdzWeK5CCpR5Aa8O57rxGzqKQiANalJUEF_86UAPT9Ne63yNt7D8xPy4E9O0Kfi8/s320/catcher.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479775207792974018" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By Cassie Fancher</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Tuesday:</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After meeting we began glass onions. Glass onions are something that we do at the end of every year, a time for everyone to say what truths they know about the people who are leaving. They’re a more honest kind of goodbye, a chance to say exactly what you feel and think about a person before it’s too late to tell them.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Many people, including me, weren’t exactly looking forward to them. Not only because it’s hard to say the absolute truth about somebody and to hear the absolute truth about yourself in return, but also because glass onions signify the imminent end of the year. They are, ultimately, your goodbyes to each of the ninth graders.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We talked about what glass onions really were, why they’re important. We talked about how each comment is only one small truth, one small part of a person. But together the comments are building up to some bigger truth, both about the individual person and about all of us. When all of the comments have been said about all nine of the ninth graders, we should have reached some truth about ourselves, about the best parts of a person and about how to see those things. About how to tell the truth to and about a person so that you might love them more easily. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We pulled out our empty can of Easy Cheese by Kraft, because here at North Branch we support whole foods. After listening to a prolonged rant on the problems with our society’s food choices, we spun the can/bottle to see who would go first for glass onions.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hannah went first. Everyone said something specific to themselves but the main theme was mostly the same. Almost everyone had noticed her power of reaching out to people, of welcoming them, of making them feel visible or like they had a place inside of the school. She has the power to make people feel good about themselves. Because of that, people realized how much they would miss her, how much empty space she would leave and how much positive space she filled up now.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then we spun the Easy Cheese can again. Because of the cluttered piles of junk, towering upon the tabletop, and because the Easy Cheese can refused to point at any other ninth graders, this took quite some time.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Finally it pointed at Isabel and we began the first half of her glass onion. Again, everyone had various specific comments that seemed to carry a theme. She had the power to listen to people and to talk about anything, funny, dumb, or smart. People felt like they could come over to talk to her any time and she would always listen to what they said. People who didn’t talk to her often still felt like they could talk to her about anything because she wouldn’t oppose it or say no to it.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We talked about the best qualities of people, about how we should learn to recognize them, to remember a person for them, and then to take the qualities into yourself so that you can begin to embody all of the good things that you see in people around you.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We had a break and then we had lit where we’ve been reading </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Catcher in the Rye.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We talked about Holden and about how his whole life is spinning on an axis, getting closer and closer to the things that are important to him, that he can understand. First the subway where he talks to the nuns, then to the record shop where he buys his little sister a present, then to the museum of natural history that he used to go to with his class where everything stays in its glass cases and you never have to worry about it changing. And finally to the park that he used to go to skate. The same park that his sister skates at now.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sometimes it feels like this whole year has been a spiral, coming closer and closer to something that we’re only just beginning to realize. We’ve learned to be with each other and now, in this final spiraling towards the center, we’re seeing all of the things that we’ve completed together, that we’re still completing together. All of the projects are finished or nearly finished. It’s hard to say what the visible marker of our success would be. But now that we’ve come so close to the center, I don’t need any visible marker of success to know that we’ve made something great. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It was raining during lunch but a few skateboarders persevered and could still be seen outside on the patio. I watched them for a while and witnessed Ollie singing a melodious song by Godsmack until Reed politely informed him that it didn’t look like I appreciated his singing/lyrics.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In science we’re working on a fitness trail with different stations that each require you to do various exercises. Hopefully the trail will be done by the end of the year, but really we’re making it for next year when it’ll actually be put into use. Currently we’re working on making the signs describing how to do each exercise and what the point of doing each one might be.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In math the geometry class has been reading Flatland, a lovely book about anarchic, sexist, and brainwashed polygons. The eighth graders had their first math class together this year, something which all of them seemed excited about, and they are determined to make it work well. Determined to make the fact that all of them were together again a reason to celebrate.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wednesday:</span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the morning it was loud, as usual. A few people were flipping through a World Cup Funbook, joyously making fun of the soccer jokes scattered throughout the pages. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Meeting started and we all got quiet. Isabel said that the day before, while she had been at dance, her sister had called her mom from her friend’s house, wanting to know how glass onions had gone because she knew that Isabel had been nervous about them that morning. Hearing that made her realize how much she appreciated and loved having her sister, something that she always knew but that didn’t always fully realize.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Simon said that he had talked to Reed during lunch yesterday. He said he felt bad that they hadn’t talked more over the course of the year but that he was glad that they could still connect. He said it was better late than never. Better to love someone while you have the chance and not to pull away simply because you know they’re about to leave.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> At this point, Tal wasted a valuable five minutes by informing us all, repeatedly, that the class we were in was called “homeroom” or “Teacher’s Advisory.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Then, Anneke told us about swimming and about how the people she swims with ignore her. But, she said, she still loves the sport. She realized that her love for swimming didn’t have to be affected by her interactions with the people who she swam with.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Jesse said that yesterday she saw how much people here love each other and notice good things about each other. Even though we don’t say these things about each other all year, we say them now, just as we’re about to leave.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Edgar was listening to Reed during Hannah’s glass onion. He said that he noticed how much Reed had grown and opened up over his three years here.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Hannah was thinking about that too. She said that the night before she had been working on her self eval and had written about how much she wanted to stay friends with Reed at the high school.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Rider said that as we build the stone walls in the garden, we’re all putting down a few stones, trying to make them as level and as great as possible. We should be doing this all year long. We should always be trying to lay a few stones down in the best way that we can.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We talked about The Mending Wall, by Robert Frost. About how you have to build walls in order to define yourself and your personality. But the walls don’t have to keep people out. In fact, the building of the walls can bring us together just as it brought Robert Frost and his neighbor together for that one day every year when they met to repair the damage that the winter had caused.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Tal told us about Jesse’s tile, which was done, and which had a real heart (or ‘old blood pumper’) on it with a tree growing out of it. Somehow this led into a short discussion of whether or not dragons were real, ending in Jesse reading “The Joy of Writing” by Wislawa Syzmborska. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Joy of Writing</span></span></u></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Why does this written doe bound through these written woods?</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For a drink of written water from a spring</span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">whose surface will xerox her soft muzzle? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Why does she lift her head; does she hear something? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Perched on four slim legs borrowed from the truth, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">she pricks up her ears beneath my fingertips. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Silence-this word also rustles across the page </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and parts the boughs </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">that have sprouted from the word "woods." </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lying in wait, set to pounce on the blank page, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">are letters up to no good, clutches of clauses </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">so subordinate they'll never let her get away. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Each drop of ink contains a fair supply of hunters, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">equipped with squinting eyes </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">behind their sights, prepared to swarm</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the sloping pen at any moment, surround the doe, and slowly aim their guns. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">They forget that what's here isn't life. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Other laws, black on white, obtain. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The twinkling of an eye win take as long as I say, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and will, if I wish, divide into tiny eternities, full of bullets stopped in mid-flight. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Not a thing will ever happen unless I say so. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Without my blessing, not a leaf will fall, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">not a blade of grass wig bend beneath that little hoof's full stop. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Is there then a world </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">where I rule absolutely on fate? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A time I bind with chains of signs? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">An existence become endless at my bidding? </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The joy of writing. The power of preserving. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Revenge of a mortal hand.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In science we worked on our various projects. I was working on the garden walls, dragging stones over and trying to lay them onto wall, slowly leveling them out until we reached the top layer, the final layer where the thick and thin rocks even out.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In math we’re still reading Flatland. The main character, A Square, is beginning to discover other worlds. First he finds line land, a one-dimensional world that exists on a line. He tries to explain about the second dimension that he knows, but he cannot make the King understand. Next, a sphere from space land visits him and makes him understand, rudimentarily, how a third dimension might exist. As he discovers other worlds, he becomes less accepted in Flatland. And yet he knows more, he’s discovering more. It reminded me of Asher Lev, when Jacob tells Asher that to survive as an artist he must find other worlds. A Square must find other worlds because he wants to expand himself. When you leave North Branch you must find other worlds, continue expanding, even while you retain your old self. To change, you don’t find a new self and lose whatever you might have had. All you have to do is grow, to keep all of the good parts of yourself and to be forever expanding them.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon we finished Isabel’s glass onion. Then we moved on to Lydia. Again, hers had a theme. Hers is that she’s perpetually happy, always seeming at ease and comfortable with herself. She’s never actually mad, although she’s known for the multitude of fake fights she gets in. She never blames people or gets angry over pointless things. She doesn’t get grouchy, somehow remaining happy, with herself and with her surroundings. She’s found a way to fill herself up with honest happiness that everyone around her can see.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thursday:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The bus got to school late because of road construction so everyone was already sitting in the big room when we arrived. When I walked in, we were talking about glass onions again. We were talking about how what we should really be trying to tell the person is what they gave to us. That’s what’s most valuable to them in their life. To know what they are capable of giving to others.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Then Anna told us that during the ultimate game the previous day the team hadn’t been very organized. She had appreciated Miles’ obvious attempts at organizing the team and bringing them together for the final bit of the game.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Henry said that after he had already talked during Lydia’s glass onion he had started to cry, realizing after the moment was over, how much he would miss her. He was thinking about how much we can feel or see after the moment is already over.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Jesse told us that at the beginning of the year she would worry about her writing being bad so she wouldn’t try very hard to make it good. Then she thought about the old man </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from The Old Man and the Sea</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. She thought about how maybe he hadn’t wanted to fish in the deep waters but he had anyway. She said that what she had gotten from the old man was that she should always being trying her hardest, that she should always be going all the way, even if it was uncomfortable.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Eric said that Reed wrote a good song for ultimate and that he really liked it even though a few people were opposed to it.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We were then informed that we were throwing down the gauntlet in the nonexistent singing competition during Ultimate Frisbee. A few people yelled like savage beasts before we continued with our meeting.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Edgar said that after Lydia’s glass onion Nathan and Hannah had hugged him and Hannah had told him that all of the North Branchers would always be there to fight for him even when he was at Mt. Abe.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> We sang happy birthday to Hannah and me and then Rose said that Anna’s email from last week had been a work of greatness and that you could tell that she had worked hard to make it that way.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Ollie read a poem, which I don’t have, by Alicia Ostriker, and then we started on Henry’s glass onion. This time the theme was about how he’s been a leader this year, about how he’s able to accept a huge range of things and to care about them all. He can make people feel better about themselves and he can make them feel comfortable enough to say anything without worrying that he’ll judge them. He can stay focused on what he’s doing and love whatever he’s doing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Next we started Nathan’s glass onion. His theme was about how he could switch so quickly from being a loud, skateboarding, people-tackling person at lunch to being completely concentrated and inside of the class. He can be extremely loud and excited and even mildly destructive and he can also have a softer and more loving side. The combination of these two parts of himself brings a necessary kind of energy to the school.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon Jeff Wulfman, Nathan and Jesse’s dad, came to school to talk about nutrition and how it related to utopia. We defined food and then we talked about how different our diet was 100 years ago. He told us that to get the amount of minerals from an apple sold in 1914 you would have to eat 30 modern apples. This is because the soil no longer has the same amount of minerals as it did then. It’s also because most of our food is processed or mass produced. In 1900 the average American ate 5 pounds of sugar per year. Now we’re eating about 130 pounds per year. We’re eating so unhealthily that our pets are being fed healthier food than we are. We talked about how in order to live a good life we need to be healthy. Therefore, one of the steps we should take towards utopia should be to eat better and to learn to take care of ourselves.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Friday:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The bus dropped us off even later so I missed whatever meeting we might’ve had. We finished Nathan’s glass onion and began Edgar’s. The theme for his was that he’s always full of new ideas. He’s extremely mature about his morals and beliefs and he likes teaching people about them. But at the same time he’s managed to remain like a little kid in a lot of ways. Because of that, he’s extremely trustworthy and easy to talk to. He becomes a leader in a different way than other people, by making friends with each person and making each individual feel comfortable.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The entire school then cooked an Indian themed meal for the rest of the morning and then sat outside at the picnic tables to eat it. It was a mildly chaotic process but the food turned out well.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon we did my glass onion. It was about me, I’m not exactly sure what the theme was, because it’s a lot easier to see in other people. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:13.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Near the end of the day we started Reed’s glass onion. Only a few people have gone so far so the theme isn’t very clear yet.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> By the time I was doing my clean up job, I had decided that I liked glass onions. They’re somewhat hard for me to do because my strong point isn’t exactly telling people about the good things that I see in them. But if it weren’t for this time, maybe I would never have told them about the good things that I know and see in them. Just like Jesse said during meeting, maybe it’s not comfortable to go all the way, to fish in the deep waters. But the big fish, the real fish, don’t ever swim in the shallow waters.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right:12.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-26983143745406247082010-05-31T15:51:00.000-07:002010-06-01T11:37:56.250-07:00I Am the Center of My Universe<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcv4yQZWWNgXNdfHFvIrUyywnYKwBApEtZYfH6Min4dweR1B3T7QCevp0WpoJdDFCsPfccYEBmFn5vjBkl3nvSptPRaMBJd0If3Sr9QrSY_0i-FZK1fMwiDCyxKA4Ha_COppwia3PkK0/s1600/map-of-spain2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQcv4yQZWWNgXNdfHFvIrUyywnYKwBApEtZYfH6Min4dweR1B3T7QCevp0WpoJdDFCsPfccYEBmFn5vjBkl3nvSptPRaMBJd0If3Sr9QrSY_0i-FZK1fMwiDCyxKA4Ha_COppwia3PkK0/s320/map-of-spain2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477582426558096050" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">By Anna Caliandro<br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Monday</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The usual banter about the weekend, and sports, and such things that fascinate the teenagers of the North Branch School came to an end as Tal stomped into the room, and we began morning meeting.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Does anyone have anything?” Asked Tal, as he usually did, to begin our morning meeting. Nathan told us about how he and a few other boys had gone to sleep over at Yared’s house, and instead of staying inside to enjoy the seemingly endless joys of video games, they went outside to sit around a bonfire and talk until eleven until Nathan got scared and they went inside.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Simon told us about how his Grandmother is very sick, and how when he was advised to make a card, instead, he thought about the book “My Name is Asher Lev”, which his lit class is currently reading, and instead wanted to paint a picture for her, similar to a painting by Picasso. Not to imitate Picasso’s art, but to have the same effect, so that when you look it, you have to look beyond shapes, designs and colors, which are beautiful by themselves, but look beyond that to understand the meaning, and that is what Simon tried to do with his Painting.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Reed read </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sonnet XII</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> by William Shakespeare.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> When I do count the clock that tells the time,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When I behold the violet past prime,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And sable curls all silvered o’er with white;</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When lofty trees I see barren of Leaves</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Which erst from heat which canopy the herd,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And summer’s green all girded up in sheaves</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Borne on the bier with white and bristly beard,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then of thy beauty do I question make</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That thou among the wastes of time must go,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Since sweets and beauties do themselves forsake</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And die as fast as they see others grow;</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And nothing ‘gainst Time’s scythe can make defence</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In Science class, we are working on completing our projects from over the course of the year, some of which we are completing from years before this. A few of us are working on completing the slate roof of the Bread Oven, making the slates overlap perfectly. Some of us are working to create a garden on a slope, but terracing it with stone walls. There are some people who are testing the soil, and planning out how to grow Vegetables efficiently in the Garden. Some of us are running around, flipping through books and running through the woods, to complete our Fitness Trail, which we will run dutifully so as to be true Spartans.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the Afternoon, we watched two slideshows, one with pictures from the Ninth Grade hike, and one with pictures the Luke took on his trip in Barcelona. Seeing pictures of something that you are not a part, such as the ninth grade hike, of or have not experienced, such as Barcelona, provides a glimpse into that, to understand even just a fraction of what we haven’t experienced yet. It isn’t gossip, it’s not like playing truth or dare when you constantly want to know more gossip, but are afraid to ask a question. Looking at the pictures just lets us see a tiny fragment of what other people experience, and who they are.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal read Yared’s Story, which he titled “Ethiopia’s Dream”. It was about Yared, being adopted from Ethiopia, and then living in Vermont for several years, and being with American Aunts and Uncles, and not feeling true love for all of them, always wearing a fake, cheesy smile. The he went back to Ethiopia, and at first he wasn’t sure what it would be like, he was scared about what it would be, but then he found that he felt enormous love towards Ethiopia, and his family there. He saw the places from his childhood, where he would play soccer, and where he would steal bananas because he was hungry. He saw all of these places, and saw his family, and he loved it all, and felt a lot of love, when he would watch his little sister, or hug his mother, when he was with his family, all superficial feelings left him, and the only feeling that remained was Love.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">He went back to Vermont, and one night as he was typing his story, he sat at his desk, and saw photographs of his family in Ethiopia. He began to think about his two families, his family in America, and his family in Ethiopia. He felt equal love for all of them, and knew that they loved him in return. He ended his story by saying something that was very smart: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“The thing that counts is the love, and as long as I have that love I can be who I am where ever I am.”</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tuesday</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On Tuesday Morning, Jesse turned in an outstanding, beautiful, meaningful story about Desire, Truth, and Love into Tal- printed on paper with a light blue border and snowflakes, and a large Frosty the Snowman on the bottom right corner. We joked before meeting about the outrage and scandal of turning in a profound, meaningful piece of writing in on Frosty the Snowman paper. It isn’t actually that scandalous. It would just be a little like the Constitution being written on a floral Garnet Hill bed sheet.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Meeting began with Tal showing us an article in Sports Illustrated on the World Cup Soccer. He showed us pictures, and talked to us about the importance of soccer, how it made people stop hating each other in some places so that they could watch Soccer. He showed us pictures of people playing soccer all around the world- The streets of Haiti, even after the earthquake, French Polynesia, and many others. He told us about how Brazil was where soccer first became beautiful, the moves becoming beautiful, the sport not just a sport, but a beautiful sport. But then the country became an economic powerhouse, and the soccer style became very conservative, and lost all it’s creativity and beauty. This is a little like what happens to people as they get older. When we are younger, we don’t have analytical minds, we don’t constantly worry, and we are just free in ourselves. We still have creative minds, which can produce beautiful things. But then as we grow older, we become more aware, out minds become analytical, and we start to worry about things that we didn’t worry about when we were very little, and we lose the creativity that made us beautiful, and become like Brazil, an Economic Powerhouse, with Analytical Minds, and constant worrying. This is like the quote by Picasso. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> We have to remember who we are, who we were before we cared so much and became obsessive, before we lose our creativity and freedom. What we are constantly searching for, we, I mean the students at the North Branch School, is how to become free in ourselves, and still stay who we are.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke told us about how he had been researching World War II and the Holocaust, and he read a timeline. He noticed how slowly but surely, things continued to get worse, and insane in terms of cruelty and injustice. He became very angry about this. He thought at first that his anger was a bad thing, because he thought that that made him like Hitler, but then he realized that his anger was a good thing, because he realized that if he hadn’t gotten angry, he wouldn’t have cared as much, and his anger showed that he cared.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke read a poem that he picked out, with the Ninth Graders leaving in mind. It is called “Goodbyes,” by David Harris</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Edgar gave a great project on Sustainable Food. The Definition of Sustainable is: “Capable of being continued while minimizing effects on environment.”</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We discussed how Sustainable food is Utopian. On a very obvious level, Utopia wouldn’t be very good or Utopian if there was no good food. You just wouldn’t be healthy. You also have to have food that woks with nature to be Utopian. If we compare Utopia to the world, there are seasons, and that effects food. We grow food when it isn’t the proper season for it, which is not Utopian at all, it’s strange and not natural.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Edgar told us about food, and what it can do to you. So many people eat food that is terrible for them, and they don’t even realize it. Corn is in so many things. It is way over produced. It is being grown so much that it destroys the soil, and we shouldn’t even be growing it so much, because it’s just a cheap resource. When it’s put into food, it’s not good for you. Corn Consumption, in some form, Like Corn Starch or Corn Syrup is one of the leading causes of Obesity, it’s terrible for you, but it’s in almost everything. Corn relates to how Animals are treated unfairly as well. Cows, the source of Beef and Milk. Cows are fed corn, but cows cannot digest corn properly, so they are fed hormones which really just make the cows unhealthy. He told us about how the Government supports big meat producing companies, the ones who don’t treat their animals right, give them hormones and keep them in tiny stalls and coops, and the Government gives the big meat companies that sell the meat which isn’t very good for you, for lower prices, so that families without a lot of money can afford it, which is not smart at all, because it is not helping the families at all. And then the good Meat Companies, that treat their animals correctly and don’t give them hormones, let them graze in fields and feed them the right food are not paid very much at all, so they, the ones who are doing everything right, treating the animals right, so that they produce healthy meat for people to eat, these companies have to raise the prices of their meat, and so then not as many people can afford to buy the meat that is good for you, good for the earth, and that is the company where the Animals have been treated correctly.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Edgar showed us a video, from </span></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><a href="http://diet.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">diet.com</span></span></span></a></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">. It was an interview with a Woman who bought a meal from McDonalds, complete with a Burger and Fries, which she carried it around in her purse for four years. She also carried around food without preservatives, a raw slice of a potato. She compared the potato, without any preservatives or grease or anything on it, to a McDonalds French Fry. The Potato with no preservatives had mold growing on it, which, for once, was a relief to see. The French Fry from McDonalds had become grey, and shriveled, but didn’t have the slightest trace of mold on it. The McDonald’s Hamburger was the same. The bun was crumbling, but still had no mold. The burger itself had shriveled, as it had lost all it’s moisture, but like the other McDonald’s foods, it had no trace of mold anywhere.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At the end of Edgar’s project, he had an activity for us to do. He had brought in a loaf of Wonderbread, and a loaf of nice, bakery made, local bread with good ingredients. He brought in Cheese made in Grafton Vermont, with a red wax encasing it, and Easy Cheese, in a metal spray can with an artificial looking seal. Both cheeses cost the same amount. They both weighed the same. But one of them came from Grafton, Vermont, and one of them came from Illinois. Then, he insisted that we TASTE them both. We were horrified. Or at least most of us were. Ollie jumped up to be the first one to get his sample of Wonderbread and Easy Cheese. He tasted it, and announced to the room that it tasted exactly like Butter. I do not think that most people shared Ollie’s happy opinion about Wonderbread and Easy Cheese. Most of us thought that it was completely revolting tasting.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In Lit Class, the Eighth and Ninth readers are reading “The Catcher in the Rye”. We talked about Holden Caulfield, and about how he only ever touches a feeling. He said in the first sentence of the book that he did not want to talk about his childhood, completely skipping over the events that shaped him. He was never prepared to go all the way into something, he always stayed where he was safe. When Jane Gallagher was nearby, a girl who he had spent an entire summer with, a dancer and a very nice girl, who he had a crush on, Holden stayed upstairs. Why? The fear of Rejection. Not giving himself, not making himself visible because it might be rejected. So he made himself visible to other things, the things that he didn’t really care about- other girls who he didn’t really love or care about. He made something visible to the people who he didn’t care about, but he wouldn’t show who he truly was to the person who he wanted to see, who he did truly care about, Jane Gallagher. He would say that he was unhappy, but he never says in a clear form why. Instead he stayed where he was safe, where he could pretend, take the name of someone else, and hide behind that, so as not to be seen. I thought about myself, as Holden Caulfield. I thought about us all, as Holden Caulfield, about how we avoid the truth because it may be rejected, we hide the truest part of ourselves, again, because of rejection. We grow older, and fear rejection. We lose the artist that was once inside of us, when we were younger, the free artist, who was free of the burden of caring too much. Holden starts to fear what he feels, maybe love, but his older mind is working, worrying, taking away his artist and who he truly is, taking away the truest part of himself, so that all is left is a boy who looks through a window, into a different life, so that he never has to face any people, rejection, but most of all, himself.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wednesday</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We had meeting downstairs in the clay room. Aylee raised her hand and told us about how she had been at the café in Barnes and Nobles, and she saw a tall, muscular Man being taught how to read by an old man. She saw him sounding out the words, still smiling, and thought about how being smart means being smart in the same way like everyone else, but to her what smart meant was the desire to learn.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We found out that the real reason that we had been summoned to the Clay Room for Morning Meeting was so that we could discuss the making of tiles, which would be painted nicely and neatly, and then hung on the walls in the Big Room. Edgar and Nathan read off some of the names of the Tile Paint. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jack O’ Lantern. Leaping Lizard. </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And many more. But our favorite name by far was </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Black.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> We all laughed at black’s clever title.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The NBS Teenagers then converted rapidly from being both hyperactive, thoughtful, and obviously sleep deprived teenagers into a melodious choir, and we sang Aylee a melodious Happy Birthday. We apologized in advance for our poor talent in terms of singing Happy Birthday, but we didn’t sound as bad as we usually did.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evan read a poem that he himself had written called “Blind”. We gaped in astonishment when we learned that he had written it, not because we had not expected such a great thing from him, but only because it was incredible.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> At dusk the tree stands straight again</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And yesterday is forgotten</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A feast of motion ends</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">With the closing of a blossom</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But the still never cease to move</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And we all know what is forgotten</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anger does not show the guilty what they’re sorry for</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The truth is shown through mirrors</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">For only then can one see</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I myself am not selfless</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I myself see only me</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We found out how to live</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And yet I can not follow</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Life is not a game with rules</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We must only breathe and swallow</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Yet I have learned much</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And many have learned I</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Earth has no Pinnacles</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But it is still an I</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Life has no pupil</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No center</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There is no spot</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But even without the ladder it has seen things I have not</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our triumphs are our downfalls</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our edges are our cores</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We see life through empty sockets</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We need not see to feel.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I can sit in myself all day,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Without moving,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Without opening my eyes, </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And still I know,</span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know the flower blossom's closing,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The branch’s stopping their dances,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And the light beginning to fade,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know that it is dusk</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know this because I know I</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I know myself </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And I know everything, </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I am the center of my universe.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the Afternoon, we talked about a girl in our class. She couldn’t see the good in herself. She always thought that she was worse than she actually was. She obsessed over the things that she did not do exactly perfectly, and so then she failed to see all of the good in herself, even when she wanted to. She wanted to feel close to everyone, but sometimes had a harder time feeling like that. She had written a story about a good friend of hers, but who she used to be a lot closer to, and she was worried that when the friend heard the story, he would not care, and would sit there, stone-like. We talked about this for a long time, as she cried and told us everything that she was feeling. This wasn’t like gossip, either. It isn’t gossip for us to find out about what other people are feeling, it’s like looking at the pictures in a slideshow, we are simply trying to find, and beginning to understand, a side of a person that we do not usually see. We can skip all of the false exteriors presented and we can see people for who they truly are, and when we get a glimpse of who someone truly is, we hold on to this glimpse as if it were the only thing in the entire world, just for the moment. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thursday:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On Thursday Morning, Anneke told us about how she and her sister had gone outside and stood in the storm for a long time. She was with her, and was realizing the changes in her sister. She thought that he sister was acting too much older, and should be acting younger and not so grown-up. She saw how her sister always seemed really frustrated at everything, and she was sad that it was like this,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Luke Presented his project on Fascism. Fascism is a Government where a few people are in control of everything, including industry and business and banks,</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">but mainly run by a dictator. Everyone is equal, so it is like Communism, except for the Dictator who decides everything. The belief behind Fascism was mainly that if you killed or dominated what you did not like, you would have Utopia. He told us about Nationalism, which is believing that the State itself comes before everything else. Communism is based off of a belief that no one owns anything. Authoritarianism is where there is a Dictatorship. And a Democracy is a government run by the people.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The first Fascist was Benito Mussolini. Mussolini was born in 1883, and for much of his childhood, he worked with his Father in his Father’s blacksmith shop. Working there, from a young age he was exposed to his Father’s Socialist beliefs. Mussolini had a very big ego, and he was very violent. He stabbed a boy in boarding school during a fight. He began to give speeches about his beliefs, and was very well liked. He was a member of the Socialist Party, but then he was expelled when they found out that he had started a Fascist Newspaper. He founded an official Fascist Party in Italy, and then in 1922 he became the prime minister of Italy. When he was running for Prime Minister, he stated that he was running as a Socialist, and then when he was elected, he declared himself Fascist. When he was in power, there were elections for other Prime Ministers, but they were fixed, so that no one else got elected but him, and so that he would be Prime Minister until he died. He could control everything- He could control what kids in schools did and learned- He could ensure that they were all told about how great Mussolini was, so that they would think that he was great. He died in 1945, when he and his wife were both killed because people did not like him anymore, because everything that he did was cruel and disasterous, and it had gone on for too long.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then Luke told us about Hitler. Hitler was born in Austria, in 1889. Hitler was a carefree child, but after seeing a book about Franco, he became obsessed with war. His Father beat him regularly, but he was close to his mother. In Elementary School be would always fight with his Teacher and his Father, but he had respect and a good relationship with his Mother. Hitler wanted to go to a Classical High School to study art, but his father didn’t let him, and this made Hitler even angrier with his father. When Hitler was 21, his mother died. In 1907, he was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. It is very likely that the Headmaster of the Academy was Jewish, and that could have played in a role in Hitler’s insane hatred of Jews later on in life. He tried to be a street artist, and in 1909, he ran out of money and was forced to go to a Homeless Shelter.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then he went to the German Workers Party, and was elected the leader of National Socialist German Workers Party. We then read a poem by Wislawa Szymborska about Hitler, that imagined Hitler as a cute little boy, and what he could have grown up to be</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hitler's First Photograph</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> And who’s this little fellow in his itty-bitty robe?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That’s tiny baby Adolf, the Hitler’s little boy! Will be grow up to be an LL.D?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Or a tenor in Vienna’s Opera House?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whose teensy hand is this, whose little ear and eye and nose?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Whose tummy full of milk, we just don’t know:</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Printer’s, doctor’s, merchant’s, priest’s,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where will those tootsy-wootsies finally wander?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To garden, to school, to an office, to a bride,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Maybe to the Burgermeister’s daughter?</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Precious little angel, mommy’s sunshine, honeybun,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">While he was being born a year ago,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There was no death of signs on the earth and in the sky:</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Spring sun, geraniums in windows,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The organ-grinder’s music in the yard,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A lucky fortune wrapped in rosy paper,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then just before the labor his mother’s fateful dream:</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A dove seen in dream means joyful news,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If it is caught, a long-awaited guest will come.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Knock knock, who’s there, it’s Adolf’s heartchen knocking.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A little pacifier, diaper, rattle, bib,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our bouncing boy, thank God and knock on wood, is well,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Looks just like his folks, like a kitten in a basket,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Like the tots in every other family album.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Shush, let’s not start crying, sugar,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That camera will click from under that black hood.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Klinger Atelier, Grabenstrasse, Braunau,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And Braunau is small but worthy town,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Honest businesses, obliging neighbors,</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Smell of yeast dough, of gray soap.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">No one hears howling dogs or fate’s footsteps.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A history teacher loosens his collar</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And yawns over homework.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We watched a Clip of a propaganda movie, “Triumph of the Will,” that showed Hitler as a strong speaker, someone who you couldn’t help but as to see as someone to look up to and follow.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We then talked about the Holocaust and WW II. The war began September 1st</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, 1939. The holocaust was a systematic prosecution of Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals, handicapped, Catholics, and political dissidents.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Anyone who resisted the Nazis were murdered, so there was no way of getting out of this. In the Holocaust, there were 13,000,000 people killed. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then we talked about Franco. He was born in Spain in 1892 into a Military family. Became a soldier of the Spanish Army, and was the youngest general in Europe. He seized control over Spain. There was no freedom of speech, and the only religion allowed was Catholicism. Everything was controlled by Franco. We read several quotes by Franco, such as </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Communists should be crushed like worms” </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and agreed that he was really not a very smart man.</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Friday:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">On Friday morning, Calder told us about how he had been playing Soccer with Ollie, and it was good to do something with him that was just fun and not competitive. Jesse told us about how she had been trying to list what she thought she was good at, and wondered why she had been so convinced that she was bad all of the time. But as she made the list she then found goodness in herself. Tal talked about Jesse’s story, which she was making the list for, and a Painting that Jesse liked. Talking about the Painting led Tal into talking about Curious George, and how The Man in the Yellow Hat was kind of a dumb monkey owner. According to Tal he should have learned after Curious George getting away so many times to just keep Curious George on a leash.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Claire told us about how she had been swimming, and she saw a family in disarray. The parents were smoking, and being mean to their children, and holding them under water, and then the children would come up laughing. She thinking about how that family was just one of so many, there were so many families like that, and how she should be so grateful to have the family that she does. Then Claire read us a poem Called “Black Maps”, by Mark Strand.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Black Maps</span></i></b></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Not the attendance of stones,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor the applauding wind,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">shall let you know</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">you have arrived,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor the sea that celebrates</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">only departures,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor the mountains,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor the dying cities.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nothing will tell you</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">where you are.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Each moment is a place</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">you’ve never been.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You can walk</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">believing you cast</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a light around you.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But how will you know?</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The present is always dark.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Its maps are black,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rising from nothing,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">describing,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in their slow ascent</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">into themselves,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">their own voyage,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">its emptiness,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the bleak temperate</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">necessity of its completion.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">As they rise into being</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">they are like breath.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And if they are studied at all</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">it is only to find,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">too late, what you thought</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">were concerns of yours</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">do not exist.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Your house is not marked</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">on any of them,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor are your friends,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">waiting for you to appear,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor are your enemies,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">listing your faults.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Only you are there,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">saying hello</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to what you will be,</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and the black grass</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">is holding up the black stars.</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then we went and planned the Indian meal that we would be cooking the following Friday. We got with our groups, each that would be working on cooking a different part of the meal. The groups were Grill, Legumes, Desert, Bread, Curry, and Exclamation Point (Which is the group that decided on something additional).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Then we went outside to work on our end of year Projects. The ninth graders worked on making their Sun Dial at the foot of where our garden with Stone Walls is being built. Some worked on making the Garden and the walls. Some worked on the bread oven. Some people worked on their Projects for the Fitness trail. Everything that we have done in terms of big projects in science is beginning to come to a finish, neatly and smoothly as the school year ends, and it feels good, it feels like we’ve accomplished, and done something truly amazing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Edgar finished presenting his project, which was amazing and we learned a lot. Then in the afternoon, Tal read Sophie’s story. Sophie’s story was amazing.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Her story was about her friend Evan. When Sophie and Evan were younger, and still went to school at Bridge School, they had a crush on each other. They were friends also, everything was nice and they were friends. Something happened between Sophie and Evan while they were at Bridge School, that made Evan think that Sophie didn’t still like him. They had ended the year at Bridge School not very close. Then they went to North Branch, and it was worse. Sophie and Evan started to move away from each other, Sophie’s romantic feelings for Evan faded, and started for someone else. So they drifted apart from each other, and then they rarely talked, and were cold to each other, sarcastic, and mean. In the end, Sophie found that she still loved Evan, not romantically. She still loved him, like a brother, and wanted to be friends with him, and saw all of the good in him.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Evan commented on Sophie’s story after it was read. He said that while he had been listening to Sophie’s story, he had started listing things that he loved. One of the things was, “I love Sophie”. He saw again that he loved Sophie, a lot, and that he always would. He started crying because he loved her. They both could see all of the good in each other, and could love each other without the love ever being false.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="font-family:Cochin;"></span></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What we’ve done and built up over the course of the entire year is coming to a finish. We’re completing everything. We’re trying to look through words that appear small, shallow, insignificant, and find meaning in those. We’re trying to see ourselves and to understand that. While doing so, we are thinking about the end, and whatever it is that is coming. We have no idea what that is, and in my mind I see it as a blurry idea that I will never understand until I am there, but I’m searching, wishing to understand. On the first day of school we were told to open our eyes wide, and to keep them open until the end of the year, until now, in June. So that is all that we can do. Keep our eyes open as we begin to understand what we are searching for. </span></span></span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-18382814976510025172010-05-24T06:15:00.000-07:002010-05-24T18:00:35.610-07:00NBS Covenant<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7-4jY2HM4ucYm7wU0HMjR7Re78F6gse7oyrLMIaHY1TxUAvaOY6-X1brt8AncF7AOkG0eLW-BUOfkvIzfrn2DxI_P4bSl9AdV8SNr731a6HIVCJg5n8VHoAiTf37o1hXLx8vVOdJLxM/s1600/covenant.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7-4jY2HM4ucYm7wU0HMjR7Re78F6gse7oyrLMIaHY1TxUAvaOY6-X1brt8AncF7AOkG0eLW-BUOfkvIzfrn2DxI_P4bSl9AdV8SNr731a6HIVCJg5n8VHoAiTf37o1hXLx8vVOdJLxM/s320/covenant.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474830487175941058" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Times;font-size:medium;"><p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">NBS Covenant</span></b></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></p><p> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We should always: be striving for good/better in concert with others, even if that involves discomfort; believe that organization and belief can bring something unpredictable and great about; be doing concentrated and focused work towards a purpose as great as ourselves. </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">NBS runs smoothly when everyone is happy with themselves. We stipulate to this statement from all evidence hereby seen, felt, and experienced at the North Branch School. We run smoothly when we feel comfortable to cry and when we feel like we can help each other with our problems. When we can function completely independently then we will run smoothly. To run smoothly we at North Branch must accept everything, have patience, be generous, want to give their all and dedicate themselves, and try to put as much love as we can into everything we do.</span></span></p><p> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We must be motivated by our wanting to be and do good, be confident in ourselves and our work, be generous and give to ourselves and others, and overall, learn to love, ourselves, our work, and others. We should all try to be like a family. We will always love, trust, and be honest with each other, like a family would be. We should all be committed to the whole, and do our part, to the best of our ability, to make the whole (which is that we all want to be safe and learn and grow) the best it can be; </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That we try to see everyone as a whole being, and not block out their friendship or trust by judging, or discriminating on the basis of not letting the person speak up for themselves, or only looking at one part of a situation. We need to do things more acutely and we need to be fiercer in what we do, and clean better with more vigor;</span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To do things with a whole heart and find the source of our most complicated feelings; By knowing how we act and feel in curtain situations, it will help prevent problems. To respect each other in all situations, learn to forgive, and to do everything to the greatest of our ability, in order to demonstrate greatness. </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Things in school can connect to things in our lives. All students of the North Branch School should and could be more respectful, honest and trust worthy. It is stipulated that we will learn important things and be smarter than the Average Joe; be willing to sacrifice personal wants for the common good; respect/honor each other. </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We all need to have a goal that is similar to everyone else. The importance of speaking directly forms our own truth and that of whomever we are speaking to. To run smoothly we need constant respect in a way that doesn’t inflict too much upon another's actions. We need a kind of reckless mastery that lets us act in a way that is uninhabited but also thoughtful enough that in our chaos and recklessness we aren’t harming anything. </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We need to act in such a way that lets us create something beautiful out of the mess without breaking things unnecessarily along the way. All of the community sweeping devices shall hereby remain intact and shall not be broken in any way, shape or form. Also, community owned devices shall be kept intact and not broken into little peaces. We shall be respectful of the older passengers or persons in the school, most specifically Tal, Eric and Rose.</span></span></p><p> <span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">NBS needs to be able to communicate, not only as a school, but individually. We must be able to separate from our safe places so we all will be able to connect to all. We stipulate that we will all connect with one another without hesitancy or fear. We will leave our safe places and join/connect with each other. But we will not avoid our safe places; we will just reach out to others. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We need to care about what we are doing. From small things like cleaning to big things like our stories. To be able to give up something we have personally and help the entire school. Trust each other, enough to have confidence to say anything troubling us; to love each memory and experience in our lives, but not trying to live only in that memory all the time; to be able to write well and to be able to put our feelings down on paper; to be able to find something inside that goes deeper then everyday life. </span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We need to not hurt each other, not pick fights with each other over small things. We have to see the bigger picture. See what our actions do to each other. We need to take what we learn every day with us and ponder on it for a while. We will not battle of push aside each other's ideas, requests, and thoughts.</span></span></p><p> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At NBS there will be equally distributed responsibilities in technical terms, and faith in self discipline for the abstract ones. We will, in the name of the higher law, hereunto find the time and space to solve social and operational conflicts among the members. We, the aforesaid owners and contributors in eternal equilibrium will swear to this document, this song of ourselves. We shall hereby put the hunger of our souls above that of our minds. Everyone shall listen and respect and experience the awareness that these people have knowledge that we need.</span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">However there shall be no forced agreement. Hear unto we shall be in the unending ever evolving and dedicated quest for knowledge. We need to find, search for, and always attempt to expand our understanding of past present and future. We need to accept all ideas, all people, each give everything to our work, so that we can be true before each other. We need to accept everything to keep things in balance.</span></span></p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">There are three rules that Mary Oliver spoke of: that one needs to learn to love, to know love in one's heart, and when the time comes, to let it go. We need to meet on the field Rumi spoke of, we need to breathe poetry as air, and learn not to fear what the sleeper dreams. We need to use these covenants not just in one place but all places, so we may all know each other as we know ourselves.</span></span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-29345570628847778652010-05-23T11:57:00.000-07:002010-05-23T12:09:59.431-07:00Our Way of Entering Fire<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0N-o2aNVxotBP0oqDi9y11IJbSq5vtuWon5PUxevDlyNLdiMO55MsZFIPonAQ-UtiBUzUiVl9DaYzKaWAx1xxmSA-yHne-dUJkVDsz3kN9zhzSajlDC45DjF8hCsBFSfQ9qo5BPhdSo/s1600/peleDM2006_468x808.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0N-o2aNVxotBP0oqDi9y11IJbSq5vtuWon5PUxevDlyNLdiMO55MsZFIPonAQ-UtiBUzUiVl9DaYzKaWAx1xxmSA-yHne-dUJkVDsz3kN9zhzSajlDC45DjF8hCsBFSfQ9qo5BPhdSo/s320/peleDM2006_468x808.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474543511003035554" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last Week:</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday By Lydia; Tuesday by Hannah</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Monday: </span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>It was the first day back since the ninth grade hike, so naturally all of the ninth graders were talking about it. When I walked into the big room that morning the room was filled with the jabber of happy little students. The bell rang and we all settled down. Luke talked about being with his brother, not fighting, just playing games. We reminisced on how tough Bryn was during the Hike. Never once did she complain about her belly hurting. Even when we asked her, she would just say that it hurt. Nothing more, nothing less.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>“She was in pain most or all the time, and unlike some of us, complaining about our hurting hips, or feet, she was silent,” said Tal.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“It’s an awesome experience after three years to go hiking in the woods,” said Henry.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>We talked about what it was like when the ninth graders were not at school, and it was just the 70s and 80s. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ The first day it was controlled, the second day reality sank in more. The second day we were not as excited to do the things that we were doing,” said Rider.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ I felt like I was not an 80 yet, but I was not a sevie anymore. I am beyond what I started out as,” said Simon.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>We talked about some of the problems that happened when the ninth graders were away. One of the groups was fighting about a name, and about who got to model for there group. How some people</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">didn’t really listen to others when they talked about what the name for their group would be. We talked about you can’t always be the leader. Sometimes you have to step aside and let someone else’s ideas be heard. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ It feels like we made you feel really small by not listening,” said Rider.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ But, like umm,” offered Claire.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ An excellent comment, Claire,” said Tal.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“ There is no future in modeling, but there is a future in saying, ‘Okay you go, you can be the leader,” said Tal.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Aylee read the poem “Sunrise” By Mary Oliver, here it is:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You can die for it, an idea,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">or the world. People</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">have done so,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">brilliantly,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">letting</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">their small bodies be bound</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to the stake,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">creating</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">an unforgettable</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">fury of light. But</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">this morning,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">climbing the familiar hills</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in the familiar</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">fabric of dawn, I thought</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of China,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and India</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and Europe, and I thought</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">how the sun</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">blazes</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">for everyone just</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">so joyfully</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">as it rises</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">under the lashes</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of my own eyes, and I thought</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I am so many!</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What is my name?</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What is the name</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the deep breath I would take</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">over and over</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">for all of us? Call it</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">whatever you want, it is</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">happiness, it is another one</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the ways to enter</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Fire.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tuesday, by Hannah</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was morning meeting, we all sat in the big room, notebooks and lunch boxes had already been strewn across the table. </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Does anybody have anything?” boomed the headmaster, Tal, over everyone’s chitter-chatting. He called on Reed. Reed told us that he had been reading </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Catcher in the Rye</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> for lit and he had noticed Holden Caulfield not knowing how to say goodbye to his prep school, and he was thinking about how to say goodbye to North Branch, and that he didn’t know how to say goodbye to North Branch. Next Tal called on Nathan. Nate talked about his brother’s tennis match over the weekend that he had lost, he told us the scores, but it all summed up to: Nathan was going to miss his brother next year when he left for college. Miles told us that his dad had taken him to an art museum and had seen lots of cool things and he felt bad when he didn’t leave a note in the comment book. Tal asked him if there was any Warhol.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Miles said some, and Tal asked Cassie if she had the flyer for the art show hanging on her fridge. Cassie looked at him dully, and said she didn’t in a somewhat confused tone. Rider mentioned something (not as a morning meeting comment) about how NBS Alumni, Fielding Jenks wrote in some comment book for something ‘great stay, women were great’ and his brother, Penn wrote (pretending to be Fielding’s wife) ‘great stay but these girls need to have a talk with their fathers.’ I’m not really sure what he was talking about, but it happened. </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Hen, did you do the poem sign ups?” Tal asked his first born son.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Yep, I did ‘em yesterday,” Henry said, leaning back in his wooden chair-desk.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Alright, who’s signed up for today?” Tal asked. It was Claire. She didn’t have a poem. But quickly Anneke jumped to her rescue and pulled out “Brown and Agile Child” by Pablo Neruda</span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> Claire read it and meeting was concluded – or so we thought. While Miles and the other techies were setting up the projector Tal decided to teach us a little bit about the upcoming 2010 World Cup Football Tournament in South Africa.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“The World Cup is to the Super Bowl as a billboard is to a postage stamp,” he explained. He went on about the scoring and the teams, and Calder and Yared chipped in occasionally.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Finally, after much grief with the projector, Aylee begun her project on Oneida, which was a commune founded 150 years ago in Oneida, NY, by a guy named John Humphrey Noyes. He was a utopian socialist who lived from 1811-1886. Aylee told us that JFK’s assassin had once joined the Oneida community previous to his murdering of Kennedy, and the lifestyles of Oneida had made him a little bit crazy. In Oneida they believed that no matter what they did, they could not sin. The community reached their peak of 306 members in 1878. So if you can imagine 306 people running around thinking that they can’t do wrong, you’ve got yourself a little bit of a problem, or at least nothing even remotely under control. Oneida was ranked the 19th</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> century’s most successful utopian project though. One thing that the people of Oneida would do was they would pick someone and tell them all of the flaws in their character to “make them better”. For her activity Aylee told us we were going to do that as well. We had volunteers; Claire and about seven boys. We chose Reed Messner to go first and we soon discovered that things that could be categorized as flaws could instantly be turned into good qualities. Tal gave us the statistics; possibly, he said, about 75% of our character and personality is genetic (we have no control over it—we are what we are) and 25% we can change sort of depending on what we do and the decisions we make (a lot of which may be determined by our genetics). We tried again to find character flaws in Claire and maybe somebody else but gave up quickly as it was obvious the “flaws” were really parts of her that were growing and changing and mostly wonderful.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next, without a break Miles presented Part Three of his project on Animal Utopias and Societies. Part One had been on bees, Part Two had been on wolves, and now Part Three was on Meerkats, a little bit on elephants, a little bit on killer whales, and a little bit on penguins. He started off right away by telling us Meerkats are not cats. They are technically part of the mongoose family. The English translation of Meerkat is ‘marsh cat’, but they live in the desert, so, he told us, the person who named them was an idiot. Actually, the Kalahari Desert, in Africa is the only place in the world that Meerkats, but don’t worry; they’re not endangered. Each “gang” of Meerkats has a territory of about 1-3 miles, with anywhere from 6-15 burrows in it and they switch burrows every 2 weeks because as you can imagine, they get pretty grimy after a while, and their burrows are 6-8 feet underground. He said that gangs will fight over territory sometimes and when they fight they puff up their fur to look bigger and jump up and down to appear scary. He told us that Meerkats are actually pretty evolved and they basically have a language because they can make up to 20 sounds and 4 different syllables. We were all kind of shocked when he informed us that that alpha female will eat any cubs pups that are born if they’re not her own. Oliver related that this was similar to his project, which had been on Eugenics. We watched a video about Meerkats, which to most of us, or, most of the boys, was more funny than informal, mainly because it involved a renegade meerkat who was trying to get He told us a little bit about elephants, one thing that I already knew was that elephants mourn, and I read somewhere that elephants are the only animal aside from humans that cry during and after death of a group member. Then he talked a little bit about Killer Whales; they live in pods, and Tal played us a video he found of the noises they make. It was almost like singing. For Penguins he told us they are the most social bird. While looking at some of the pictures of the penguins, people shouted about the movies, Happy Feet, and March of the Penguins. At the end he remembered Meer Kats don’t need to drink water because there’s enough water in the things that they eat that they can get by. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We talked a little about it afterwards.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“…learning from other things can better ourselves…” said Nate.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“…we’re dependant on learning. It’s unfair that they have knowledge already, we should have more instinctual stuff…” Rider said.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“…Meer Kats, bees and other animals are born to do certain roles in their societies, we’re not…” Yared said.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“…we’re more selfish…” Simon added.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We have interests we can’t control; we have ranges of what we choose.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“You guys are all like the little Meer Kats on the first day of school; all looking around for potential threats,” Tal said, swerving his head around, as if surveying for predators. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It was break. Nate and Reed Me. went out onto the patio and did cool jumps and tricks with their skateboards. And the seventh and eighth graders all scattered into little groups to practice a couple more times before lunch the songs that they had written about the ninth graders in their specific group for science. I called Lydia, who was out sick to ask her why she was not in school. Her nose was all stuffed and she replied, wheezing something that sounded a little more like “I’b sig” than “I’m sick” and I put her on speaker phone so that Tal and Henry could also laugh at her pathetic speech. I hung up and the 8th</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and 9th </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">graders went into the big room for lit and the sevies went to Rose for math. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Next I went to science and then it was lunch. We frolicked for a little while but were then called into the Big Room to hear the songs that the sevies and eighties had practiced. The first group: Calder, Evan, Rio, Sophie, and Luke sang about Reed Messner and Cassie, a song they had written to the tune of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Redemption Song</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">, which we had sang during intermission of the play this year. The second group: Miles, Anna, Reed Martin, and Jesse had written a rap song about Henry, Isabel and Edgar. Miles made the beats while the girls, sunglasses, hoods, puckered lips and all, rapped about the three ninth graders. The third group: Simon, Anneke, Sarah, Kiley, and Yared, sang to the tune of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Mrs. Robinson</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> about Bryn and Nathan. The third group: Ollie, Aylee, Claire and Rider sung about me (Hannah) and Lydia to the tune of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">You Belong With Me </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">by Taylor Swift. Before they began Rider made the commonly known announcement that he loves Taylor Swift and that she will be his girlfriend very soon. Overall there was much laughter and applause. Rose told us later during math class that she was “blubbering” during the songs because it dawned on her that the ninth graders would soon be leaving and how much she would miss us all.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soon after that the day was over and we all ran around doing our jobs and gabbing and singing about who knows what. Reed and Nate were back on the patio with their skateboards, Anna and Kiley were running around with their C.U.C. clipboards checking people off for doing their jobs and in the end I think it was a good day at Ye Ole North Branch School.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wednesday: </span></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>On Wednesday, Tal once again brought up our summer homework assignments. He had previously sent out an email with links to various videos about the World Cup, which is going to be held in South Africa this year. Our assignment is to watch the World Cup games, at least one of them, if not all of them. The first match of the US national team, against England, is taking place the same day of the Epigenesis party. Tal so kindly stated that none of us were to show up the Epigenesis party until the match was over. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rider talked about how after he had watched the previews for the World cup, he watched a preview for the Olympics. About how a guy had been running the two hundred meter dash, fell and broke his leg. His dad came down from the stands and helped him get across the finish line. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“ It really puts winning in perspective,” said rider. “Because he did win in a way, it is almost more of a win for the man who broke his leg, than for the man who really won the race.”</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16pt; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anneke talked about the show at the MOMA she saw, by Marina Abramovic. The show was that Marina would sit in a red dress, at a table and wait for someone to sit down in front of her, they would just look at each other. Even though there were no words said, it was as though there was some kind of connection, some conversation going on between the two of them. A silent connection. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 16pt; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The Poem read was “To The Harbor Master,” By Frank O’Hara.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I wanted to be sure to reach you;</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">though my ship was on the way it got caught </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in some moorings. I am always tying up </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and then deciding to depart. In storms and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">at sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">around my fathomless arms, I am unable </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to understand the forms of my vanity </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">or I am hard alee with my Polish rudder </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">in my hand and the sun sinking. To </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">you I offer my hull and the tattered cordage </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of my will. The terrible channels where </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the wind drives me against the brown lips </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">of the reeds are not all behind me. Yet </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I trust the sanity of my vessel; and </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">if it sinks, it may well be in answer </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to the reasoning of the eternal voices,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.5in; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the waves which have kept me from reaching you.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In science class that day we were informed that we would be doing Yoga. We all went down to the basement, got out the purple yoga mats, and did some yoga. Sarah taught the first bit of the class. The boys where yelling in pain, saying how they couldn’t do it. How they where falling over. Then when Sarah’s mom Ginger arrived to teach the remainder of the class, all of the boys shut up, and it was practically silent until the end of the class. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thursday: </span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>On Thursday morning Isabel informed us that she had met with some of her future teachers. Tal was sad to find out that none of these future teachers spit, swore, drooled, or spilled water all over themselves. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We talked about how Kiley has already started researching for her project next year. About how some people see her as just the smart kid. It makes it hard to see past the smartness when that is all people really see. Once we get in the pattern of</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">“Oh, Kiley, she is the smart one,” it is hard to make people see in a new way. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">We talked about how when you are not doing very well at NBS, when you are drifting away from your friend, when you are out of the heart of what happens at NBS, you drift away from the Big Room table. It just happened that Rider was sitting in the far corner of the room when Tal said this. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“Rider!” Some of the class shouted. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“You know what,” Rider said as he picked up his chair and moved it right behind Hannah, who was sitting right up to the table. Tal and Rider then proceeded to have what seemed like a 10 second staring contest, in which neither of them won. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal told us how surprised he was to find that when he opened his computer he found a big-eyed fuzzy white kitten staring back at him. OBEY THE KITTY!! Miles had changed his computer background from a meaningful picture of the “Pieta” by Michelangelo to photo of a fuzzy kitten named Utopia. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anneke talked about how lacrosse practice felt weird without her friend Eklutna there. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“ Even though we don’t see each other very much anymore it feels weird when she is not there with me,” said Anneke.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Off of Anneke’s comment, Tal went on to question her ability to play lacrosse. All he seemed to care about was whether or not Anneke was the best on her team, if she kicked people’s butts, and if she hit people with the lacrosse stick like Calder used to hit him. Jesse confirmed that she is really good and really tough.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Aylee read Part of Walt Whitman's song of myself. Unfortunately I was unable to obtain the section she read. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the afternoon we talked about Yared thinking he was dumb. Thinking he is bad at everything. When really he is not. When you say you are dumb, or bad at something, it cuts out the possibility of growing, or</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">making yourself get better at that thing. It makes you close-minded to the possibility of growing. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“When you say you are dumb it cripples you, you have already given up,” said Tal. “You want to look at the whole, but he honest about what you see,”</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal then proceeded to prove to the class and Yared that he (Yared) was smart by reading the class Yared’s lit response.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Tal Read Simon’s Story about not being able to write very well, not being able to put his all into his writing. Here are some of the responses. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“ You showed your thoughts through your scenes, it’s so direct, you taught me something through it,” said Bryn.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“ He can look at himself so clearly and there is nothing that conflicts his view,”</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">said Rider.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Friday:</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman', sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">During meeting, Claire talked about how she was at a dinner with her mom for all of the Artists showing in her mom’s gallery. Somehow the topic of Marina Abramovic’s art was brought up. One of the artists was against Marina’s art, but Claire really made her see what the meaning behind the art really was. It is interesting, how sometimes people get so caught up on what the surface of something looks like, what their first impression is, that they are unable to see the truth behind things, unable to see what they really mean. Claire made the artist see beyond her initial impression to something that went deeper, and about how art that is not pretty or is “confrontational” is still art, because it makes you think. Claire sounded like a scholar and philosopher, which she is.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Hannah talked about how she was mad most of the day before, and broke down twice. At lunch when she was outside alone on the picnic tables, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“ Well, I had been mad at Lydia for no reason really, and then Yared came out and sat with me trying to make me feel better until class. And then later that night after I got home from soccer practice he called to see if I was feeling any better. I already was feeling better because soccer was fun, but it was really nice of him to call,” said Hannah.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After meeting we all went out to the labyrinth and weeded in silence for about 15 minutes. By the end, there were no weeds left in the sand, and the whole thing had been raked. After we were finished weeding it all, we walked it, also in silence. I, among many, had taken off my shoes to walk it. The sand was not warm yet because it was still early in the day, but it still felt nice between my toes. We all walked in a huge line, following the path that lay ahead of us. The path that took us so close to the center, and then so far out again, until finally we reached the maple tree at the center. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">After we finished the labyrinth, we got divided up into groups to finish the various projects we had been trying to finish since the beginning of the year. Some people worked on the bread oven roof. Some worked on our newly created garden. And all of us ninth graders worked on the sun dial we are creating. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the afternoon, Tal read Kiley’s story about her dream to become a great writer when she was little, and how that dream faded away, until she came to NBS, where it wa s harder, and where she learned how to put all of herself into her story. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“She had to find out that she had to move on from writing a 45 chapter story with 10s of words about mozart to being able to move on and learn the next step.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She was in a little world, she had small knowledge and everything seemed easy. Then she came into the big world and everything was harder, said Evan.</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rio did his project on Intentional Communities. He studied the Ten Stones, Blue Moon Cooperative, Hippie Haven, Grigori, and Burlington Co-housing East Village. The main topic of the project was a small group of people that came together, to form a small place to live. A place where if you put something good in, you get something good out, and about how this is done by usually by using “consensus.” At the end of his project, he had us decide by consensus about where our brooms would be stored. We all had to agree to one place. We ended up arguing about it for around 20 minutes, and found we could not all come to consensus, so the brooms will stay where they are. Then he had us come to consensus on whether or not we could follow the covenant that Anneke wrote up from her Shaker project. We did come to consensus on that topic, agreeing that we would try to do it for the rest of the year. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(NBS 2009-10 Covenant to come.)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I had a lot of fun writing this, and taking notes for it all through the week. I hope you enjoyed reading it. </span></span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-23888990936426457522010-05-17T11:08:00.000-07:002010-05-19T05:17:24.003-07:00Still and Still Moving<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjTavRFmoLrDJnA5HecA1e1ORLwIT5pzrG5FrG2-5z48gzPkWcP6xoD56WVi6IwG5ZPzdWhhGXXJV1JlVq8IaRHdcnpOB7dt5SeFH9NadJGMR0fZYcIrAI2Zg3yoSqXHVYkY0J73ACOq8/s1600/moose3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 284px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjTavRFmoLrDJnA5HecA1e1ORLwIT5pzrG5FrG2-5z48gzPkWcP6xoD56WVi6IwG5ZPzdWhhGXXJV1JlVq8IaRHdcnpOB7dt5SeFH9NadJGMR0fZYcIrAI2Zg3yoSqXHVYkY0J73ACOq8/s320/moose3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472304092335274818" /></a><p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Monday, By Edgar</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The bell was rung and everyone gathered around the big room table. In the beginning of morning meeting Sarah raised her hand and then talked about how she had a sleepover with her fellow eighty girls. A week before she had a story read about how she couldn’t understand two of her classmates whom she was friends with, and in one of the scenes she wrote she was at a sleepover and wasn’t feeling happy with her friends. Now she is talking about how she had a great time and how she was dressed up and how they all gave each other “makeovers”. Sarah explained how she felt comfortable and how she is more understanding then she used to be. Others felt like Sarah was more open, but still was herself.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Claire talked about how she too had a sleepover at the Martins, Bryn and Reed’s house. She talked about watching “The Sound of Music” and how Bryn was joyful and enthusiastic.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jessie went to Connecticut with her father and learned about Lyme disease at a twelve-hour meeting/conference. She didn’t feel bored the entire time and came back with new knowledge she had never heard about. While she was there she bonded with her father and had a great time. During the meeting/conference she listened to an older man be accused of treating his patients wrong when he was just trying to do the right thing. Jessie went into detail about how she felt bad for the man and saw how he was treating his patients with care and respect.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Simon talked about how he was feeling overwhelmed about a science project and decided to play the piano. He claimed he wasn’t playing it correctly but Claire thought otherwise. When Claire walked in she started telling Simon that the music was great and how she thought that it was cool that he was playing at school. Simon then told the school, that this made him feel happy and closer to Claire.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anneke found out that there were twenty days left at school and felt sad that the ninth graders were leaving. And he wanted to explain how she would miss us. She then explained how she wasn’t sure if she was ready to become a ninth grader,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It will be weird not having anyone ahead of us,” she said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yared then pulled out his poem and read it, and he said that it was for the ninth graders. The poem was about how the ninth graders are leaving and how each year when a ninth grader leaves, he or she is replaced. In the poem it explained how a tree falls and its years of life fall when it falls, but each tree stump has another tree grow inside of it. This is the point of leaving. We, the ninth graders, pass on our knowledge to the seventh and eighth graders before we go and they continue the cycle, and that is how life and the school works.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The rest of the school day: in science class we started to learn about the birds and the bees. Eric decided to finally teach us about the human body. So after many years of waiting Eric decided to stay true to his word. Eric chose to teach us through a fun learning-filled way. We are going to write songs, or create skits about the body. Some groups decided to create skits of a science class with a boring nasal teacher telling them about the body and having some kids crack jokes about this while the teacher is talking. While some decided to create and sing a song about parents telling their kid or kids about life. Over the course of these classes there was lots of laughter and excitement but there was also confusion and respect.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“WE have to be respectful, but we also need to have open humor about it, we’re 12-15 year olds!” said Henry Birdsey</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In All Tal class Tal asked if people were going to step it up and become ninth and eighth graders while the current ninth graders are on the hike. Rider talked about how Tal and Rider talked about Mother’s day. He mentioned how he gave is mom a card with a horse on it; and how inside he wrote about Asher Lev. He connected his mom to Asher’s mom. He saw how Asher’s mom is trying to help Asher have something concrete. Rider explained why he made the card; he said it was because he sees his mother creating something concrete for his family and he was/is grateful. Tal asked what he was trying to say. Rider replied, "I want her to know I love her." </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Now did Rider step it up just now,” Tal asked. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Yes,” everyone replied. Now we all just have to do so. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It’s a chance to decide if you are going to be productive next year,” someone said.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tal then read Anna’s story about whom she liked and how she was afraid to express her feelings but she did. She was very brave doing so. She showed something the school didn’t know about her. She liked a boy in the school; she showed it at times and was shy when near him. Se wanted to be Luna Lovegood, a character from Harry Potter, someone who was outrageous and showed her feelings to everyone. Her story was about how she left the shy girl behind and became who she really wanted to be. Anna accomplished something great. She was scared to tell him her feelings and knew that he liked someone else. She had many opportunities and she didn’t use them, she realized this and kept on telling herself that she would. And eventually she did. She overcame something hard and she did the right thing. She expressed her love.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">TUESDAY, by Edgar</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Anna started morning meeting by talking about how she chatted with Hannah, and she thanked Hannah for telling her her (anna’s) story was good.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hannah told Anna that she wants to be better friends and get to know Anna more.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tal somehow got into a rant about putting knowledge into the bank, in a metaphorical sense. Tal asked if we were putting everything into the bank or if we were just letting it fly by. To me it seemed as if Tal was asking or doing so to get us prepared for the upcoming weeks for when we will be talking about glass onions. And what is to be happening next year.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nathan talked about his brother is leaving for college and Johan his friend/ exchange student is going to be leaving. Nathan talked about how this relates to his story and how he will miss his brother and “Brother”, Johan. Tal told Nathan to talk to Lydia about this subject as Lydia has two siblings in college.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I read a poem by Edgar Allen Poe,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Evening Star</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">'Twas noontide of summer, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And mid-time of night; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And stars, in their orbits, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Shone pale, thro' the light </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Of the brighter, cold moon, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">'Mid planets her slaves, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Herself in the Heavens, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Her beam on the waves. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I gazed awhile </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On her cold smile; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Too cold- too cold for me- </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There pass'd, as a shroud, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A fleecy cloud, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And I turned away to thee, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Proud Evening Star, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In thy glory afar, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And dearer thy beam shall be; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For joy to my heart </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Is the proud part </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thou bearest in </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Heaven at night, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And more I admire </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thy distant fire, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Than that colder, lowly light. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">—Edgar Allan Poe</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hannah presented a great project about Sierra Leone in which I learned a lot about blood diamonds, the Civil War in Sierra Leone,</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and what it is like for the people to have to have gone through terrible things. Basically, her project was about Dystopia. Hannah asked us what we would choose if we were told we would loose a limb or kill children, women and men by decapitation, without knowing this is what lies ahead. All we know is that we will be joining terrorist like groups. It was scary to think about. But not all hope was lost. Hannah told us about the Sierra Leone football club (Soccer for those American type). The game is like normal soccer but only those with missing legs or arms can play. The game is like normal football, it consists of two teams. All positions are the same as regular football players are missing a leg and use crutches to run while keepers are missing an arm or hand. The game has been a big hope for those who thought they could no longer play after they had lost limbs in the Civil War.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Step-Up Day for the Weekly Email (7</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and eighth graders at school for Wednesday/Thursday</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Written by Miles Waldron</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wednesday</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wednesday was the first day that the ninth graders were on their annual hike and the sevies and eighties were left at the school alone with Eric. We all sat up at the table and began morning meeting, Rider took charge and sat in Tal’s chair, squeaking back and forth.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I was thinking of the ninth graders and felt really happy for them,” someone said.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I was talking to Rose this morning and she was really nervous but after a while she felt better.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Yesterday I was talking to a 5 year old friend of mine about the universe, it was really interesting that I could talk to other people about that kind of thing”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Yesterday I had a good time biking with Rider, Anneke and Britta.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“After Hannah’s project the other day on Sierra Leone and the diamond trade. I was thinking that people would do almost anything to get a shiny little pebble. Greed can sometimes be so de-humanizing”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then Jesse read, “As I Ponder’d in Silence” by Walt Whitman.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As I ponder’d in silence, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Returning upon my poems, considering, lingering long, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Phantom arose before me, with distrustful aspect, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Terrible in beauty, age, and power, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The genius of poets of old lands,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As to me directing like flame its eyes, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With finger pointing to many immortal songs, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And menacing voice, What singest thou? it said; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Know’st thou not, there is but one theme for ever-enduring bards? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The making of perfect soldiers? </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">2</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Be it so, then I answer’d, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I too, haughty Shade, also sing war—and a longer and greater one than</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">any, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Waged in my book with varying fortune—with flight, advance, and</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">retreat—Victory deferr’d and wavering, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Yet, methinks, certain, or as good as certain, at the last,)—The</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">field the world;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For life and death—for the Body, and for the eternal Soul, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lo! too am come, chanting the chant of battles, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I, above all, promote brave soldiers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then Eric talked about us the sevies and the eighties. He said that our culture celebrates certain turning points in people’s lives like when someone turns 18 or 21. But looking back on his life Eric said that those weren’t really the turning points, the real times are seventh through ninth grade. The eight graders are in the middle of it and I (Eric) can see the adult part in people like Rider, Aylee, Sarah and Anna. “But we all have to be totally in the moment.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then he went on to say that all of the ninth grade science classes are really good. This year’s ninth graders </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">don’t</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> have a bad case of ninth-gradeitis, a common disease among ninth graders that induces heavy bouts of slacking and spasms of not-caring-because-we’re-are-leaving.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He also talked about some attitude and mind-set of a certain student in the school. “I clearly see you growing, but I want to see you leap” and, “When people get behind they scramble to catch up, and the quality of their work goes down a lot.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After that morning meeting Eric instructed us to “Rip out the paper carefully” and “Write a letter to yourselves about things that you have liked about yourself, like about yourself and want to like about yourself.”</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We all went to work, writing letters to ourselves that Eric will send to us in 10 to 12 years. The room was silent, a few whispers here and there “Dude, you are so messed.” One boy quietly jokes to another. Eric gives us a good lesson on stamps, letters and addressing envelopes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Onward to the first activity of the day, the beginning of our Utopia cities/communities/places. Eric told us to research a Utopia society and base or place off it. A bunch of people tumbled outside to start a community on part of the nature trail. Others stayed inside to research their place. There was the bustle of getting tools, raking the paths, setting up territory, and building the beginnings of a Utopia. For the next two hours or so everyone was working, laughing, eating lunch, and having fun in the wonderful spring weather.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Don’t use plywood,” was uttered by Eric to forgetful students at least a dozen times.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Each place was based off someone’s project from the year so far:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St. USA</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: Hannah, Lydia, Aylee, Rider, Claire, Oliver-- Based on Henry's project on the 60s and the 70s.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood Inc</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.: Henry, Isabel, Edgar, Anna, Reed Ma, Miles, Jesse--Based on Quakers & Humanism</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: Cassie, Reed Me, Evan, Rio, Calder, Sophie, Luke---Based on Reed Ma’s project on Koinania Farms/Partners</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Renaissance</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: Nate, Bryne, Sarah, Simon, Kiley, Anneke, Yared--Based on Reed Me’s project on The Renaissance</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The next activity was to answer questions on a sheet. The questions ranged from: “If you were going to be stuck on a desert island with one book of poetry, which of the following authors would you want it to be?” to “In which of the following would you choose to live:” All of the questions were multiple choice and we were to answer the question based on what we thought our ninth graders would have thought we would say. The day before they had written down their guesses of what we would pick and if we guessed the correct one then we would get ‘one checkmark’. It was a test of how well our ninth graders knew us and how well we knew them. The results are in percentage:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St: Winner with 59%</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Renaissance: #2 with 52%</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood inc.: #3 with 46%</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa: #4 with 42%</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> To wrap up the day, the groups took part in a competition created by Hannah and Lydia, specifically designed for their team to win. It was a fashion show, with the ‘clothes’ made only of natural materials found in the nearby woods. We were given half an hour to find all the materials we needed and create a costume. After our half hour was up we piled into the Big Room and everyone did his or her model walk on the Big Room table. Eric videotaped the whole thing, even when Riders costume exploded (no students were injured).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Thursday</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Again we piled into the Big Room and crowded around the table.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I felt that yesterday, Rider was a ninth grader”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“The other night I was talking to my dad about Hannah’s project about greed and de-humanization and I had a really good time talking with him.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Lately Hannah and I have been emailing each other about things that we love and I have been feeling a lot closer to her. We have been telling each other all of the big things and the small things”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Everyone had a really good time yesterday working on the Utopias.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Then Simon read two poems, “The City” and “Ionic” both by Cavafy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">"The City"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By C. P. Cavafy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Find another city better than this one.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Whatever I try to do is fated to turn out wrong</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And my heart lies buried like something dead.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">How long can I let my mind moulder in this place?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Wherever I turn, wherever I look,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I see the black ruins of my life, here,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Where I’ve spent so many years, wasted them, destroyed them totally.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This city will always pursue you.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You’ll walk the same streets, grow old</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You’ll always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">there’s no ship for you, there’s no road.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ionic</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By C.P. Cavafy</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">That we’ve broken their statues,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">that we’ve driven them out of their temples,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">doesn’t mean at all that the gods are dead.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">O land of Ionia, they’re still in love with you,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">their souls still keep your memory.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When an August dawn wakes over you,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">your atmosphere is potent with their life,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and sometimes a young ethereal figure,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">indistinct, in rapid flight,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">wings across your hills.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eric then instructed us to write down things that we felt were either an issue from yesterday or something that was good that happened. After a few minutes of intense scribbling we all were assigned jobs to do outside; fill potholes, work on the bread oven roof and work on our garden.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After that we all competed in a competition made by ninth graders Henry, Isabel and Edgar. This particular contest was designed so that the team Sherwood Inc. would have the best chance at winning. There were four parts, made specifically for the four team-members Anna, Reed Ma, Jesse and me (Miles). The first challenge was for the team to set up the projector as fast as they could to show a movie. When movie is projecting and sound is playing the timer stops. They weren’t allowed to do anything that might harm any equipment. This part was designed for me because I was probably the most technological savvy person in the room.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">All the teams scurried around plugging in cords, pushing buttons and all the while everyone was yelling, singing or screaming.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Renaissance</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: 2 min 40 sec;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; "><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood Inc</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.: 3 min 44 sec;</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: 8 min 5 sec; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St USA</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: more than 10 minutes</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Next we had to pick one person on our team to do a ballet move. This section was created so that the only practiced ballerina in the school, Anna, would win. After a few moments of discussion and practice the ballerinas performed.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood Inc</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> -- "Balancé" by Anna; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> -- "Indebouler" by Sophie; </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Renaissance</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> -- "Plié en Point" by Sarah</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St. USA</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> -- "Arabesque" by Rider</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Next we were to write down all the information we had as a group about any one specific disease – no books or Internet allowed. This one was designed for Jesse because the week before she had attended a 12 hour-long lecture on Lyme disease with her dad.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood Inc</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: "Lyme Disease"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Renaissance</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: "Ebola" a </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">very</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> close second...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St. USA</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: "Mad Cow Disease" </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: "Mesothelioma" </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To wrap up the contest we were to sing a song taught at a local elementary school – the entire team must sing. This part was for Reed Ma who knew a lots of different songs from her time at the Lincoln School.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Main St. USA</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with "Twas Friday Night"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Sherwood Inc.</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with "One Bottle of Pop"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Renaissance</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with " Morning Town"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Causa</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> with " This Land is Your Land"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The following competition was created for The Renaissance by Nate and Bryn. ‘Write a poem by yourself in your own separate places in the woods for 10 minutes. Your poem should be about a small thing that you are looking at in the woods. When Eric rings the bell, your group will come together. You will then have 20 minutes to combine your poems into one. You must use at least 2 lines from each individual's poems.’ We did this and the ninth graders will be judging them on Monday.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Here are the poems:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Poem #1:</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">had it once been a wonder,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a bird watching its mother fly,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">one small pin prick,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from the never ending patterns,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">am I greater than the dead?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Don't follow me into the rain</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">where the glittering water</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">will cling</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">to my one beat pulse.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Am I dead,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">truly dead</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">trying to see</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the problems in falling</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">down to touch the small tender plant</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">but they don't pay me any attention</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">for I am the revolver.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Poem #2</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Why do we reach?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">color piercing my clouded vision</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I look closely, letting my eyes blur,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">focus,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">then blur again</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">fingers stretching up from a barrier</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a fallen tree, roots reaching to the sky</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A crazy intertwinement of life beating with green simplicity</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">why do we reach</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">with so many fingers</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">touching shadows</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">seeming lost.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">they stretch to the gentle blue</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">held forever in existence</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">catch soft fragrance filling me</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the world is a black and white,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">disguised in color</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">keeping the silence</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">making the ripples last</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">this is the closest I can get.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Poem #3</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The birds sing in the distance,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Searching for something, someone,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Days go, fluttering by on</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Starched wings, flapping drunkenly,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">because maybe they are happy too.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You are innocent as a child,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the little flower, the shining world,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">what do you know of life?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The blue sky makes me laugh,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the sun makes me think.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But is it perfect?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Grey rocks, white rocks-</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">they blend together, none like the other,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">but each the same.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A square packet flapping,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">proclaiming organic,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">when all it does is fade,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the sky, itself, the grass-</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we are tearing down, as we build up.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But still we know,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">from the woman laughing, hair stirred,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the child, inquisitive eyes wide,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the old man, who raises his head,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and goes on,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">for so much longer,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">with so much more.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Poem #4</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A life of change</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cowering before its conqueror</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Shaking without love</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Among the behemoths</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dancing over broken glass</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Blood splattered yet beautiful</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Something so terrible</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Something so dazzling</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A golden glow is evident</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yet is goes unnoticed,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By the bees who bring you death</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Death that allows you to change</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ripen red and sweet.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can call death a weed</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">But you only have to look</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To know it isn't true.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Baskerville;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Then to wrap up the day we all watched the movie “Green Fried Tomatoes” and ate chocolate ordered from Koinania Partners.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wednesday, On the Hike (Day one) (by Edgar)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></u></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We all arrived at the trailhead and started to load up the food. Mia, after handing us all the food, fell backwards as to give us an assurance that this is going to be real easy. Over the course of the day every one of us talked to each other and walked alone for part of the hike. The day was beautiful and back wrenching. We arrived at the camp about an hour or two earlier then the previous groups of ninth graders before us. At camp we set up the sleeping bags and pads and hammock. Yes, there was a hammock. Nathan decided to bring his father’s hammock and stretch it across Lydia, Reed and myself. I was hesitant of Nathan falling on me for a reason: it happened. Luckily it was just my legs and it wasn’t high up. The nail Nathan had hung on end up on turned to release the weight. Later Nathan fixed the hammock so as it would not fall. Since we had time to kill before dinner and bed we decided to play some games. One game was were you say a word that is basically two words put together. You then must create a word from the last part of the word before and the person to not find a word loses. We played this for a while until everyone was in then it eventually died down. Later that evening there was a new game in which you create sentences by having people go around in a circle and say a word that goes with what has already been said. Here are some examples of what we created.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Hiking, happily, in, forests, in, outer, Mongolia, however, my, hair, allows, Lydia, to, Eat, noodles.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Fire, Burns, Evil, loud, boys, except, our, stick, which, we, will, sharpen, at, coolly, glen, shelter. No, one, survives, except, meditating, wolverines, and, wonderful, loving, Chris.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Later Tal had us summarize how our day was through three words, here they are:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Long trail moose-crap</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Separated in swamp</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Climbing happy fire</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Joyful bullying cozy</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Wet tired rejoice</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mud voices, smoke</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Mia’s homemade jerky</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Love supple swamp</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Noise laughter love</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Filtration purity brook</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Poem view firs</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Listening Reed’s laughter</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Rainless rocks serenity</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Silly sublime sore</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">After dinner Tal told us the story of the Goshen man. And we went to bed with laughter and conversations of how/ what we feel through questions. At five in the morning people started to stir thinking it was six by the amount of light outside. Half an hour later I decided to start a fire because it was so cold. A couple of people agreed, with one small misinterpretation. Five minutes later Rose walked from the bathroom and started to help with the fire. Right when the fire was at a blaze Tal arose from a path with a stern face. “You guys, its five thirty in the morning! Go back to bed!” he said while making angry hand gestures. “Oh crud,” I thought. I let the fire die down as everyone went back to bed. Later when it was actually time to get up Tal explained why he was so grumpy but also that he had to be somewhat nice because we were, after all, starting a fire.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Day #2 on the Hike, By Bryn</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I woke to the sound of Edgar’s loud whisper on the other side of the Cooley Glen Shelter. My feet were cold on the bottom of my sleeping bag and I tried to curl my feet closer together to retain some heat. My eyes were heavy, but I sat up anyway and the air was freezing. The sun hadn’t yet risen and I wondered how early it was. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“Edgar, what time is it?” I asked. I heard others stirring around, but I couldn’t see any of their faces because the sleeping bags were pulled all across their bodies.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“Edgar, go to sleep.” I heard someone say.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“I’m going to start a fire.” Edgar said and was out of his sleeping bag and to the pit of charred logs from the night before. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>“Edgar, it’s 5:30.” I heard Lydia say with her head sticking up out of the sleeping bag. Edgar came back to his sleeping bag and I laid back and listened to the soft breathing of my fellow 9</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> graders lull me to sleep again. The next thing I heard was Tal’s voice and cool hair floating in through my sleeping bag.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“It’s 7:25,” He said and I slowly sat up as the cold air flowed over my head and the sun shinned brightly all around the shelter. I watched as a film was across my eyes started to clear and Tal started to pour water into the metal pot. Smoke rose from the newly made fire and everyone started to groan and move around me looking at the fire with bleary eyes. In a slow daze we all got up with our hair in every which way and blowing on our fingers to keep warm. We all moved sluggishly for a while until the water was boiling and Chai and oatmeal with blueberries (that Mia so thoughtfully brought along) were being consumed and then we were happier, moving with more of a sting in our steps. It is the second day, the hardest day, we had all been told by Tal, 8.5 miles and up hill most of the way, rocky and snowy and eating while standing up on the trail. It was the day were there were amazing views and cliffs to climb with just the packs on our backs.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">“Leave no trace!” Tal kept saying and we only half listened, smiling to ourselves as we packed up. Finally we were all packed up our backpacks lined up along the bottom of the shelter. Tal passed around the bag of poems and we each took the one that we picked for the second day of the hike. 13 poems, Walt Whitman, T.S Elliot, Rumi, E.E Cummings, Bill Waterson, all trying to say the same but different things. To love the things more then we fully understand and to be able to let go and also hang on so hard.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The beginning we went straight up along slippery rocks and broke thin ice covering muddy puddles, the sun was so bright and shone onto the smooth veins of small leaves. We stepped over many fallen trees and tripped over our feet and laughed as we looked in each other’s eyes. There was a time when I was alone, a group behind me and a group in the front. I couldn’t hear anything, I wasn’t sure where I was, I didn’t know even if I was on the right trail and the only way for me to know I wasn’t lost were the tracks of the hiking boots left on the dry rocks. I stood for a moment as I reached the top and I could hear both groups, all of the laughter and talking and I was in the middle surrounded by everything I ever wanted. As I reached the top the wind blew harder and the smiles were brighter and closer, I was with them again. We hiked down together in a line, closer now, watching the feet in front of us, showing each other the right path down the steep rocks. Just keep going,, we had to say to each other, talking and also silence, the enjoyment of grins and memories that we forgot we ever had. We finally got to Skylight Pond at 5:30; we pulled off our hot, wet hiking boots and looked at the smooth pond. The day got slowly darker around us. All of the 9</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> graders hiked up to the view above the cabin, the rocks that seemed to look over everything. We sat in a line, stretches of pale pinks across the mountains that were vividly blue. The wind was strong and we picked the pine needle off of the little pine trees and threw them into the gusts and they flew back at us against a sky that would never forget. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We hiked back after that, to Annie’s mac and cheese and pesto pasta made by Rose and Mia. Tal made a fire outside of the cabin and we all sat around, close, but not too close. We smiled and stared at the smoke swirling up above our heads, reading out loud from the log book of the cabin and laughing so hard it was hard to stop. We eventually went back into the cabin and lay next to each other and I felt like I was one of the last to fall asleep, because I didn't want to forget the warm, soft breathing that surrounded me with some sort of non-explainable joy that resonated in my bones and I feel asleep without meaning to close my eyes in the darkness.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Day #3 on the Hike, By Bryn</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">I woke up on Friday morning to the fog outside of the small window and the breathing of the people I loved around me and I remembered that it was always the last day; it was truly the end now. The air was cold even in the cabin, but the warmth of the bodies around me gave me some sort of comfort. We all had cups of hot chocolate, instant oats and one blueberry each. The day was wet, but not raining, we were sitting in a cloud and as we went outside to find our hiking boots soggy from sitting out in the rain. More packing, slowly. It was the last day, only 5 miles, it was harder today though because we after all were tired and the day seemed wetter then it had any other day so far. I looked out at the pond and could barely see the other side and somehow that made we feel warmer, surrounded by something warm. We all stood around in the cabin and spilling out in the porch. It was the last poems of the three days, we all knew it was almost the end; we were still striving to end this time and this year. I closed my eyes for a moment and let the voices float into me and make me remember what they said and the familiar sounds that meant so much. We started off again, up and then mostly down. Tal told stories of his past life, of his mentor, Bernie, and as we stopped for lunch, a man running from Middlebury College was running and stopped to talk for a second. Tal said that he was the first person they had seen in on the trail in four years.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The sun finally came out and I could see everything was brighter and more beautiful then I ever remembered, I started to hold on tighter to the people around me, getting closer to their feet as I walked because I wanted to know that everything was ending. As we walked down the end of the trail in silence I saw the beauty of my class and it wasn’t hard to say how much they have always kept me moving. As we stumbled out of the trail I saw every face of all the 9</span></span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> graders as bright beacons of wonder and love. As we walked across the concrete road and to the sign across from us. We sat in front of the sign and it finally sunk it, that it was the end, that we were so strong, so wonderfully together in that moment. Tal turned to all of us and told us he had to read one last thing, for the end, we had to hear this. It was by T.S Elliot out of his book </span></span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Four Quartets</span></span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Home is where one starts from.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">As we grow older</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Of dead and living. Not the intense moment</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Isolated, with no before and after,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But a lifetime burning in very moment</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">And not the lifetime of one man only</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">But of old stones that cannot be deciphered</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">There is a time for the evening under starlight,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">A time for the evening under lamplight</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">(The evening with the photograph album).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Love is not nearly itself</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">When here and now cease to matter</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Old men ought to be explorers</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Here and there does not matter</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">We must be still and still moving</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Into another intensity</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">For a further union, a deeper communion</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Through the dark cold and the empty desolation</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:48.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';">Of the petrel and the porpoise</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> In my end is my beginning</span></span><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-82528683216557965382010-05-09T08:42:00.000-07:002010-05-09T08:49:52.725-07:00Sometimes a Soul<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Y9VLdBqjICP6wQfqVpOh8v4xx7mF47-n_OzJq_TMIRN3Jl-yf2Nu8MZ7e9ZnOv_ecXwqxYQy-0nx4k-pDX-0F_gA-yTG27Wb13y74xhoL-luJ4r76Z9yJjRmUhRf6KtZQz9PhDL2pLQ/s1600/ClarenceJordan.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 207px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Y9VLdBqjICP6wQfqVpOh8v4xx7mF47-n_OzJq_TMIRN3Jl-yf2Nu8MZ7e9ZnOv_ecXwqxYQy-0nx4k-pDX-0F_gA-yTG27Wb13y74xhoL-luJ4r76Z9yJjRmUhRf6KtZQz9PhDL2pLQ/s320/ClarenceJordan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469296928340264706" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">By Henry Birdsey</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">MONDAY:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We started off the morning listening (some less interested than others) to Tal ranting about the current status of the football world around the globe. (For those less culturally integrated, “Football” is played with the foot, not by tackling to get an oval pigskin lump) Isabel talked about how she wanted ice cream, but was too lazy to go to the store but she and her sister went to a creamy stand and talked together. The new rage of “skate board guys” out on the patio is growing rapidly.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Skateboarding not a phase, it’s a passion,” </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">says seventh grader, Evan Sandoe</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nate talked about how his Dad woke him up at the un-godly hour of </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">6:55 A.M. (</span></b></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We laughed at him about his teenage sloth-like sleeping pattern. Wow that’s real early) and made him go for a swim in their pond, and Tal proceeded to tell us about his days at Camp Cherokee in Georgia and how he went swimming every morning in the lake in the nude. Rider Talked about his pony, Mike, who he has known since he was three, was leaving to go to another barn, and Rider felt like part of his childhood was leaving. Anna read “Minor Bird” by Robert Frost:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I have wished a bird would fly away,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And not sing by my house all day;</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Have clapped my hands at him from the door</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When it seemed as if I could bear no more.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The fault must partly have been in me.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The bird was not to blame for his key.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And of course there must be something wrong</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In wanting to silence any song.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tal warned the whole school about the upcoming annual Ninth grade hike and how metaphorically, the ninth graders are leaving and it is time in those two day for the sevies and eighties to step up, or as Tal describes it: “</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Man up and Woman up!” </span></b></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The younger students have the time (and opportunity) to be the great leaders and sculptors of the school. Yared told us that his leg injury was getting better and he could run and bike now. We cheered. We stared in horror at the giant smiley face Edgar had drawn reading: </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Happy Harold!</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In math, some of us learned about inequalities, linear equations, the tangent ratio, secant, central, and inscribed angles, the law of sines and cosines. There were some exasperated groans, and some cheers of joy at a finished sheet of homework torn out of a notebook left on the big room table along with orange peels, empty organic yogurt containers, guitar picks, a graduated flask belonging to the science room, and </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Song of Myself</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, by Walt Whitman.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The whole school has been recording the weather for a few weeks, and growing genuine Vermont pond-weed and algae in our reeking fish tank. We observed the atmospheric pressure on our inaccurate home-made barometer. We tested vacuums and iron filing in test tubes. We turned in our water molecule cartoon strips and Nitrogen labs.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">After lunch, we watched a short movie, as a conclusion oo Reed Martin’s project on the Koinonia commune. The name of the movie “Briars in the Cotton Patch”, was a metaphor for what Koinonia was in the world and outside society. They were people unafraid of community integration between blacks and whites. With each advancement of the community, it was described as a thorn into the majority of the society, the cotton bush. People cried as they remembered the days of the commune and the feelings it gave them. Members philosophized and contemplated what it meant to take the teachings, the spirit, and the body of Jesus Christ, and bring in to life in whatever form on earth. People came to Koinonia for an escape from the material world, to be closer to the land, and for an alternate life of Christianity. Clarence Jordan, the founder and spiritual leader was the drive behind this thorn into the southern United States.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“We succeeded spiritually, not statistically.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“I won’t step aside, but I won’t create trouble.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“God, Let me die with my working boots on.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“We will fear mediocrity over failure.”</span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>-all quotes by Jordan</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> There are two kinds of revolt. Both of which can achieve something, on some level, but the big mistakes are made by making the wrong decision about what kind of revolutions are efficient and truly Eutopian. One kind is violent, loud, directly powerful. Another is quiet, revolt of the mind, carried into society with reasonable caution, but rightly stubborn in the belief. Clarence Jordan, I think was the second. An emotionally raging pacifist with not only a vision, but a place where humans, divided by judgment of society, can live in harmony like brothers and sisters.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> I believe, in an abstract sense, the majority of the time, that this is what NBS is supposed to be. There are no confines but greatness, and we should want to be and actually be working, seeking, striving for this greatness with every thing we do. We are not revolutionaries, not yet, but before we fight, we must understand which way to do it, and most importantly, WHY.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">TUESDAY:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Morning meeting: Claire is excited about her science project on the climate of Hawaii, and has made a great beginning on her comic about two botony nerds in on Vacation in Hawaii, and on a deeper level, she read Isabel’s story, and saw how many “stages” or “phases” that Isabel has gone through over her three years at NBS and Claire was thinking about what her own phases would be. Tal swaggered about, showing off himself about the school grounds, feeling superior about his Koinonia Commune T-shirt, saying he was wearing his Clarence Jorden get-up, since he was wearing torn jeans as well. Sophie read the poem “Alone with everybody” a favorite of mine, by the one and only: Charles Bukowski.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the flesh covers the bone</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and they put a mind</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in there and sometimes a soul,</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the women break</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">vases against the walls</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the men drink too much</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and nobody finds the one</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">but keep looking</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">crawling in and out</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">of beds.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">flesh covers</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the bone and the</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">flesh searches</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">for more than</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">flesh.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">there's no chance</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">at all:</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we are all trapped</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">by a singular fate.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">nobody ever finds</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the one.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the city dumps fill</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the junkyards fill</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the madhouses fill</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the hospitals fill</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the graveyards fill</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">nothing else</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">fills.</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:Palatino;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Reed Messner gave his project on the Renaissance. Reed’s project was totally amazing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He told us about the spiritual awakening and revelation of Francesco Petrarch, at the summit of Mt. Ventoux. He was disgusted with the past ages of medieval times when society thought the human could not evolve anymore. He named this the “dark ages. ”Petrarch was the first humanist, and father of the Renaissance (meaning “rebirth” in French) The Renaissance movement spread through Europe and spawned the beginnings, and exponential development of drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, science, religion, literature, poetry, and a new society spreading from Florence, Italy, across Europe (partly owning to the physical closeness of cultures in Europe, Tal said—).</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We learned about architects, Vetruvius and Brunelleschi, and artists famous from their work in that time period and artistic rivalry, Michaelangelo (“Sistine Chapel,” “David”) and Leonardo Da Vinci (“Mona Lisa,” the flying machine, miscellaneous writings and inventions) Artists weren’t truly respected until the Renaissance, and at this time, they also developed a genius step toward painting with the discovery of linear perspective, making a 2 dimensional surface appear to be three dimensional, or showing an object in 3D form. This discovery started the offspring of Realism in the art world. We looked at the Mona Lisa, which used the golden ratio to show the parts of the head proportionally. And in the “Last Supper”, the lines of linear perspective point directly to the center of the painting, which is Christ’s eye. Tal noted that the windows in the background of the “Last Supper” were mimicked by Picasso in “Guernica,” which, in it’s own way, is a contemporary re-play of the Last Supper.</span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Reed told us that Leonardo was working with a telescope, 400 years before one was actually used in astronomy officially.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the time of the Renaissance, even more so than the development of society in terms of art, and literature, in my opinion, was the fact that at this time, people began to understand science, astronomy, and human body, but religion (mostly Christianity) also developed, parallel to science. They operated intertwining through the science of art and spirit of it. That is an ultimate middle path.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon, the eighth and ninth grade lit. class watched a documentary about Picasso’s “Guernica,” painted during the Spanish civil war, as a response to the bombing of the twon of Guernica in 1937 in the Spanish Civil War. “Guernica,” the painting is an important part in our current literature book, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My Name Is Asher Lev</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. The film showed a few out of hundreds of pre-Guernica sketches, with only a few shapes, and objects that came through in the final piece. Picasso made the painting, which is 11 feet tall and 26 feet long, in eight stages, using structures of diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines to divide the surface into fractions. It showed the development of each character and object, and separated the figures in triads that are grouped together mostly based on expression and symbolic meaning. We looked in detail at the flower in the hand of the dead soldier, the arrow pointing up from the ground, the windows (in fact much like those of </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the last supper), </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the horse covered in newspaper, the lamp at the top of the painting, slightly resembling a human eye, the raging bull, symbolizing power, destruction, and blind rage, the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Pieta</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-like weeping mother</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and her dead child, the woman with the oil lamp, the staggering woman looking at the light from an open door, and closed door and doorknob at the far right, the shades of light, the hollow neck of the dead soldier, and his hand, resembling the hand of Jesus in Grunewald‘s Crucifixion interpretation where the hands of Jesus are clawing, and violent looking, rather than traditional crucifixions, where the hands are open, gracefully. Picasso used in this monumental painting bits and pieces of strategy and style of past artists.</span></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">He took all things in that current world and compacted it into a painting, full with every bit of meaning, left to decipher, again and again.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In science, we prepared for our Ultimate Frisbee match by watching videos of professional ultimate players, and then playing our match in the rain. NBS played Vermont Commons in Burlington and lost 12-4, but VCS trains all year. Traditionally in ultimate Frisbee, each team sings a song after the game. We did a version of “London Calling” by The Clash, and changed the lyrics a little to fit the circumstances:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vermont Commons in a faraway town</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Now that war is declared-and the battle come down</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vermont Commons, when the disk went up</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Came out of the cupboard with the ultimate huck.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vermont Commons, now don't look at us</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Their flick is fantastic, left us in the dust</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vermont Commons, see we ain't got no swing</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Not when their D keeps us on the wing.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">CHORUS</span></i></b></span><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The ice age is coming, the disk is zooming in</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">They got them some wheels and they're determined to win</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A nuclear error, but we have no fear</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Vermont Commons by the lake...-and we live…down by the river</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(The North Branch River in Ripton, that is)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">WEDNESDAY:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nathan and his family’s foreign exchange student from Spain, Yoann, had an argument (about cereal we think), but Nate said that even though they were mad at each other at the beginning, the fight brought them closer together. Anneke went home and read books about Guernica, which covered her whole desk. Multiple people said how much Reed’s project inspired them to be really good on theirs, including myself, and I already gave mine. We talked about how things (projects in this case) can seem large, overwhelming, and lifeless, but when you begin to learn about it, the vast worlds of knowledge behind each idea, fact and feeling, the </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">stuff </span></b></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(whatever it may be) comes to life because it is understood.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon, we went to the basement and did our somewhat unstructured art class. Most of us were in the stage of making large self-portrait collages using shredded, dusty, and out of date (by at least 30 years) National Geographics and world book encyclopedias, using faces, textures, objects, 1979 Cadillac car logos, Jimmy Cliff pictures, burning buildings, dolphins, sunrises, mules, rural Chinese farm fields, and a whole lot of sticky (and mostly dried out) YES (brand) paste to hold it all together.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">THURSDAY:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cassie presented her project on Communism and McCarthyism. The basic definition of is “a system where financial and social status is common among all people” and all “property is held in common.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cassie told us about the meaning of the symbol of communism, the red star with a hammer and sickle. The red color represents defiance, and the five points of the star represent the five basic ideas of communism, or the five fingers on the hand of a worker. The hammer symbolizes industrial progress and power, and the sickle represents the importance of the common agricultural worker. Some of the first communist ideas were in Sparta, where everyone lived for the city, not for self or family. They fought. Plato was also considered by some to be one of the first people with communist ideas. At that time, some religious groups (even some Christians) had some communist attributes.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Nature has given every man the right to the enjoyment of an equal share in all property</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">” -</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Francois-Noel Babeuf</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">FNB </span></b></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">was a radical anarchist in post Revolutionayy France who advocated for all property to be held in commona and to use violent methods to over-throw the new system. He is considered to be the first anarchist, as well as a communistic thinker.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Cassie told us about the official beginnings of the communism idea, starting with Karl Marx. Marx, as a young man, aimed to conquer the world with poetry, but soon realized that he was not a productive poet. In fact, according to Cassie, he was a crappy poet. After this failure, he began writing for revolutionary papers until these were shut down by the government. He wanted to commit to his communist ideas and make them known, because he believed religion was a drug, and a temporary solution to personal and societal problems and unhappiness. The real problem is the reason why people feel the need to put all faith into a religion and not into the real problem. Marx believed that with communism, the high and low classes could both benefit from one thing rather than the higher class becoming higher, and the lower class staying stationary. Marx met Friedrich Engels, and together they wrote multiple books about communism, and most famously, they were the authors of the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Communist Manifesto</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We talked about the Russian Revolution, led by Vladamir Lenin and Leon Trotsky in 1917, and the first and second Red Scares. We learned about “The Hollywood 10”, 10 actors, all accused of being communist, and projecting communist ideas through their films. Tal warned us that we will be learing all about the Red Scare, McCarthyism, the Wobblies, and the American Communist Party when we are in High School.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the afternoon, in the 8</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> and 9</span><sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">th</span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> grade lit. Class, reading </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My Name is Asher Lev</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> , we talked about Asher being in Paris and finally, making the biggest decision as an artist. He painted a crucifixion, but he is an observant Jew. He is causing his family pain by painting of Christian form, but the crucifixion he paints, called </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Brooklyn Crucifixion I </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">is of his family. His mother, torn apart, supporting both Asher’s Fathers work in building Jewish yeshiva schools, and Asher’s passion for art. She worked for both of them. We said that even though this painting might cause pain to his family on the surface, it is a painting of appreciation. A painting of thanks. A painting of love. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr>“</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><wbr>HeHeHehejfcnbchhhdhdhdhjj” (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">editor’s note: this is probably something typed by Dalia while Henry was working on the email.)</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">FRIDAY:</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In our morning meeting, I read “Summit and Gravity” by Octavio Paz: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There's a motionless tree</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">And another one coming forward</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A river of trees</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Hits my chest</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The green surge</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Is good fortune</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You are dressed in red</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You are</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The seal of the scorched year</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The carnal firebrand</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The star fruit</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In you like sun</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The hour rests</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Above an abyss of clarities</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The height is clouded by birds</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Their beaks construct the night</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Their wings carry the day</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Planted in the crest of light</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Between firmness and vertigo</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You are</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Transparent balance</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> -Octavio Paz</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>(Editor's Note: Tal thinks Octavio’s poem expresses an idea we are all trying to achieve, and may yet achieve, the place where “wings carry the day/ planted in a crest of light between firmness and vertigo.”</i>) And Nathan read a poem I had sent to him the previous night by Charles Bukowski called “16 bit intel 8088 chip”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">16 bit intel 8088 Chip</span></i></b></span><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Palatino, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">With an Apple Macintosh</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you can't run Radio Shack programs</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in its disc drive.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">nor can a Commodore 64</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">drive read a file</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you have created on an</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">IBM Personal Computer.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">both Kaypro and Osborne computers use</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the CP/M </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Courier;"><i><a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/16-bit-intel-8088-chip/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(42, 93, 176); "><span style=" text-decoration: none; font-family:Palatino;color:windowtext;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">operating system</span></span></a></i></span><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">but can't read each other's</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">handwriting</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">for they format (write</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">on) discs in different</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ways.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the Tandy 2000 runs MS-DOS but</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">can't use most programs produced for</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the IBM Personal Computer</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">unless certain</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">bits and bytes are</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">altered</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">but the wind still blows over</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Savannah</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and in the Spring</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the turkey buzzard struts and</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">flounces before his</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">hens.</span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Courier;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I thought of this poem after talking with Tal about the ongoing war at NBS about which word processing device is better, The PC, or The Mac. (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tal said he has been listening to this ridiculous argument by his teen students for 23 years, since he first started teaching).</span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> This poem was read in attempt to show the universal meaninglessness of technology.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Later, we worked with Rose, making signs out of glass and concrete for our future human size sundial. And everyone else worked on the soon to be garden with shovels, rakes, spikes, trowels, garden carts, and Nepalese hoes. Tal repeatedly asked who was the best peasant. He said being the best peasant was a very high honor.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> In the afternoon, Tal read two stories. The first was written by Aylee. Before reading, Tal bluntly announced:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “This story is about dandelions.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Aylee wrote about how when she was little, she had an obsession, a love for dandelions. It meant spring, freedom, happiness. And she got older, and realized that it was not fitting for a sixth grader to sit in a field and look at dandelions and four leaf clovers. But in seventh grade, she got an email from some classmates. Thee email was a list of things her classmates “loved”. She remembered her love of dandelions. She saw that all those years the dandelions had not changed. She had and in her changing she he had moved to new things, and was now coming back.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The silence is crazy with noise, if only I could hear it” </span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">said </span><i><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></i></span><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Aylee in her story. (editor’s note</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: Isn’t this what we are trying to do?)</span></i></span><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> Then we read Sarah’s story. It was about her two childhood friends, Anneke and Aylee. She was only ever with one at a time, and this made Sarah feel like her heart was in two places, but when Anneke and Aylee came together, at NBS in seventh grade, they became best friends, leaving Sarah out. Sarah judged them for their “dippy-nes” and superficiality, but came to realize that there were layers of meaning under them, but they were covered by everyday life, and Sarah wanted to love their best selves, just like she wanted to preserve her best self. She couldn’t be strictly against “superficiality” all of the time. She couldn’t judge clothes, or lipstick, or music. The outside never changed the inside. Her fear of “dippy-ness” was not from other people. It was self-inflicted, it was fear of losing herself, for an internal reason.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family:ArialMT;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Cochin, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> The world is not changing. We are. NBS is not changing. The students are. We are nearing the end of the year. For some, the end of their NBS career. It’s scary. To leave a place that has provided comfort for three years. But if we didn’t have to move on, then our time wouldn’t be precious. We can only take, in our precious time, what we have learned, into whatever new place, internal or external, we find ourselves in. </span></span><span style=" ;font-size:11pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" ;font-family:Times-Roman;font-size:11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-48312922808338691252010-05-02T05:20:00.001-07:002010-05-03T08:40:05.150-07:00Hootenanny at the NBS<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wmYifuhILr_d7H_nt5fYLqQvG-8dCbxkrJ_N_Tmcu9h1dJYUhdI85W-0udVdxz6TR-zlkgMrUYb5d2qDuLgONJm8dU2V7GcMeOx2aqc4JPtkPbk46mi8HeXkPwr1Lzy-v1FR02a_Ivs/s1600/beethoven2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2wmYifuhILr_d7H_nt5fYLqQvG-8dCbxkrJ_N_Tmcu9h1dJYUhdI85W-0udVdxz6TR-zlkgMrUYb5d2qDuLgONJm8dU2V7GcMeOx2aqc4JPtkPbk46mi8HeXkPwr1Lzy-v1FR02a_Ivs/s320/beethoven2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466647825031743842" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-style: italic; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">By Reed Messner</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times-Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>Monday morning we had our morning meeting, and it was the first day in two weeks that Luke was there. He came back from Barcelona, Spain. So the first moment we had him back in our presence, he showed us his Barcelona t-shirt that had a mule on it, and he explained the difference between mules and donkeys because Catalonia’s animal… representative, is the mule.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“When a donkey and a horse hook up, they make a mule; but a Mule can’t reproduce because it doesn’t have any junk. That’s what my mom said!” He explained. We all laughed</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">. (</span><span class="Apple-style-span">editor’s note: we have a suspicion that this is not exactly how Luke’s mom said it.)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I read a poem, “We are Many” by Pablo Neruda. Here it is:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Of the many men who I am, who we are,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I can’t find a single one;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">they disappear among my clothes,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">they’ve left for another city.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span style="color:black;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When everything seems to be set</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">to show me off as intelligent,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the fool I always keep hidden</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">takes over all that I say</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">At other times, I’m asleep</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">among distinguished people,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and when I look for my brave self,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a coward unknown to me</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">rushes to cover my skeleton</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">with a thousand fine excuse</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">When a decent house catches fire,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">instead of the fireman I summon,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">an arsonist bursts on the scene,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and that’s me. What can I do?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">What can I do to distinguish myself?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How can I pull myself togeth</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">e</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">r?</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">All the books I read</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">are full of dazzling heroes,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">always sure of themselves.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I die with envy of them;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and in films full of wind and bullets,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I goggle at the cowboys,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I even admire the hor</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">s</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">es.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">But when I call for a hero,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">out comes my lazy old self;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">so I never know who I am,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nor how many I am or will be.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I’d love to be able to touch a bell</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and summon the real me,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">because if I really need myself,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I mustn’t disap</span></span><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">p</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">ear.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">While I’m writing, I’m far away;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and when I come back, I’ve gone.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I would like to know if others</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">go through the same things that I do,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">have as many selves as I have,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and see themselves similarly;</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and when I’ve exhausted this problem,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I’m going to study so hard</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">that when I explain myself,</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="color:black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I’ll be talking geog</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">raphy.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times-Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span>In the afternoon, Tim Woos, a composer and a former student of the North Branch School came to show a presentation on music.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> </span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"></span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>“What is music?” he asked us. He then played three songs on the radio/amplifier- A Beethoven symphony, “Master of Puppets” by Metallica, and “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>“What is music? These three are so different, but they all are music.” Tim said.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>We thought for a minute or two, and we all had trouble coming up with an exact answer.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“It’s a collection of notes put together towards one goal, the one song,” somebody blurted.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“But what makes those songs music, and the sound of the scuffling of these papers not music?” Tal asked.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“It doesn’t have to be notes though, it is any sounds. All sounds are music,” somebody added.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Tim told us that his definition of music is “organized sound.”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Other songs that Tim showed us and explained to us were compositions by Jennifer Higden, Tim’s upcoming teacher, who won the Pulitzer Prize two weeks ago, a hyper accordion playing, a composition of cars and trucks driving by, and they all sounded amazing, and made us feel something different.</span></span><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">He also played an amazing piece by Schumann that caused us to hear music differently.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>At the end of the day we all drew pictures, then split up into groups. Tim then instructed us to compose a simple piece of music based on our pictures. My group, consisting of Luke, Nathan, Sophie, Rose, Rio, Henry, Isabel and I, composed a piece using a wheelbarrow, marbles, a pizza pan, sand, a piece of PVC pipe, and a lawnmower. The other groups used vocal sounds, a poem, beat-boxing, pencils, a Frisbee, 6 orange cones, two pieces of crumpled paper, their hands, and many humming noises</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Music is simply organized sound. Why does music, just a certain collection of notes and vibrations in the air, make you feel a certain way? One sound would make you feel happy and peppy, and make you want to dance. Another set of notes would make you feel sadness. Some make you feel scared/frightened, angry, inspired. Why is that?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Tim said effective music is music that makes you feel exactly what the composer or performer was trying to express.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>First thing Tuesday Morning Meeting, Tal thoroughly explained the physics of his large hiking backpack as he got ready for the annual ninth-grade hiking/backpacking trip (which I will be participating in this year). He asked everybody if they thought he was cool. We all know the answer.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> </span></span>Henry said that he was thinking about Tim’s project the other day, and he was feeling bad that he didn’t have as broad of view of music. He thought about it from the perspective of a student, and as a fellow musician.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“There is so much to know… There are so many worlds to enter.”<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Nathan then read some quotes from Neimueller and the Tao Te Ching instead of a regular poem.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>During All-Tal, Ollie gave us his project on Eugenics. The first thing he did, was tell us (this isn’t actually true, what he says. It wa just an experiment.) that there will be no romantic relationships between any kids who have divorced parents, because their relationships will be more liable to fail. He also said that next year the soccer team will have tryouts and only the top 12 kids will make the team, to save money on the socks and jerseys the school has to buy. He named all the “bad note-takers” in the school and said that they must give their notebooks to the good note-takers. They have been deemed “un-improveable.” In the new Perfect NBS, there will be no resources or time spent on the “weaker ones.”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>Everyone knew that this was just an experiment, but we were mad anyway. We argued about the changes, and wanted to know who got to decide, and rebelled. As clever as young Oliver is, that is what he wanted to happen, for people to understand what Eugenics was like to the people involved, to see what it might be like to have one group of deciding who is fit and who is not.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>He gave us loads of information about various people who were for eugenics, different examples from the past, information about genetic engineering, and at the end we watched a clip of the original Frankenstein movie and we responded to questions.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>I think nothing on earth, nothing even in the mind, would make something like eugenics OK. The idea is a great idea; to make the human race perfect. But the way they thought they could obtain the goal is completely unacceptable and disgusting. Hitler killed 6 million Jewish people in the search of this goal, but it is an awful and disgusting thing to think about.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: italic; font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>During science class, we had two beakers, one on top of the other. One contained very hot water, while the other one was very cold and had ice in it. The two created fog/a small cloud in the space between. We then tried dropping a lit match into the water to create more of a cloud, and tried the same with aerosol. All of the ninth grade boys, including myself, shouted like monkeys when the cloud appeared. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(</span><span class="Apple-style-span">editor’s note: what is this monkey shouting by ninth grade boys?)</span></span></span><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> It was very fun.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48pt; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>On Wednesday morning Lydia read “Returning” by Wendell Berry. Here it is:</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times-Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I was walking in a dark valley</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And above me the tops of the hills</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">had caught the morning light.</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I heard the light singing as it went</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">among the grass blades and the leaves.</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">I waded upward through the shadow</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">until my head emerged,</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">my shoulders were mantled with light,</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and my whole body came up</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">out of the darkness, and stood</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">on the new shore of the day.</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Where I had come was home,</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">for my own house stood white</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">where the dark river wore the earth.</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The sheen of bounty was on the grass,</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And the spring of the year has come.</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times-Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Wednesday afternoon we continued on our self-portraits. So far we have done non-dominant hand drawing, a closed eyes drawing, a complete pencil drawing, a charcoal drawing, a collage for thank-you cards, and we are currently working on a complete, big collage. We have worked in silence, to keep everyone completely focused, and making their best work </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">(because, well, everyone will shout like monkeys and baboons if given the opportunity)</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Thursday morning Edgar said he shadowed at the high school yesterday, and he sat in during a literature class. “It was completely different than what we did here. It wasn’t worse necessarily, It was different questions, and the teacher just talked, and here we all talk, and… I don’t know. It was just totally different.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Simon also said that on the way to school today there was somebody new on the bus, an adult, and he didn’t know whether to talk to them or not. But they got off the bus before he could say anything. He said that you should take every chance you have, even if it is about something miniscule before it is too late. He said if you are going to do something, do it. Don’t just sit there thinking about it.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>On Thursday morning Miles read “Hate Blows a Bubble of Despair” by E.E. Cummings:</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times-Roman, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-style: normal;font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Hate blows a bubble of despair into</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">hugeness world system universe and bang</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">fear buries tomorrow under woe</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">and up comes yesterday most green and young</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">pleasure and pain are merely surface</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">(one itself showing, itself hiding one)</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Life’s only and true value neither is</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Love makes the little thickness of the coin</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Comes here a man would have from madame death</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">nevertheless now and without winter spring?</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">She’ll spin that spirit her own fingers with</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">And give him nothing (if he should not sing)</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">How much more than enough for both of us</span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">darling. And if I sing you are my voice.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>Reed Martin presented her project on the Koinonia. For those of you who do not know what that is, it is a farm community started by Clarence Jordan in 1942, in Georgia, that is still going on today. At first it was a utopia containing both African-Americans and whites living together, being paid equal wages, in the south, before the civil rights movement. Compared to all the racism around it, it was such a revolutionary idea. They were antagonized and shot at and even bombed by the KKK; Tal’s grandfather’s feed store was even bombed by the local people because Tal’s Grandfather refused to participate in the boycott against Koininia. A lot of people were scared. away. But in the 70’s the hippies came on over and gave them more residents again.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>For an activity, Reed broke us up into groups of twos that don’t usually talk to other. We then had to come up with three things that we both believed in and have in common. We needed a sacred belief, some sacred activities, and a sacred hope (for humanity). After we wrote them down we shared them to the class.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>On Friday morning, Aylee told us that Reed and Bryn’s grandfather had died. We talked about what their love must have been like for seventy years. Sophie came in late so Luke read a poem called “Last Days” by Mary Oliver.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>After that, Eric generously set out into the woods about two miles away a treasure hunt/orienteering test. We were given a paper that had three GPS points. We had to enter them in, and go to each one. My group was the orange group. I was with Tal, Isabel, Hannah, Aylee, Luke, Rio, Claire and Evan. Evan was absent, so we were a man down. There were Orange, Yellow, and Pink groups. The first point our group went to was up about a half of a mile into the woods. We had to climb a little cliff, but there was no danger involved. There were three markers- one for the orange team, one for the yellow and so on. The clue then said go 100 meters at 30 degrees. We used the compass then Tal took the paces. We found the markers and it said “bread” on it. At first we thought the bread oven, but then we remembered that Eric said the three code words you find scramble out to be “crappy hippy poetry.” We would then use that “poem” as the password to the computer, which had the last clue on it. So we set off onto the second clue, which was almost a mile away from where we were. So we walked until we got to the spring, then we met up with the yellow group at the clue. Easy. This clue said “Earth.” Bread and Earth. Hmm….We immediately got away from the yellow group because we had already passed one group who was coming back from the clue we were getting, on the way there. When we got to the coordinates of the third clue we were at the cemetery in Ripton. We found the Gravestone the clue on the paper Eric gave to us led us to. The women’s last name was Lovett. So we immediately thought that love-it was the final clue. We quickly got back to the school then we got the computer. We saw nobody there, so we assumed we were the first group back. We were very happy. I started typing in all the combinations in random order until I got something. No luck. Isabel then said that she remembered something about the some of the lady on the gravestone’s life who was a man whose last name was “cook.” I tried the combination “cookearthbread,” then I got in. That was some crappy hippy poetry. We all cheered. We ran out into the woods to were the clue told us to go, and the yellow group closely followed us. It was a race at the finish. After about 10 minutes of searching, somebody in my group finally found it. We all were happy. The yellow group followed and got second place. Then the pink group closely followed after the yellow and took the third place prize. We all got some of Eric’s homemade cookies! And lay around in the sun for lunch.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>All and all, after everyone getting wet and bit by bugs, getting attacked by swamp monsters, a day with all the jolly people, all the mellow people and all the leader-y people, confusion and impatient-ness, following other teams before us’ footprints, it was an awesome time.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>After lunch we talked about Ollie, and how he really is a great student under his sometimes outward appearance of not paying attention.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Rider said,<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT, serif;"> </span>“When we have a conference about you, you are just being involved, it is so hard to be mad at you, or even think that you are doing something wrong when you are so “right on” to the conversation. You know?”</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>After we talked about Ollie, Henry, the headmaster’s son and ninth grader, announced that he wasn’t going to go to the high school next year, he was going to a private school called Buxton in Williamstown MA. He said he is really excited about it. Hannah was really sad that she wasn’t going to see him as often anymore and she had a lot of tears because she has known Henry since he was three. Everyone tried to cheer her up, and it eventually worked. Tal told a story about him and his friends when they went off to college, and then he explained how, whenever Henry came into town, he would only have to call up his friends, get a couple of guitars together, and they could have a hootenanny. Everyone thought this word “hootenanny” was funny, and so Tal told them another funny word for a wild good time, “wing-ding.” Nathan also said he is going to miss him, and said that every time he comes back, they have to go biking together. I will also miss him dearly, but I know it is what he wants to do and where he wants to go, and nobody should even think about denying him that.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;"></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="font-family:Times-Roman;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>I have enjoyed writing this, as it had made me so much more aware of how much we learn every week and how much goes on. So much happens that it is impossible to collect everything to show you, but this is a lot of it. I hope you enjoyed reading it.</span></span></span><span style=" ;font-size:11pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style=" ;font-size:11pt;"> </span></p></span>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1721203208874105292.post-49136066281486823762010-04-25T14:25:00.000-07:002010-04-25T14:47:36.827-07:00We are the Captains of Our Souls<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizCBS1RrZDLcsjH_DkR-MhwMdt25BC4Wla1LKLECZUl6Nu7QUiYv0nPL_bnvzoUpMmm7m6DgnFOVz0FYUh4XhY1ipIBSWy9m6TKtWL78-7Eru_8MvGVZM0c1jN0uLEpsQK8IwedQGTF8/s1600/ralph_waldo_emerson.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 234px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiizCBS1RrZDLcsjH_DkR-MhwMdt25BC4Wla1LKLECZUl6Nu7QUiYv0nPL_bnvzoUpMmm7m6DgnFOVz0FYUh4XhY1ipIBSWy9m6TKtWL78-7Eru_8MvGVZM0c1jN0uLEpsQK8IwedQGTF8/s320/ralph_waldo_emerson.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464194772131865522" /></a><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><div>“<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around every circle another circle can be drawn; that there us no end in nature, but every end is a beginning; that there is always another dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens…This fact, as far as it symbolizes the moral fact of the unattainable, the flying Perfect, around which the hands of man can never meet, at once the inspirer and the condemner of every success, may conveniently serve us to connect many illustrations of human power in every department.”</span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">—Emerson, “Circles”</span><br /><br /><i>Bryn wrote: </i><br /><br /><div>Monday morning; the last eight weeks of school, as Eric, our science teacher, reminded us with a smile. He has them all planned, he told us as plainly, with a wink, which made me think that it wouldn’t finish all of the weeks. All in now, no turning back, don’t stop, keep going, “It’s the last stretch.” Looking closely at each other’s faces and wanting to hold that vision forever, not to forget what we have seen in each other all year.<br /> <br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></span>****<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Third stories, the goal is to read all 27 stories, and to make them great. Working through stories to get to the heart of it. This is what we have to show to each other, the hopes and fears, dreams and pains and the hardest things to say. We sat around the table facing smiling, red and rosy with running on the sweet-smelling grass outside. Waiting for the voices to dissipate, waiting for the noise to die slowly away. Tal sat in his chair, looking at us, the ceiling, his hands.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“3500 words”, he said, “that’s what you should have.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“I don’t know how to do parts of my story,” said a concerned looking boy with his hand in the air.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Tal asked, leaning his chair back looking right at back at him. “What it your story about?”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“How I want to be great.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“List the ways you saw people being or doing great things.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Well, Cassie’s story and Henry’s speech and all the 9th graders.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Okay, Henry’s speech, write a scene about that.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“And you saw all these people working hard and you wanted to be like them?”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“Yes.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Pick out little examples or big ones. Let’s put some flesh on the bone.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Okay Tal.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“Alright, good.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Sunlight shone in our heads and golden glints almost blinded me and made the light scratches stand out in my eyes, on the rich and warm golden browns of the round table. It was easy to see imperfections in the sunlight, to see through things to the pure things, to the wonderful and insurmountable things that none of us understand until they are glaring at us right in the face. Not until we know how much they make up our souls.<br /><br /><i>Tuesday By Rider:</i><br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Anneke did her project on the Shakers, Tuesday. She started out by asking us if we could define a utopian community. We all took some wild shots at what might be a description of a utopian community. Then she had us take something that we had that was sentimentally valuable to us and put it on the table. She then carried on to tell us that when you joined a Shaker village, you had to give all your possessions to the community. She finished her project with some information on Shaker development, beliefs and philosophy. Her project was very thorough. She did a very good job teaching us.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>At the end of her project, she had some people read from the Shaker covenant, Which to me sounded like a religious copyright law. So after reading the Shakers laws and ways, we had to right our own individual laws and ways. It was our own individual NBS™ covenant. We may be able to publish this soon.<br /><br />(<i>editor’s note: Tal made us use the words “appurtenances”, “aforesaid” and “hereunto”)</i><br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>During lunch, on that same day of Anneke’s outstanding presentation, a new game was introduced to the NBS playing field. We called it Red Rover. Now you might be thinking of a game where people run from one side to another and try not to get tagged. Well we played a different kind of Red Rover. We played the kind where there are two teams. Lined up facing each other, with all team members holding hands. One team member is chosen by the other team to run at the opposing team and try to break through the wall of clasped hands.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>If they break the wall they go back to their team. If they are stopped by the wall, then they join the team. First team to loose all its members loses. We played this game for 45 minutes straight. It was a form a war, but it was friendly war. It was more than a game, or a war for the faint-hearted. It was a direct analogy for the way we relate to one another, in school and anywhere. The common social disease that is spread all over teenagers. The disease of metaphorically running at a person or a group you want to connect with and thrusting yourself at them, throwing your entire self out to the world. Either you break through the wall and are rejected by the group, and you feel terrible; or you are stopped by the group and you are accepted and you are happy and become another person, just waiting to catch or drop someone.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>What seems to be is that we need to learn to be able to control our own acceptance or refusal from or by others. Or we need to believe so strongly in ourselves that we don’t care if we are dropped or caught, because we love who we are. Because we love doing what we do on this earth.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>****<br /><i>Bryn wrote about Wednesday:</i><br /><br />Evan read this on Wednesday morning:<br /><br /><i>As I Walked Out One Evening</i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>By W.H Auden<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>As I walked out one evening,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Walking down Bristol Street,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The crowds upon the pavement<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Were fields of harvest wheat.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And down by the brimming river<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I heard a lover sing<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Under an arch of the railway:<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'Love has no ending.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Till China and Africa meet,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the river jumps over the mountain<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the salmon sing in the street,<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'I'll love you till the ocean<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Is folded and hung up to dry<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the seven stars go squawking<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Like geese about the sky.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'The years shall run like rabbits,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>For in my arms I hold<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The Flower of the Ages,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the first love of the world.'<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>But all the clocks in the city<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Began to whirr and chime:<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'O let not Time deceive you,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>You cannot conquer Time.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'In the burrows of the Nightmare<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Where Justice naked is,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Time watches from the shadow<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And coughs when you would kiss.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'In headaches and in worry<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Vaguely life leaks away,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And Time will have his fancy<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>To-morrow or to-day.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'Into many a green valley<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Drifts the appalling snow;<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Time breaks the threaded dances<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the diver's brilliant bow.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'O plunge your hands in water,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Plunge them in up to the wrist;<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Stare, stare in the basin<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And wonder what you've missed.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The desert sighs in the bed,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the crack in the tea-cup opens<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A lane to the land of the dead.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the Lily-white Boy is a Rarer,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And Jill goes down on her back.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'O look, look in the mirror?<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>O look in your distress:<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Life remains a blessing<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Although you cannot bless.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>'O stand, stand at the window<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>As the tears scald and start;<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>You shall love your crooked neighbour<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>With your crooked heart.'<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>It was late, late in the evening,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The lovers they were gone;<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The clocks had ceased their chiming,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>And the deep river ran on.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>On Wednesday at lunch as the sun shone blindly outside and after many long weeks, our four groups were ready to try to boil water. The four teams were The Tipsy Olives, Big Marmalade, The Not So Little Miss Sunshine’s, and The Yakking Bombardiers. The goal was to get the water to 100 degrees Celsius and to boil in 60 minutes. Every 5 minutes we measured from the thermometers that were sitting in our warming water.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>After 100s of pieces of cardboard to make parabolas and many hours cutting the cardboard. After cutting shiny Mylar, spread out over the cardboard to reflect the sun, then having to take it off again, to make it become perfect, to make it smoother. We had to boil water with our solar concentrators set up on the patio, the sun baking on all our heads.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“55 minutes, write the temperature down, now!”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Get out of the way of the sun, hey, you’re in the way!”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“Okay, we’ve got to adjust this, move the stool a little bit more, it’s falling, careful!”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“How much time do we have?”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“It’s a cloud, oh no it’s a cloud.”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“The temperature is going down.”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“Where’s the sun?”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“We’re at 77 degrees. We’re beating you!”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“The plastic wrap is melting.”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>“You’re letting out all the hot air.”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>“We’re to 100!”<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>The sun shone down everything making warmer and we tumbled, laughed and baked after the pursuit of much more then winning.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>****<i><br /></i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the afternoon, as the table was covered in containers, binders, broken pencils, half eaten apples, we all settled down to watch a movie about the Shakers for the second part of Anneke’s project the day before. Shakers- Hands to work and Heart to God.” Ann Lee discovered and founded Shakerism in England. She saw and felt God come to her. <!--StartFragment--><span style=" ;font-family:Palatino;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">“Worship God under your vine and fig tree.”</span></span></i></span><!--EndFragment--><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> </span></span></i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>They believed in perfection, they believed in giving up everything, working for the Gospel, making the most beautiful things and most perfect things. Men and women have god’s equal affection. <i>“Live your life as though you have 1,000 years to live, or as though you would die tomorrow.”</i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>There are only two Shakers left in the world now, but the truth of God runs strong in the veins and hearts of the ones left; they still have faith that their religion will hold as strong as it ever has. <i>“I don’t think it will ever die, the work of God will never die.”</i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>We then listened to Shaker music and people singing with a true passion, showing how much they meant the world, how much they cared and understood their faith. They sung with such love and hope for knowing and understanding that what you believe lives longer then what anyone else thinks. There is only so much someone can tell you before you have to look back in yourself and understand what you believe.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>****<br /><br /><i>From Thursday (recorded by Sarah from morning class with Tal)</i><br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>During All Tal this morning Rider talked about the power of Asher Lev, about how his art is a balance between his religion and his art, the tension and power behind his lines. Tal talked about how teenagers run on two cylinders normally, and at North Branch we run on five. When we are on all 12 cylinders, like a Ferrari, is when we write a piece of work with power, and tension, and structure, and care, and it will be amazing. Henry spoke about writing his literary response, and how he was thinking about how Jacob Kahn teaches Asher, and how he, Asher, is going to eventually learn all the rules so he can throw them away, and how Henry’s guitar teacher had said the same thing, and how Henry was thinking about his lesson that night, and how learning the guitar gave him a structure and vocabulary to say things. Tal asked him about musical theory, and Calder talked about how he couldn't understand musical theory that but he knew all about the process of soccer, and Henry commented again about how every little window of expertise is a part of the whole of greater knowledge. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Tal talked about how any refined expertise contains worlds of learning inside of it, say, how an artist shapes light on a face, how Calder approaches a soccer ball played at him at the right time, speed, angle and body positioning, or how a dance shaped his or her body. Tal talked about how Emerson had once said that an average person thought there was only one horizon, and so they went towards that one horizon, and stayed within it, while an intelligent person, a caring person, and alive soul, knows that there is an unlimited amount of horizons, and if we work at one thing and move on to the next thing we go past the horizons like filling ice cube trays, working at one thing but eventually filling everything.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Sarah talked about going to a concert the night before, and how the opening band was good, the drummer was fantastic, but when the main act, Kaki King got on stage it was amazing. She played ridiculously complicated strings of notes, descended into amplification and the screechy making thing, and then rose to play her guitar like it was an extension of herself. While she was picking out notes she had an almost frightening look of concentration on her face, and each time she stopped playing she seemed to surface and she was like the Picasso of guitar, going through each stage of music, playing songs that sounded childishly simple but were truly impossible, so you couldn't tell where she left off and her guitar began. Yared said he didn't have a thought. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Anna talked about reading Kiley's story the night before, and how she was really proud of how far she had come in her writing from the beginning of the year. Hannah talked about how she had been watching TV when he was sick, and her grandfather called, and normally her grandfather talks longwindedly, but that day they talked about Hannah's story, which was about science, and her grandfather talked about how when he had taught math the boys were being loud in class while the girls were being silent, and Tal went into an aside about frontal cortexes, and how girls have highly developed ones earlier, and so it makes them perhaps more often worried and timid about being wrong, so they become quiet in places where there might be a definitive right answer, while boys, with generally undeveloped frontal cortexes, tend to blurt things out and not think about the consequences of being wrong, and so are active and blurty in science (though Tal noted that boys sometimes blurt out ill-considered things in science as a way of covering up their lack of understanding and so try to project a false image of understanding) and Hannah had an great time talking to him (her grandfather).<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Anneke talked about babysitting Wesley, and Phoebe, and Thomas, and how Carrie had warned her that Phoebe got freaked out easily at random parts, and Anneke was remembering when she was like that, and she would sit on her mom's lap. Tal said there was a story in that if she could pull the pieces together. Lydia talked about how her and her mother had been discussing the high school, and how Mia had registered Lydia for classes. and then that was when it (leaving NBS, going to the high school) started feeling real, and she could see herself going there, and it was kind of frightening.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Rose talked about the parallels between the Shakers and the honeybees, and she was thinking about what Rider and Tal had said earlier, about how anything creative comes out of something spiritual, and the spirituality gives you tools to create. Miles mentioned that he had been on face-book talking to his friend Michael, and they were talking about parents, and school, and about how Miles had told him he, Michael, didn't need to go to NBS to be smart, and Miles said he realized the things he was saying to Michael he probably couldn't say to Michael's face. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Claire talked about doing homework while her mother read the New York Review of Books, and about how she asked her mom to help her learn how to tie up a hair-bun with a pencil, and Claire was thinking about opportunities, and how she was grateful her mom had done that for her, and Tal mentioned that Claire had given her mom an opportunity, and an invitation, and her mom was listening, and heard this invitation, and took the chance to give Claire new knowledge. But, Tal noted, Claire had to ask, and her mom had to be ready to listen, which she obviously was, because she is a good mom. And when that happens, good happens.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Kiley talked about how when she was babysitting one of the kids she was babysitting was running around crazily, whacking into walls, and Kiley was thinking about the two parts of ourselves, the part that wants to do that, and the part that needs to stop the other part from hurting themselves, and how one part of us can be jealous of the other part, or the two parts of us are sometimes in conflict, the wild pat and the safe part. Jesse talked about how she was at “The Sound of Music,” and she was thinking about how many people are behind one thing, and how many people work on something, like a play.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Sophie talked about “How the flowers are coming out at her house and she was thinking about her grandmother, and she was just feeling a bit sad because she doesn't remember everything about her, only faintly.” We talked briefly about flowers, and Tal determined that we were hopelessly ignorant about dicots and monocots and we would be studying botany next year. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Yared talked about how Yibekal hasn't been at home at night lately, and how he was home the previous night, and they ate dinner together, and it was nice to have him home, and how Yibekal came up behind him to show him his tough guy holds, and how you could escape from a robber, and Yared laughed because Yibie was telling him how to be the robber, and we all realized that a real robber would not ask for cooperation. And then we noted that this was Yibie’s way of reconnecting with his brother. Anneke talked about how over vacation she went to Virginia beach and she could see everything the way it was before, when she was nine, and she missed it, but she still had it, in the shape of the windows, and the same shape of the house. <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Edgar talked about how he had been doing graphic art with Zander for an article about Tal and the North Branch School while his mother and father were on a trip, and how his aunt might not have cancer anymore. Tal mention, rather shocked, that he could not believe that Edgar had not told him about his (Edgars’ aunt) getting rid of her cancer, and, further, Tal’s shock and pride and awesome feeling that Edgar, Tal’s student, had done the graphic work in the article. Tal then told us a few stories about how he was not a very good student in Middlebury College sometimes, but that now he felt redeemed. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Rider then read a poem called “Invictus” by William Ernest Hewly.<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>Out of the night that covers me,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>Black as the Pit from pole to pole,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>I thank whatever gods may be<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>For my unconquerable soul.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the fell clutch of circumstance<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>I have not winced nor cried aloud.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Under the bludgeoning' of chance<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>My head is bloody, but unbowed.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Beyond this place of wrath and tears<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>looms but the horror of the shade,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>and yet the menace of the years<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>finds, and shall find me unafraid.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>It matters not how strait the gate,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>how charged with punishments the scroll.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>I am the master of my fate:<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>I am the captain of my soul.<br /></i><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Five minute break then back to studies. Tal talked about how we should not have automatic signatures on our emails, so we can have a new emotion each time, a new quote, a new poem, so we are always giving something fully. So that even in an email, there is always the chance to have a new expression and give a new thing to the world, and hence a new becoming for us. Tal then read the introduction to “The Undercurrent,” written by Rick Skogsberg. His writing demonstrated what we take for granted, our writing, and that our writing makes others see and feel. It is something others marvel over, and yet we let it be as something we need to have, but that we don't feel is ever perfect. Yet we are so lucky that everyone in our school can do the same thing, this writing, and when we are doing it, we are truly rare.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Edgar read this on Friday morning, called “Perspective,” in the thought of perspective drawings which the 9th graders have been working on for weeks now.<br /><br /><i><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>In the words of wisdom; “Know Yourself.”<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>My reality is always my experience of myself.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>All that I see, touch, taste, hear or smell<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>are perceptions in my mind to believe, or dispell.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Therefore, my reality is created by me.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Heaven or hell, which will it be?</i><br /></div>Tal.birdsey@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04632633640069757665noreply@blogger.com0