Begin the Week with Words

A favorite book blogger friend of mine, Eva from The Paperback Princess, wrote a great post this week about her blog's four year anniversary.  I love the post for all of its bookish adventure talk of course! One line in particular stood out though and I present it here for Sunday Sentence.

"I will happily die crushed under the weight of all the incredible books that currently live with me."

I LOVE IT! And I totally agree...no matter the where, when, or how, I know I will be in the middle of an amazing book and an impossible to finish to-be-read list.

Reading Shakespeare

Source: www.roomone.training

Shakespeare, man of mystery. Enough is known through public record to know that the man existed. However, any personal detail is unknown, to the point that there isn't technically proof that Shakespeare wrote the plays we read today. I personally adhere to the camp that he did write them, that we owe his friends a debt of gratitude for putting his works together in the First Folio. Why complicate things? Besides, the bigger matter is the plays themselves. Works of art that literally created a sizable portion of our English language and have lasted hundreds of years because of their eloquence and humanity. Read any Shakespeare plot line, examine the themes, and you will see present day humanity playing out before your eyes. Homo sapiens haven't changed as much as we'd like to think over the centuries.

Why all the fuss about Shakespeare on the blog today? Well, I've read multiple Shakespeare works over the years, but in my past ten years as a teacher, Romeo and Juliet is the only one that has popped up in my curriculum. I know it well and it's easy to teach because, thanks to pop culture and the nature of teenagers, everyone already knows it for the most part. This year AP Literature brings me to teaching other works, like Hamlet and Othello, and new experiences in the teaching of Shakespeare.

Ah Hamlet, emo before emo was a thing. An emotional wreck, spilling his guts and emotional distress soliloquy after soliloquy, Hamlet at first reminds me of whiny Romeo. Of course, Hamlet has good reason (Romeo not so much). In short, his father, the king, has passed away; his uncle marries his mom a month later, denying Hamlet his dreams; a rival country is planning an attack on Denmark; his father's ghost is walking the castle watch tower with a secret; a dear one commits suicide; murder and general mayhem reveal themselves. It's a mess like only Shakespeare can create and put into motion through poetry. I'm enjoying it.

Of course, some of my students will tell you differently. Pulling apart Shakespeare can be intimidating. It's never been particularly intimidating for me, although I bought new copies of each play in No Fear Shakespeare editions, just in case. Haven't needed it yet though, so I started to wonder how it is Shakespeare clicks for me. I am a reader, which helps, but even I don't know the meaning of every little odd word and detail Shakespeare uses, so how is it I understand? It came to me in a teachable moment one day.

We'd reached Hamlet's first soliloquy (Act I, scene ii), read through and settled into a worksheet to pull it apart for meaning. Immediately they felt lost and didn't hesitate in saying so. At first I thought, what's there not to get, but proceeded to reread the beginning with them (lines 129-132 in my edition):

            "Oh that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
             Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
             Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
             His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!"

I realized as I read that I was only using one phrase and two other words of those four lines to translate in my head. So I told them to pick out the familiar words and string them together for meaning, ignoring all else. Conversation progressed something like this:

Me: What happens if your flesh melts? (Indiana Jones, Shakespeare beat you to it.)
Class: You die...you'd be dead.
Me: What does "Everlasting" mean and why is it capitalized? Only proper nouns are capitalized.
Class: It means forever...so it's a name?
Me: Who is the only being we claim to be a forever being?
Class: God
Me: What does slaughter mean?
Class: To violently kill.
Me: And adding "self"?
Class: ohhhh...suicide!

And using those couple of items, they pieced together for me that Hamlet wants to die and would commit suicide, except his God has made it a sin to do so. It was a learning moment for them, figuring out how to read some of this craziness and it was a learning moment for me to be able to show them, when I hadn't been sure how to do so before. It doesn't make it easy though...it still takes time to slow down and go through the lines, digging for previous knowledge and connecting those pieces together. But it's a starting point. They'll be reading Shakespeare next year and some of them in college even, so hopefully we've made a good start of it.

What about you readers? Any luck with Shakespeare?

The Literary Alchemy of Harry Potter

I went straight down to discuss Emily Dickinson's
"Soul at the white heat" afterward, based on what
he said about alchemy in writing.

When you hear that the local college, your alma mater, has a speaker on Harry Potter coming in, there's not much choice but to attend. How often is it you get to hear from a man titled the Dean of Harry Potter Scholars? I'm going to be up front with you though. I'm writing about this because it was a great lecture on a really cool topic, a book topic no less, but it's also a somewhat involved topic, all new to me. So, I apologize ahead for any gaps in my info. I'll provide information for further study at the end.

Anyway, at the end of September, Youngstown State University (YSU) held a lecture titled Literary Alchemy, featuring Harry Potter, given by John Granger, Dean of Harry Potter Scholars. I decided to go on that information alone and invited the biggest Harry Potter fan friend I have, SR. (She's read the books multiple times and is my go to for HP detail checks when my students or I write on the topic, such as parts of this post!) Then I received a flier in the mail that convinced me I had to go.

Harry Potter in connection to Lewis, Dickens, and Shakespeare? Yes please. The background they have in common is alchemy. There is so much information here, but a few points I remember pretty well. According to Granger, besides the attempts to turn lead to gold alchemists are known for, alchemy is about spiritual purification. In literature, certain authors have used alchemical symbols and tropes in their storylines to represent their character's quest for purification. For example, there are color schemes and stages connected to alchemy. The most obvious element, based on alchemy's more well known principal, is gold, the purest form a medal can achieve. When Romeo and Juliet die, their families declare peace by erecting GOLD statues in their children's honor. And what is Harry always chasing in his Quidditch matches? A GOLDEN snitch. Then there are the colors black, white, and red. Sirius BLACK? And ALBUS, white in Latin, Dumbledore? (The Twilight series book covers aren't a coincidence either.) Besides colors, there are seven stages in an alchemical cycle. There are seven Harry Potter books, with the later books' plotlines cycling through seven stages each. Each of these authors' stories reaches the ultimate goal of alchemy as well: a transformation of character(s).

And these are just the minor details. There's also the types of characters involved. Pairs of opposites working together, for example. Romeo and Juliet come to mind with Shakespeare, Ron and Hermione in Harry Potter, and Edward and Bella in Twilight. One character in each pair represents the hot sulfuric element of alchemy (Romeo, Hermoine, and Bella), while the other is the cool mercurial element (Juliet, Ron, and Edward). The two characters in each pair play off of each other, becoming more than pawns in a plot.

If you're not convinced this is not all coincidence, or if you're completely lost by my gaps in knowledge, here's some contact information to start reading further. You can always Google "Alchemy in Harry Potter" too. A little side note: JK Rowling studied alchemy in school and so did Granger, which allowed him to easily pick up on the alchemical elements Rowling so carefully pieced together. In an article from 1998, Rowling states:

      “I’ve never wanted to be a witch, but an alchemist, now that’s a different matter.
      To invent this wizard world, I’ve learned a ridiculous amount about alchemy.
      Perhaps much of it I’ll never use in the books, but I have to know in detail what
      magic can and cannot do in order to set the parameters and establish the
      stories’ internal logic.”

Here's the information I promised! John Granger not only invited emails, but will also connect you with further reading. Go, explore, and learn something you may have never known about the never ending wonders of our literary world.

Begin the Week with Words

October is proving a busy month if this past week is any indication. Every day I was leaving my house at 7am, coming home to stay around 9-10pm, and going to bed around 1am. The days were packed with activity and in between I was devouring a study book for a four hour test I took Saturday. The cool thing is that it was all good stuff. Time with my daughters at a college piano recital and doing homecoming stuff and then the dance itself, visiting with friends for their sweet four-year-old's birthday, an amazing concert of Casting Crowns, and ending with a great movie with friends (The Martian). Work this week was pretty productive too, although my evening activities and constant studying have put me very behind on grading, so I imagine that's what this week will consist of. The schedule looks like it's slowing down after tomorrow.

Weird thing is, I have quite a few friends for whom this week was trying too. A family with the death of a loved one, two friends each with a child so sick it turned their entire week upside down, a friend who had a surgery and may already be facing another, my pastor who had umpteen evening meetings and hospital visitations, and more. It was a rough week for my little corner of the world and I'm praying this next week brings them all hope, peace, and realization that the journey is building them into the people they are meant to be.

Begin the Week with Words

How bout I forgot to even post a quote on Sunday last week?! Crazy, yes, but then again, I've hardly been reading between work, binge watching both Lost and old Survivor episodes, and my family's activities. Seems to be the story of my life for 2015.

I did, however, find a quote Allison of The Book Wheel tweeted the other day from The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton. Made me want to read the book more...it is waiting for me on my shelf!


“Memory is a cruel mistress with whom we all must learn to dance."

Just Show Up

Just Show Up: The Dance of Walking Through Suffering Together, by Kara Tippetts and Jill Lynn Buteyn

Publisher: David C. Cook

Publication date: October 1, 2015

Category: Biographies & Memoir, Christian

Source: I received this galley from the publisher via NetGalley in consideration of review.

Where to start? The publication of Just Show Up comes just six months after the passing of co-author Kara Tippetts. Tippetts published a book about her journey with aggressive cancer in October 2014, which I read and reviewed here in May. The book was about much more than cancer and I was awed by her faith. This connection did further my interest in Just Show Up, but not as much as the title itself. Much like Nike's "Just Do It" campaign, this book makes its topic a statement, rather than a question or consideration. The connection is that I find myself in a position in life right now to be of help to others, specifically in ways that I needed help in the past, but didn't always have it. I've learned it's not always easy helping others or being a volunteer and it's not always obvious how to be of good help. That's where this book comes in.

I gained two valuable insights from this book about helping others. The first is how the helping affects the person showing up. It's important to keep in mind that "showing up for another, extending yourself for another is always costly." It may be a sacrifice of comfort, time, money, and even your own emotions. Buteyn states simply that "showing up can get us hurt in the biggest way," whether it's that you are hurt by others in the process or the fact that the person you're helping is hurting and you feel his/her pain. 

So why bother? Buteyn says it best: "Friends. Community. It is the only way to know and be known. It’s where we see our own humanity and frailty, our gifts and our weaknesses. But when we show up for one another we invade each other in love, and become witnesses to the truth that trials and sickness and pain are not the whole story. There’s more, so much more. We can remind one another that our lives are not a mistake. And most importantly, that we are loved with an everlasting love." That's pretty powerful, but it's not easy. I can attest to the roller coaster emotions of being involved in the lives of those you care for. It helps to remember that the hardest things are usually the most worthwhile. And people are always worthwhile.

So, if you're ready to accept the difficulties of helping, the next thing to consider is, is the help you're offering actually helpful? The worst case is that you're causing stress or even a little more work for those you are trying to relieve of a burden. Here are a few aspects I found most valuable about helping people:

1. "So many people offer to help. They say, let me know if you need anything, but that offer is easily dismissed because it’s too broad." Making a noncommittal comment puts stress on our friends in need by handing the decision over to them and asking them to get back to us. (Although there are times where the person in need must reach out first.)

2. "If we go and serve not expecting to see them, even telling the family we’re not asking for their time, that is another gift we can give. Drop the meal off, do the laundry, or pick up the kids without expectations. People are going to welcome you when you want to serve because you aren’t making it about you." This can be difficult because you naturally want to interact with the people you love enough to serve; but, depending on the situation, it's not always feasible. So, if serving them in love as they need is truly your motivation, then this is a good point to keep in mind.

3. Kind of tied to number two, but possibly it's own thing at times, is the idea of "loving your person by releasing expectations that would remain with a normal friendship." Situations, especially where there's suffering, "can steal friendship moments from us—ones we really want to keep having. We crave those same conversations we used to have and the time we used to spend together." Depending on the situation, the typical aspects of your friendship may change and it's only fair to accept the changes because most situations that go this far are out of our hands, as well as theirs.

4. Don't offer platitudes, especially in suffering. And if details aren't offered, do not seek or press for them. "Our desire to fix things can often get in the way of our silent, listening support." Usually listening alone is what a person needs most. No need to fill it in with our own words when we don't know what to say. (I know trying to fill a silence is a habit I need to break.)

That's a whole lot of good information right there, but it's not done. The end of this book is invaluable as well. Remember that piece at the beginning warning us of the difficulties in helping someone? Buteyn revisits that topic, explaining to the reader exactly what a helper might feel (she speaks to hurt, jealousy, and insecurity), what the truth is, and how to fight those feelings. It is an extremely important section to the book.

It seems I've told so much of this book, yet there is much more. Not to mention, the details and examples missing from the points I briefly made. If you find yourself in a position of helper to friends and family in hard situations, this book is exactly what you need. Rereading the notes I made during my first reading was amazing in itself!

Any other good advice you've heard about helping others?

Going to be a Mommy...

No books today, but a really funny FB stunt to discuss. Actually, if you are reading this from my FB link, you're either a regular reader of my blog or you fell for it! Lol! Fell for what? Well, I liked one of those statuses that gets you in trouble on FB last week. You know, your friend says she won $900 on a lotto scratch ticket and of course you'll like it, except it was a joke and by liking or commenting, you then have to post a possibly embarrassing status without explanation.

I waited at first, knowing that the status choice stating "I'm a mommy again" would get a crazed mess of response from my FB crowd - so haha if you clicked my link based on this title. My kids are 16, 14, and 10 years old and EVERYONE knows that despite how much I love babies and toddlers, I am so happy to have independent children and have NO desire to start anew. And then I thought I waited too long for the whole joke and wasn't going to post anything. But within a few days, I did become a new mommy of sorts! 

On Monday, a co-worker told me about a puppy his family recently brought home. Not just any puppy, but a dachshund! (Ummm, if you don't know my love of dachshunds, you don't know me! My six-year-old mini dachshund Samoa is THE BABY in our house.) He said the tiny puppy wasn't doing well with the bigger dog they have and he was hoping to find a new home for the puppy. Completely understandable. So, thinking it was a small chance, I sent off a text and picture to my hubby, who wants a "big" dog one day, but is stuck with a wife who adores ankle biters.

Turns out my husband's a sucker for a cute face too. To make sure, I listed all of the possible reasons we might not want a third dog, and yet he said why not? So arrangements were made and the very next day, yesterday that is, we "became parents again." (Yep, with my kids growing up I've purposely adopted small dogs who will stay baby size and cuddly forever! I'm sure there's a Freud field day going on in my subconscious somewhere.) 

We picked him up and returned home nonchalantly, telling our kids we had some news. Cause, yea, joke's on them too. They are always wanting us to have a fourth kid, but from the sounds of it, it would be more like their little pet! So, when my husband walked in with the puppy after my "announcement" and the implied "news" shifted in their heads, they were just as thrilled. And so they should be. The puppy is a beautiful silver dapple miniature dachshund. 

And the kids want to name him now. I'm thinking favorite characters, of course, like Atticus, Gatsby, or Fraser (as in Jamie Fraser!). My family is thinking anything else! My husband said Bronco (he's a Denver fan), but then decided he wants to save that name for his future big dog. One friend, BC, who was with me when my husband came with the puppy to pick me up last night, said we should name him Dapple, since that's the name for the pattern of his coat. So far, it is sticking. 

Anyway, thanks for reading and sharing in our excitement. I'm sure I will have more fun dog stories to share in the near future, since the puppy loves to jump on our ten-year-old pug fox terrier and poor Samoa runs at the sight of him! 

Isn't he adorable?!