Honored to Honor

Posted May 2, 2024

Filed under Life

On Monday I delivered a speech at the Induction Ceremony for our school’s chapter of the National Honor Society. Although I passed on the role of Advisor three years ago, I did oversee the program for over two decades so this night was pure nostalgia to speak to current and new members for such a special occasion. There is indeed irony in my position with this elite society, because I was not seen for myself during my tumultuous teenage years. I was a spinning top desperate to escape the abuse or worse the denial from the start of double digits at home yet like a whirling dervish I lived out those years like an outlaw, unsanctioned and lost. But a life can heal even when it can’t forgive. My 31 years of teaching high school English acted as a restorative beyond my expectations. I am here to tell you, being a teacher is gold. You can make a difference. I am indebted to the hundreds of young people who have engaged with me in the pursuit of Literary/Life Analysis: they have taught me much. I can’t recognize the woman I was when I started this career for she became far more than I could have ever dreamt, strong and remarkable.

This blog post is my speech, (at the end of it I include an audio of myself reading it because speeches are meant to be heard.) I hope my simple words elicit hopeful encouragement for anyone.

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Starry Nights

Posted January 27, 2022

Filed under Life

Reposting from 2018 when a “plague on both your houses” was just a emotional line shouted out in desperation and not a world-wild reality that carved out even more distinction between those billionaires holding power and the rest of us dealing with all the fallout of a collapsed economy, a non-stop pandemic, and the Republicans still causing havoc. Regardless, I must say, as Shakespeare’s words fill my classroom and the minds of my students once again, we reach for hope. Will we ever attain those lofty hopeful aims? Will the old white men clinging to their past power ever step aside and allow for a new dawn and vision for a more diverse America, a more sustainable Earth, and a truthful assessment of our current challenges? Let’s say yes, for tonight, let’s find that thread of faith that leads to hope and believe in a perhaps. Yes, let’s.

Nine Cent Girl

As I embark on a Shakespeare unit with my students, nine graders reading Romeo & Juliet and AP Lit reading Hamlet, we start with questions. Questions Elizabethan thinkers might have pondered in 1598; questions we still ponder in 2018. I am struck with our timeless preoccupation over destiny: Are we the masters of our own fate? I ask students to think and write about their beliefs on this topic. Certainly, these teens, like those penned by Shakespeare, want to believe they are, indeed, in control of their outcomes, while I, I who have screamed up at the Heavens in distress, frustrated by the unpredictability of chance, those ‘why me’ moments; “O, I am Fortune’s fool” situations. As if we are pulled by strings invisible to our own hands. Just when we want/need/hope for a different outcome we must settle for what is… but as I look across…

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hold on to hope

Posted June 21, 2018

Filed under Life

In this time marked by the disintegration of morality in our politically frayed America, where hateful politicians posing as caring humans justify their inhumane practices by treating children with the cold abuse of a Nazi, we must hold on to hope. That fragile and slender of emotions that alone fuels my soul, and no doubt yours, hope, elusive yet necessary. Thankfully for me, this past week, there is the reminder, where there is love one can find hope. Of course there is the always love of family, of sunshine and water, of a cool breeze after a hard day, but in this crazy here and now, I find the love of these friends. Friends who arrived from luck yet stayed dear through the years. Without a falter, these women are there. Yes, lucky me indeed. They provide me hope to endure.