For so many reasons we are celebrating tonight. First due to the string of birthdays for daughter and niece, yet another Anniversary of this decade+ Nine Cent Girl blog, and wow, for the brilliant power of democracy in action. If you haven’t lifted your voice up in jubilant celebration, let this post encourage you with a wahoo for all the marvels of the week. In the spirit of positivity, I suggest that you roll out your yoga mat, hop on your bike, pour a glass or do whatever it is that you do to chant yourself into bliss for all the goodness that came your way this week. Let’s sparkle for all these triumphs!
Tag Archives: woman writer
Starry Nights
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.
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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Love and Death
Sorry for not writing a post of gratitude and love yesterday on our national day of thanks, but as I mentioned a few weeks ago, all my writing attention is being pulled along by this fabulous crew in my fictional world, temporarily titled, Mrs. Hendricks & Company. Yes, there has been a whole swirl of twists and turns and even a death. I mean, isn’t there always? Love out to all my Nine Cent Girl readers, you all really buoy me on the day to day, and I am so grateful for that. Wish me luck as I reach my goal before December 1st!