Wishes, Climate, and the English Patient

I wish I had a high school geography class right now. If I did, we would have a class blog. And they would need to write on it at least once a week. And this week, they would respond to this:

I hope that you all are sitting inside all warm and cozy, watching the snow fall and reading a good book (or, I suppose, watching a good movie.) I have a question for you on this beautiful night. Climate has a huge effect on culture. Looking at your own life, what kind of impact does climate have on your idiosyncratic, your personal culture? What about the cultures of people who live in extreme climates, super hot, super cold, super rainy...pick one you find interesting and explain an affect of the climate on that culture.

Yes, that is what I would say. And then I would look forward to reading the responses; the great ones, the interesting ones, the silly ones, and the way off base ones.

Ma'a salama

P.S. I think it's interesting that I watch enough movies that I can easily recognize the Muslim call to prayer.

P.P.S. Saiid is in the English Patient.

What if...

What if we married friends, like we marry husbands? Hmm...I don't mean really marry them, I just mean what if we made commitments to them. I guess a lot of people do that already, but I don't think there are that many people that follow through 100%. When I was in kindergarten, Jenny Fox and I promised each other that we would invite each other to every birthday party we ever had, for the rest of our lives. That lasted until probably 5th grade or so, which is pretty impressive, if you ask me. The troubles with Jenny started happening when she wasn't in my class in 3rd grade...could a friendship really survive an 8th of a mile distance?! haha..

Maybe everything would get really complicated if a person had so many other people they were committed to, but maybe it would help people like me. I seem to run through friends rather quickly. If one isn't working out, I'll weigh how much time and effort I've put into them, and the difficulty I will encounter in trying to piece the friendship back together. If I don't think it's worth the effort, I slowly back off from them and find another friend. Of course, this isn't all intentional, sometimes I think it happens without me being conscience of it. And when it does happen, it really stinks and really hurts, so it definitely isn't something I take lightly.

Does this mean I should be choosier with my friends? Or just the people I trust? Or does this mean I'm a big jerk who doesn't get along with anybody? Haha. Well, I think I'm going to make a big goal for this year when it comes to friendships. I am going to work toward maintaining friendships rather than cultivating them.

Tobacco

Today, the fifth graders learned about how a good portion of our young nation was supported by the growth of tobacco. I can see that the "no stank you" commercials are doing their job. Whenever I said the word tobacco, the students' faces screwed up in disgust.

Geeky teacher side note: We have a tool for English Language Learners called GLAD-Guided Language Acquisition Design- and each new vocabulary word has some sort of motion to go with it. For example, whenever I say "portfolio," the kids mime opening up a notebook and writing in it. I think I could consider tobacco a GLAD word, just because of their consistent reaction to it...

Also, I sat out on Jon's porch with Charlie, Ruthann, and Timmy while smoking was happening, even though I am allergic to tobacco. That is the reason I am sleeping on three pillows tonight. Sometimes I need to think about consequences. It must be a sin for me to hang out around smoke if I know it's just going to make me sick later.

So many stories.

I think I want to write more about stories.

So much of my life revolves areound stories. I wonder how many different catergories of stories I could come up with (I mean, the ones that are a big part of my life.) I'm only going to give one or two examples of each because I don't want to be up thinking about this for hours :) I think I'm going to try to write the stories under each catergory in chronological order of when they first affected my life.

Stories that are central to who I am and more importantly, who I'm living for:

• The Old Testament, the Gospels, and the rest of the New Testament. I know all of that is found in the same binding, but I just needed to break it up into slightly smaller stories for my brain's sake.
• My life stories.

I'm looking over at my bookshelves right now....

Stories that inspire me to be brave:

• Beauty and the Beast
• Speaker for the Dead
• The Kite Runner

Stories that make me aware of this beautiful blue green planet and the people I share it with:

• Windwalker
• Pocahontas (that one will need an explanation, I know.)
• A long way home
• The forest people

Stories that help me understand the beauty in the dissonance:

• Les Miserables
• The Lion King :)
• The Giver
• Music written by Jon Foreman

CMU 150 Multicultural Communications

Don't waste your time. Watch American History X instead.













No, just kidding, go to class, it's important. Just make sure you watch the movie too. If you're on the fence about whether or not racism is something you should care about, it will slingshot you over to the true side.

The Kite Runner

Wrenched my guts.

I have been putting off reading this book or seeing this movie for awhile, even though I have only heard good things, and it is extremely popular. I don't enjoy following the pack. But you know...sometimes, there is a good reason why everybody likes something. This movie proves that point very well.

Alex ordered the movie on Netflix...I think he has a rule of thumb that goes something like this, "Well, if there are cute kids who don't speak English involved in the story, I should probably get it for her." I guess he pays attention. Anyway, when he popped it in tonight, I think he was settling down for a nap on the couch; he isn't a big subtitle fan. Halfway through the movie, he makes a groaning noise, turns away from the screen, clutches his chest and says "My heart hurts."

There is something about a great story that resonates with our hearts. The storyteller is able to make us feel their pain, their joy, their triumph...what a great gift, to be a storyteller.

Jesus told stories...