Insert Swarming Metaphor Here

          I'm not sure why this story reappeared in my thoughts yesterday, but up it popped, unheeded, unannounced; it just came to me. "Leiningen Versus the Ants" by Carl Stephenson was one of the first stories that I thought was actually worth paying attention to after I was introduced to the term "short story" in 8th grade. After what seemed like months of pointless garbage, Mrs. Kane, in all her beastly glory (Side note: there were days where she reminded me of a yeti.), actually gave us something worth reading. It actually kept my attention. I thought after this, English class might actually improve, despite the horrific grammar and vocabulary drills. Unfortunately, I was wrong. My opinion of her dissolved after two more stories--both of which I will probably share over the next couple days. After those, it was right back to writing nonfiction book reports. (Yes, I completely faked the report I wrote from the biography of Mao Tse Tung. So? That book was as bland as middle school cafeteria gravy, or sludge as we lovingly called it there at Lakenheath American Middle School. Go, Leopards! ...And I got a B+ on that "report.")
          Tangent diverted! Back to our good friend Leiningen. His determination/stupidity in the face of overwhelming odds can be used as a metaphor for whatever onslaught you may be facing right now: killer ants, 7th graders after gym, political "protesters," or whatever other metaphor you'd like to insert. Feel free to make your own application. Being a reader, that's part of your job.

(https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/205141)

          Regardless of my feelings for 8th grade English or anything else, "Leiningen Versus the Ants" is still a pretty cool story. (And there's no movie that I am aware of, although The Naked Jungle with Charlton Heston is supposedly based off Stephenson's story.)

Life is like...

(http://www.usnews.com/topics/subjects/lottery)

Forget the Forrest Gump-ism about what life is like. Sometimes life just resembles Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." And when that happens, we have some choices. Our country faces some choices. The question is what are you, as an individual, going to do about it? That's not a political jab, or statement, or anything, but this is: I think the future of our country lies in the individual, and how each one of us chooses to act, how each one of us chooses to treat others, how we choose to live our own lives. That is all. Take it for what you will.

P.S. The story is not public domain, but I found a (.pdf) copy of it on a teacher site, accompanied by some decent questions.

P.P.S. Here is video adaptation of the story I found on YouTube.

"The Lie"

http://www.ictlounge.com/html/applications_in_school_management.htm

I'm not going to expound my philosophies on education and grades and what they mean and what society thinks they mean and what they should mean right now. That might take a VERY long time, and I would probably end up offending many people, and I'm trying to be positive today, so I'm going to keep my mouth mostly shut on that topic, although it does connect somewhat to today's story, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s "The Lie."

I first encountered this story my initial year of teaching, and I used it every year I taught 8th graders. It was one of my favorite stories of the year, but most of the kids didn't seem to appreciate the subtle truths about society and grade inflation and entitlement and "privilege" that they lived every day. Unfortunately, students' lives are often controlled by outside forces that leave them more helpless than the generation before. Helicoptering, yet another topic for another time, results in learned helplessness. Learning sometimes comes from failure...and that's where I'll leave my comments today. If you want more, you'll either have to wait until I deem myself level-headed enough to do so, or you'll need to talk to me personally. If you haven't noticed, some of my narrative posts, and the lessons I learned from my experiences, come from precarious or plain at least unsupervised situations where I had to learn for myself. I witness that many kids still make it through life the same way I did, but others just don't know how to connect the dots.

For now, please excuse me. I need to go post my final grades for the term. Read the story while you wait.

Misty Metaphor

Apparently I have shared this on many other outlets, but have failed to post it on my blog, so here is are a poem and a photograph (both by me):

There's something

poetic

about the fir in the front yard

donning a shroud

of fog and frost

at the rolling of the calendar

year—

an enigmatic omen

of the imminent year

lingering before silent snows

sweep away the veil of vapor

to reveal its

intentions before

midnight.

Chilling Tale

This morning I shoveled another six inches from my driveway (another two fell before I left for work). I think the total since Christmas hangs around thirty inches or so. As I worked under the giant fir tree hanging over my driveway, one of the lower branches decided it was too exhausted and dumped its burden down the back of my neck, the powdery cold reaching all the way down to my socks, extinguishing any exuberance I had when starting my shoveling ordeal. In that vein, I decided that the story for today would be Jack London's classic "To Build a Fire." I first encountered this tale in Ms. Ortiz's 7th grade English class--it and the poem "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service served as a precursor to London's novel Call of the Wild. More recently, my son read the story in his 8th grade English class, and was excited to talk about it with me. I read it several times in school and a few more on my own. If you haven't read it, you should. If you have, you will probably never forget it, even if you slept more than read in your English classes.

Illustration from story To Build a Fire. First published in The Century Magazine, v.76, August, 1908

P.S. There's a movie for this story, too.

Something a Little Different

                I've decided that I’m going to share a short story once in a while—not necessarily the entire text, but the title and author at least, and perhaps a link to it. These will be pieces that maybe I’ve shared with my class or relate to something I’ve been thinking about. Regardless of the reason, it will give you something to look up, ponder, and maybe even enjoy.

                Today’s feature is “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury. It’s about a group of nine-year-old school children on Venus who are anticipating the brief one hour of sunlight they will see, as this phenomenon only occurs once every seven years. One girl, an outsider who actually remembers the sun, and yearns for it more than anything else, is bullied by the class just because she is different and is locked in a closet. The children only remember her after the sun has come and gone. (I have also found a movie version, but it's not quite as powerful. I'll also need to look up the citation information. This painting by Robert Henri, Wee Maureen (1926), which accompanies the story in the literature book, also captures a few points of the story.) 

                I have a few thoughts, and I’m not really going to provide much commentary today, just gonna let things hang in the open.

1.       I know that weather can affect moods and behaviors, but what do we do about it when it does? Seriously, seasonal depression is a real, diagnosable and scary monster, but how often do we let that or other factors become a crutch to lean on out of convenience? More of this dependency is prevalent in our society today? What happened to self-reliance?

2.       How often do we get caught up in the frenzy of a crowd? How many times have you been a sheep, a goat, an ass, or any other of your favorite barnyard followers?

3.       How often do we allow others to be bullied? Are we much better than the bully if we just let things happen? There are many YouTube videos about situations like this.

4.       What happens when we allow others to crush dreams (whether they are our own or others’)?

5.       Why can’t we all just be nice?

Read the story and these questions might make more sense.

                In the literature book I collected this story from, there is a poem immediately after that I like more each time I read it, and I will share that. Then you have to go read the story on your own.

“What Do We Do with a Variation?” by James Berry

What do we do with a difference?

Do we stand and discuss its oddity

or do we ignore it?

Do we shut our eyes to it

or poke it with a stick?

Do we clobber it to death?

Do we move around it in rage

and enlist the rage of others?

Do we will it to go away?

Do we look at it in awe

or purely in wonderment?

Do we work for it to disappear?

Do we pass it stealthily

or change route away from it?

Do we will it to become like ourselves?

What do we do with a difference?

Do we communicate to it,

let application acknowledge it

for barriers to fall down?

                Poetically, it’s not my favorite, but the message rings true today…at least to me. We are surrounded by differences. This morning, on a lovely late-start-due-to-snow day, my nine-year-old was extremely upset that she couldn’t draw a guinea pig perfectly—just like the one in the supposedly “easy to draw” book. It took quite a while to help her understand that it her drawing didn’t have to be perfect; it didn’t have to be exactly the same; it’s okay to make mistakes or to be different in our attempts, especially when trying something new.

                I think we all lose sight of that. Let’s let go of petty differences—I won’t unfriend you if your beliefs, opinions, or practices are different than mine—let’s look at the larger picture of humanity. So…let’s be kind when encountering differences, especially with the turmoil and upheaval our world is facing. My advice for this new year: just be kind.