Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

Everything from incoming snow to insurrection. Why do we sit for sometimes hours staring at the idiot  box, ingesting all of the mess? This obsession with "the news" has spawned an apocalyptic term: doom-scrolling. And it's true. We can't stop poking the wounds. I'm so guilty of this. What we read/see feeds our brains, right? And apparently, mine is addicted to negative media-manna.  For the remainder of this week, I hope to curb this almost-insatiable craving for the craven, and read. Write. Watch period-drama movies, or Bluey. Or soak up the green-ness of spring training baseball.  That does not mean I won't be sneaking peeks at the news; I still want to know, for example, what the opening salvos will be in the discussion at the Supreme Court about student loan debt. I want to know what's up with the Eastern European tragedy that is the war on Ukraine. But I don't need to track it so closely; it's not healthy for my already-stressed brain. That s

Another day, another level of existential dread. O, that sounds dismal.  Child labor laws are under review across the nation because of a worker shortage, due in part to overly-strict immigration laws and the global pandemic/ fatalities/ workers deciding they are not kanon-fodder-- children will be "allowed" to do dangerous jobs, work crazy hours, etc. The numbers don't lie: violations of existing labor laws have tripled since 2015, and there are many people in government and industry who would rather reduce the safeties in place than protect children from exploitive and potentially deadly situations.  We can't have it both ways: either we invest in our children, and in the nation's/world's future, or we make more money for fat-cats who will continue to exploit our children and tank the country for their own benefit. And the "powers that be" will squawk to teachers about plummeting test scores, mark my words.  This is not about allowing minors the o

Here we go again. Yesterday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee sent a rather pointed letter to Sec. Pete Buttigieg, accusing the federal DOT of having a shoddy response to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. They blathered on about how the NTSB didn't, and wasn't, doing their job, and the Committee wanted all paperwork and so on to review the situation. Problem. The NTSB is not part of the DOT (how's that alphabet soup going?), and Sec. Buttigieg has no authority to do jack squat with them. The DOT has had people on site since five hours after the crash, and he has sent people to assist the NTSB.  Heather Cox Richardson, in her newsletter , writes, "... the letter these representatives wrote shows such a profound disinterest in how our government works that it suggests these representatives have no real interest in the job they were sent to Washington to do, and instead are weaponizing the government to mislead their followers into believing th

The war in Ukraine has affected --affects-- most of the world, in one way or another. The atrocities committed by Putin, done through his often-unwilling soldiers, are mounting every day. Hunger, cold, constant human losses-- these are all part of the "game" of war. One statistic that is making me extremely worried and furious is the kidnapping and relocating of over 6000 Ukrainian children, taken from their homes and family members and "adopted" into Russian homes. Snatched from their families, they will now be raised as Russian children, indoctrinated into the official mind-set and eventually turned against their own culture, home, and relatives. Disgusting. The horrors of war are visited upon the defenseless. Time and time again. This time, we are seeing it happen before our eyes, thanks in large part to the availability of the internet. When I read and hear of members of Congress talk about "aid fatigue" I want to scream; they are getting tired of help

I am obsessed with the news. It might be unhealthy, to be honest, but I feel a deep need to know what is going on in the world around me. I am not that interested in the personal/private lives of people, especially those I am not acquainted with. Thus, the chatty gossip and prurient details on the 'net are of little interest to me. But my heart gravitates to the perpetual human drama that is playing out around us: Ukraine, the hate-driven white-washing of our own country's "history" in many states, the unavoidable tragedy that is nature's reassertion of dominance--floods, fires, snow storms, hurricanes. Today is the one year "anniversary" of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and it's got me thinking about competition and it's dire consequences. Why? I have no answer to that. I need to physically pull myself away from the computer, to stop following the news feeds, or I get so angsty that I just can't function. It's really hard to put all t

We all know that frisson of excitement when a snow day is announced-- luckily, our area has started a good practice of calling the night before, if it's possible. That way, we responsible adults who are teachers are not already showered and caffeinated when the call comes. Parents can find child care without panicking. That all said--and yes, I know, we'll be going later in June-- what to do today? I have a never-ending chore list. I have some papers I could grade. What I want to do is snuggle up in a blanket and read. Most likely, I'll fold laundry, watch my grand-daughter for a while, and maybe get some reading in, but we shall see. The papers can --and probably will-- wait. We have vacation next week. Of course I will save the papers for vacation. (Insert sarcasm) I know the roads are terrible, and that the plow guys/gals are running on little sleep, and I do worry about them. I worry about my husband who is going to work, and has to drive through Franconia Notch to get

Today is George Washington's birthday. And my husband's. And Ash Wednesday. So many observances! When I was a child in elementary school, we used to celebrate both Lincoln's birthday and Washington's, making paper cutouts and I even recall some sort of song or two that we sang in music class. Now we have Presidents' Day, and it's all about mattress and car sales, as far as I can tell. My husband's birthday is today as well; he has fond memories of sledding parties and such to mark this occasion. My daughter has made a beautiful from-scratch cake for him, which we will enjoy later! But this year, as it so happens, today is also the start of Lent, Ash Wednesday, and I will be hustling along a bit to try to get to church before work. I was talking with a colleague yesterday about it, and she was telling me, "yeah, we used to do that, but we don't anymore." No real reason, no rebellion against the church, it is just something that they ...let go. 

  So Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has proposed secession in the United States in a tweet, calling for a "national divorce." Last thing I knew, members of Congress swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, not divide the country up into "ours" and "the people we don't agree with." Seems to me, that strategy didn't work the last time it was tried. I read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (March 4, 1865) with my American Lit class yesterday, and we talked a little about how, when he called for national healing, there were those who clearly disagreed. Well, here we are again, it seems. To tear asunder an already fragile thing like our form of democracy is criminal (yeah, treason, that thing). But yet, we have elected people who would do just that, and are not afraid to shout it over and over again.  Lincoln ended his speech with this famous passage: " With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us t

Lately, I've been feeling a bit guilty and/or fraudulent about my reading background. I have read a whole lotta books in my lifetime, both for pleasure and because I've had to. But there are some weighty tomes that other people love that I have not engaged with, whether because they were not something I was assigned or because they felt daunting. (Yes, I worked my way through much of Moby Dick and The Last of the Mohicans --I paid my dues there.) A friend of mine is an avid re-reader, and she is currently wending her way through War and Peace again. I've read quite a bit of shorter Russian literature -novels, plays, and short stories- in my time, and for a while, I was purely steeped in it. I love Chekhov, and I don't mind a slide to the side to Ibsen (not Russian, but just as depressing and fatalistic). But I've never waded into War and Peace ; I ordered a used copy of the translation my friend recommended. It's here, beckoning. But wait, there's more. I

“'The AI world’s hallucinations may be a small blip in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a reminder of the importance of staying vigilant and ensuring our technology is serving us, not leading us astray,' Kostello said ." Shades of HAL9000, right? So, if we overwork AI chat bots, they get loopy? Three headed cats loopy? Critical misinformation loopy?  Very interesting. I've been reading a lot about AI chat bots, partly because I have students who sometimes like to take short cuts, and also because I'm a wordsmith myself. It seems that the chat bots, like GPT Chat and Bard, get stressed out. They have dark emotions. ( What?? ) Great, we've created digital Poes and Plaths, without the talent or vision.  The computer gurus assure us that these things are fixable ailments, but in the meantime, corporations are going nutty over this new plaything, and the practical applications of such technology are now suspect. I do not want to alarm anyone, but if this type of

I was scanning the news headlines, and there was a sad theme developing, one that revolved around people being fearful, rightfully, to go home.  In East Palestine, Ohio, the after-effects of poisonous chemicals are still causing illness, more than a mile away from the site of the derailment.  In Turkey, more than a week after the horrifying earthquake and its after-shocks, people are wondering if they can go home, if they have a home, or where home will be, ever again.  Amazon is working out a hybrid model; office employees have still been working from home. Not all of them want to leave the comfort (mental and physical) of their new normal. There are still too many people living "unhoused" due to high rents in this country, many of them young families. And for far too many college students, their feelings of being safely "at home" has been shattered by yet more gun violence. Some of them have experience active shooter situations twice in their young lives.  For too

  “TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-ward resumes its liberty.” ―  Walt Whitman,  Leaves of Grass "Resist much, obey little"--this reminds me of the bumper sticker my dad had on a truck for years that simply stated, "Question Authority." It's kind of my mantra, actually. I don't take anything on face value, and I'm often accused of borrowing trouble. But there's trouble enough, and I don't think too many people look deep enough to see that we are often blindly stepping into mudholes or worse. That said, the news is troubling me again. In Nicaragua, 94 people have been stripped of their citizenship; they are not not acknowledged in any way--civil death, if you will. This followed a purge of dissidents- 222 of them-- who were also de-citizened and flown to the US just a couple

I was listening to a Peter, Paul, and Mary album on youtube the other day with my grand-daughter, and it was making me a little blinky and nostalgic. Many of the songs were ones my father sang to me, and that is a very fond memory of mine. So many of the others, too, were songs he felt it was very important for me to truly listen to; the protest songs of my childhood are deeply ingrained in my head and my heart. Along the Peter, Paul, and Mary, I was given lessons in close listening with the songs of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and other young, earnest musical revolutionaries. I was so young! I can remember being asked to sit on the rug in front of the stereo cabinet my father built to listen to " A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" -- I think I was maybe 4 or 5 years old. My father patiently explained what the song meant, and I listened, rapt. I don't know if it was the sense of importance he placed on my knowing, or if it was just the Dad-and-me "secret knowledge" feeling

This week, I've been working with a small group of high school juniors about the history of "The Troubles" in Ireland. NONE of them had heard of it, let alone known any of the long history of violence and sectarian hostility. What I hope they will see is that it's not just the Middle East, or Ukraine/Russia, that has such difficulties. I want them to make some connections about religious prejudice and real bloodshed in the modern world. I am starting to wonder if this kind of zealotry is spilling into our own streets; it seems so, with the rise of anti-Semitism, the knee-jerk reaction to Muslims, and the horrifying rise of Christian Nationalism, especially in our own government.  This is valuable stuff, I think, for kids to know. To recognize that these kinds of destructive forces are not just somewhere else or back in time is to give them some tools to use in their lives beyond school, I think.  To this end, we are watching and talking about Kenneth Branagh's Bel

Today is St. Valentine's Day, one that has been, in many ways, marginalized and co-opted by various industries, commercialized well past the intention of the saint and the memorialization of his efforts. The love that St. Valentine showed was both one rooted in compassion, not individual affection, and in a deep caritas, a love that goes beyond what we now assume charity means. Yes, flowers, candy, jewelry, cards, and fancy dinners are all part of this holiday now. But underneath it all vibrates a deeper commitment to humankind, I hope. The love and care we show to the particular ones we love should be a microcosm of the greater love we have for one another. That is my hope. But I would not diminish the importance of having someone you love, someone who loves you as well. It's a comfort to be able to rest in the knowledge that someone knows you well enough to forgive your failings and faults, and will be the steadying force you need when things go off the rails.  I hope that yo

Last evening, I was thrilled to hear the indomitable Sheryl Lee Ralph sing a rousing and confident version of " Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing " on the 100th anniversary of the first performance of the song. Written by James Weldon Johnson with music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, it was performed by a group of school boys to commemorate President Lincoln's birthday in 1900. Sing then, it has become known as the "Negro National Hymn" and the NFL, in a mark of solidarity with players of color, has had the anthemic song played or sung at most of the games this season. It is not, like some mean-spirited, willfully ignorant people suggest, taking the place of the official national anthem; in fact, the fools who feel that The Star Spangled Banner ought to have come first last night clearly do not understand protocol. What a surprise.  Lauren Boebert (R-Co.) twitter-fussed about it, as did so many others who really do not understand what it is going to take to try

Today is the second-largest food-buying holiday in the U.S.A. It's a sort of secular holiday, a celebration of sorts, of an American tradition that gets all the hype and a whole lot of antacids.  Years ago, we used to host a big party: potluck foods, party favors, wedging chairs and footstools into our tiny apartment living room. Over time, people have moved, we have moved, and this year, it's just the two of us. I won't be making the usual fat-fest, but there will be a nod to years past. Buffalo chicken tenders, sweet potato fries, and a garden salad sound good. No, there will not be a crockpot full of mini weenies, nor will there be a bucket of Velveeta/salsa dip. Those have been relegated to the past, which is likely more healthy anyhow. O, the game. Yeah, I don't really have a favorite in the fight this year. I'm moderately interested in the Kelce brothers and that side story that is heartwarming and interesting. I'm curious how well Mahomes will do with his

So, it seems I'm a little fixated on this text-generating function of AI, but there it was, a main topic on Science Friday (heard it on npr). The host was talking to various guests about this upsurge of AI and the hullaballoo about text-generation. Some felt it would be useful to create generic texts like emails (o yay--let's celebrate generic text for just a moment). Others had their real doubts, due to the fact that it just can't be trusted to produce verifiable data/facts. Then, Ira asked the Rabbi what he thought. A listener called in with a very good question: what did clergy think about AI-generated sermons? The Rabbi was really interesting to listen to. He asked the chatbot to respond to an inquiry, wanting to know what the Torah would say about the Russian-Ukrainian war. The chatbot brought back the history of the Torah and geographical/current information about Russia and Ukraine, but came to the final point that the Torah would say nothing, as it was written in t

Yesterday, we had an impromptu conversation about this whole chatbot/ AI/ closing of libraries situation. The students in this conversation were not the ones you'd expect to have a solid opinion about this: they are not necessarily college-bound, and they are the ones who usually duck writing and reading assignments. That said, it was a lively and interesting discussion, one that surprised me (and gave me a little hope as well). None of them thought depending on AI to "write" papers was a good idea, and they were convinced that there is no way that AI can replicate human inquiry or thought. They also were quite adamant that the AI chatbots were not going to be able (at least at this juncture) to screen out false information, so the papers were going to be filled with mistakes. So I chimed in with the report that Google's new Bard bot did, in fact, make a really obvious mistake in their first public foray, and it has cost the company 100 BILLION dollars in market val

What is going on with all the big tech companies?  For most of my adult life, and especially in my teaching life, we've been shoved down the "must do computer stuff for the best jobs out there in the 21st century" road. Metric tons of money poured into STEM classes, laptops and coding and digital everything have dominated curriculum.  And now, thousands of people have been are being laid off.  I don't have the inside track on why, but I am curious about what these people will do to pivot to new employment. I envision them bouncing from one job to the next, as the tech dominos continue to fall. Technology and the huge companies that we all know are not going away, but it seems like there is a type of corrective going on. Simply put: did they code their way out of jobs? AI is front and center in the news lately; two more text-generating chatbots have been announced. That's another concern entirely; the algorithms that drive them scan the 'net for information, bu

I did not watch the State of the Union speech last night; instead, I will read it today, and think about it. I just could not bring myself to watch it, knowing that childish (and that's really insulting to most children) antics were planned. MTG with her balloon, for instance. For heaven's sake, decorum used to be a given with members of Congress, but that bar seems to have lowered immensely. Boebert, from CO, using Psalm 109 to publicly wish for the President to die? Women have worked far too hard and too long to gain footholds in all arenas of civic life, and this kind of brainless, mean-spirited, attention-seeking drama is not helping anyone at all. Talk about camera-hogs.  I also did not want to hear one minute of Sarah Huckabee Sanders' voice. The ignorance she spews while pandering to a self-aggrandizing elite is impossible to digest. I did not want to go to bed angry, in short. And I am angry. These fools are systematically undercutting any positive efforts the rest

I'm showing the original version of Twelve Angry Men today in one of my classes. It's a masterpiece, to be sure. I wonder, however, whether my students will pick up on the first, and most important, injustice that occasioned the story in the first place. Most people focus on the deliberations in the jury room; the men, their backgrounds, the heat. The whole reason they are even in that room, and why it is so critical that they go back through the narrative and the evidence, is that there is ethnic prejudice at the heart of the matter.  Seems that not a whole lot has changed, unfortunately, except that women are allowed to be on the jury.  We'll see how they do with the film; they may surprise me. If they do, and I hope that is the case, then I'll know that there is hope out there for all of us. Have a good day, C

Spoken-word poet J. Ivy of Chicago won his first Grammy last night for his fourth album, The Poet Who Sat By the Door. In his speech, he gave a shout-out to his high school English teacher. He said, " I received a standing ovation that day and I decided to keep going... Somebody saw me and gave me a chance." This is why I do what I do. Not so my students can go forth and win awards (though that would be cool), but so that they can feel confident about something we are doing. Often there is a lot of resistance to new things in the classroom, but if we don't push a little against students' comfort zone, they are not learning. Safe intellectual risk taking can produce great things. I'll keep pushing. Have a good day, C

Yesterday, I was in an all-day writing class that focuses on the poet as storyteller, and I was hopeful of learning how --the nuts and bolts-- to write a narrative poem. Struggle? yep. I love narrative poems, especially the ones that take the reader on a story arc and that use dialog. Frost's " Home Burial " is magical, in my mind. There is the Iliad and the Odyssey too-- epics, while book-length, are just (!!) long poems. That said, I have no illusions about writing an epic, but what I found entirely disconcerting was the fact that I HAD NO STORY TO TELL. At least, none that quickly came to mind. I can honestly state that the stuff I ended up writing was, for the most part, garbage. Mentally, I was lost. I couldn't find a story to tell. The second prompt we had went a little better; it was purely imaginative, and I was able to get into that one easier. But O, did I struggle all day with trying to write something that was not puerile, stupid, fat-headed dreck.  Humb

I woke up after having a really stressful and stupid dream that involved a woman operating a large piece of heavy machinery who was tearing up my driveway, who also got into a shouting match with a police officer who threatened to arrest her, all while I had people coming here and looking to park, bearing multitudes of desserts for a pot-luck day session of a writing conference. That was all going on, of course, while I was having computer issues, so the people not physically in attendance were not able to zoom in. And we had a half hour lunch break, and, as I mentioned, there was a plethora of desserts--and four bubbling pots of something nasty that smelled like clam chowder but had a crust on top. The only half-edible looking "main dish" was a strange egg souffle that looked like Japanese mochi only huge, and this woman I used to work with took the entire pan of it and was picking at it with a fork, but would not share any. It was weirdly yellow and rubbery, all in a perfec

I've ransacked my closet to find something presentable and warm enough-- at the moment, it is about 2 degrees out, pre-dawn. The weather app tells me that by the end of my school work day, it'll be about negative fifteen. Yes, I spelled that out, because it's going to feel that cold in my classroom.  The morning news is telling people to keep their pets in --no worries here. The Dog Who Lives in My House does not like outside at all. Many schools in Vermont have canceled for the day, because having young ones standing around waiting for a bus or walking home would be cruel. (We, of course, have made a single nod to the predicted cold-- the basketball games have been moved to one hour earlier.)  Today is also "Wear Red" day to highlight heart health. I don't have a heavy, warm, red anything to wear, but I do have a large sweatshirt (yay for dress-down Fridays) with Snoopy and Woodstock and a big red heart on it. That's my choice of work clothes for today. 

I've been going from window to window this morning, taking down the window candles that have been keeping vigil since the first weekend of Advent. I will remove the wreath from the door, but the outdoor lights are frozen in place for the time being. At any rate, I will do what I can. It's interesting to me that so many cultural traditions all converge on this one day.  Imbolc, celebrated on February 1-2, marks the point between the solstices, and has its roots in the breeding cycle of sheep. In more recent times, historically, it marks the returning of more sunlight. Candlemas, also the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus and, additionally, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is celebrated by Christians throughout the world today. Yesterday was the Feast of St. Brigid, matron saint of Ireland as well. It's a busy week, eh? Then, there's the Groundhog. Punxatawny Phil will be our rodent prognosticator, a more secular way of honoring the return of lon

It's been a relatively mild winter so far, and I, for one, have not been unhappy with that. Today, it's 5 below zero, with predictions for a much deeper cold over the next two days. I spent some time rummaging my closet and drawers looking for heavy sweaters (and they were all in the wash, go figure). So, I will be the layer queen today: long sleeve shirt, heavy flannel, down vest. I am so grateful that no one has ever required "professional dress" at my school-- my classroom tends to be very cold. My students sometimes bring small fleece blankets to leave on the shelves. I suspect they will make an appearance today. I can't help but think about people who are living off the grid, and even more about those who are unhoused. I am glad I live in a community that has warming stations and so on, but this is just a small band-aid on the really large gash in our nation. The housing situation is a fraught one; so many property owners have chosen to turn their rentals int