You DO need her

"It's like you think you are safe or something cause you can just walk away anytime, cause you don't need her - you don't need anyone. But the thing you didn't realize is, you're wrong."

- Jordan Catalano from an episode of My So-Called Life

Always Do Right

"Always do right. This will gratify most people and astonish the rest."

- Mark Twain

Happy Monday Everyone!

Buy This, It's Nothing!

"The fact that nowadays people are so desperate to be seen with the latest ‘whatever’ that they’ll buy almost anything, which is exactly what that Fiona Jack woman proved when she got some billboard company in New Zealand to start advertising this totally non-existent product called, ‘Nothing.’

What? I never heard about this.

Ya, this Fiona Jack woman designed these billboards that said, ‘For the person who wants nothing,’ and tons of people ended up calling the billboard company and asking where they could buy Nothing.

That really happened.

Yep."

- Gordon J.H. Leenders. May Not Appear Exactly As Shown. pg 204

Say & Do Vs. Think & Feel

“We say and do what we feel we should, while we think and feel something altogether. As we must. We realize we can’t go around saying and doing what we’re actually thinking and feeling. If we did that, life would be a lunatic asylum.”

- McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 255

Will You Remember Me?

"I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to loose

Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose

Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night

You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light

And I will remember you

Will you remember me?

Don't let your life pass you by

Weep not for the memories."

- Sarah McLachlan, "I Will Remember You"

A Teacher's Lunch

“Seeing a teacher's actual lunch is, like, so depressing.”

Angela on My So-Called Life

This quote has been running over and over in my head whenever I have to eat lunch with my students.

It comes from a TV show where a teenage girl is asked to stay after class by a teacher. The teacher asks her if she minds that she eats while they talk because she doesn't get a lunch on Tuesdays.

I wonder if my students think the same thing when they see my lunch.

Third and Fourth Tries

"Character is consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries."

- James a Michener

Externalized Memory

"The one thing that differentiates human beings from all other creatures on Earth is the externalization of subjective memory – first through notches in trees, then through cave paintings, then through the written word and now, through databases of almost otherworldly storage and retrieval power."

- Coupland, Douglas. Microserfs. HarperCollins Books: Toronto, 1995. pg 359

What Stories Do

"Stories can give us ways to arrange what we see and experience, can give us the material for conversation, can help us to make contact with our grandchildren by reading to them."

- Gold, Joseph. Read For Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Fitzhenry and Whiteside: Markham, 1990. pg 330

I Show Love

"The mind is a terrible thing to waste,
I show love 'cause it's a terrible thing to hate."

- Gangstarr "Peace of Mine" from the album "The Ownerz"

Why It’s Called the Easy Way

“Honey, facing unpleasant consequences is tough, but it’s not the toughest thing. What’s tougher is turning down all the good things that can happen to you because you take the easy way out, … which is why it’s called the easy way.”

Will Girardi on Joan of Arcadia Season 1

See it Through

“There is nothing so fatal to character as half-finished tasks.”

- David Lloyd

Writing Lesson # 1 – Read, a lot

“Yet there is a learning process going on. Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.”

- Stephen King. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Scribiner: New York, 2000. pg 145.

Story Gives Us What Real Life Lacks

"In short, a story well told gives you the very thing you cannot get from life: meaningful emotional experience. In life, experiences become meaningful with reflection in time. In art, they are meaningful now, at the instant they happen."

- McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principals of Screenwriting. ReganBooks: New York, 1997. pg 111

Volcano Girls

"Leave me lying here cause I don't wanna go
tell me tell me what you really want from me
you've got to let me know
I'm falling off and I need you terribly
one down and one to go
volcano girls, we really can't be beat
Warm us up and watch us blow"

- Veruca Salt "Volcana Girls" from the album "Eight Arms to Hold You"

Stop Talking Now

“If only there were a button somewhere that I could push. To force me to stop talking.”

Angela on My So-Called Life
What a great quotation. Who hasn’t ever walked away from a conversation and said something very similar to this inside their head? I know I’ve silently yelled at myself to “stop talking” before. But it never seemed to work

Our Default Position is to Do it Wrong

“Have you ever said, “Mom, Dad, Teacher, Don’t you trust me?”

When an adult hears this they might want to say, “What do I have ‘Dumb’ written across my forehead. Of Course I don’t trust you. You’re a kid, and kids aren’t old enough to know … Of course I don’t trust you. I’m a teacher. Why do you think I’m here for you?”

That’s a bit much, but we should say,

“Yeah I trust you, but I’m here with you because you need some help. Your teacher needs some help too. Because if I don’t have people I’m accountable to, if I don’t have people that I can go to, who watch me, then my default position is to do it wrong, And it’s the same for you, so we are in this together.

“I trust you I really do, you are the best kid on the face of the earth. But if you do that, you are going to face consequences.”

Remember that there are always consequences.

“Our default position, all things being equal, is to do it wrong.”

“We gotta be one with each other. We have this default thing in us, that if there aren’t rules there and we don’t keep each other accountable, we’d do it wrong.”

“This is why I worry about you.”

- Adapted slightly from Steve Brown’s Keylife Broadcast on December 14, 2005.

Poetry is Serious Business

“It is for this reason than poetry is both more philosophical and more serious than history, since poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars.”

- Aristotle, translated by Stephen Halliwell. The Poetics of Aristotle: translation and commentary. Chapel Hill: London, 1987. pg 41.

The Main Character

“in real life we each of us regard ourselves as the main character.”

- Stephen King. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. Scribiner: New York, 2000. pg 190

Mr. Wendal

"Here have a dollar, in fact naw brotherman here have two.


Two dollars is a snack for me but it means a big deal to you.


Be strong serve God only know that if you do beautiful heaven awaits.


That's the poem I wrote for the first time, I saw a man with no clothes, no money, no plate.


Mr. Wendal, that's his name, no one ever knew his name cuz he's a know one."

- Arrested Development "Mr. Wendal" from the album "3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of..."

This is a great song. I like how the group spelled "no one" as "know one" as well. It shows that we shouldn't judge people on appearances. The bum in this song actually has a lot to offer.

Golden Rules

“The Christian Golden Rule says: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’

Similar sayings can be found in at least nine other religions around the world.

Bah’i - Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.

Buddhism – Hurt not others with that which pains yourself

Confucianism – Do not unto others what you would not they should do unto you

Hinduism – Do naught to others which if done to thee, would cause thee pain.

Islam – No one is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.

Jainism – We should refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.

Judaism – What is hurtful to yourself do no to your fellow man.

Sikhism – As thou deemest thyself, so deem others.

Taoism – Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain, and regard your neighbour’s loss as your own loss.”

- Canadian Scout Handbook

So many different ways to say pretty much the same thing. I hope the “golden rule” is not being forgotten in this day and age, it is important and as relevant as ever.