Her Face Came Alive

You see, I'd never stopped to wonder why it was that millions of boys all over creation weren't seeing her and instantly falling in love with her, worshipping her body and mind and soul and spirit as I did. It never occurred to me until this precise moment that maybe lots of boys wouldn't have thought she was gorgeous. Maybe she only seemed so gorgeous to me because - and this is the shocker - her face came alive when I walked in front of it. ~Author Unknown

Finished

I finished listening to Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years today.  I was moved to tears many, many times.  I highly recommend it.  I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate it into my Intro to Literature course; I think my college students would love it, too.

"Here’s the truth about telling stories with your life.  It’s going to sound like a great idea, and you are going to get excited about it, and then when it comes time to do the work, you’re not going to want to do it.  It’s like that with writing books, and it’s like that with life.  People love to have lived a great story, but few people like the work it takes to make it happen...


...We have to get up off the couch and turn the television off, we have to blow up the inner-tubes and head to the river. We have to write the poem and deliver it in person. We have to pull the car off the road and hike to the top of the hill. We have to put on our suits, we have to dance at weddings."

A Million Miles ... on the Elliptical

"If you have never said "Excuse me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time."  ~Sherri Chasin Calvo

Last night, I took my new audio-book-uploaded-to-my-ipod to the gym.  More specifically, I strapped that shuffle to my t-shirt (thanks, Dad and Mom, for that gem of a gift) and spent the most enjoyable time I have EVER had at the gym listening to the first six chapters of Donald Miller's

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life

I think I might have just discovered how this word-nerd can enjoy cardio.  Because audio-book-ing-while-cardio-ing was exactly, and I mean EXACTLY, what I needed to get me re-excited about the gym.  I'm always wanting to read nonfiction, but I don't really enjoy physically sitting down with it as much as I relish settling in with a new novel.  However, listening to Donald Miller read his stories while I beast away on the elliptical? -- well, I can do THAT with no complaints.  

Donald Miller is a gifted writer and the book, so far, is fantastic for someone who loves writers, storytelling and stories as much as I do :)  Or, as my friend said, "it's a book about a movie that's about a book!" and really, what's not to love about that?  The only downside to the audio book so far?  I can't highlight quote-worthy passages.  And in a Miller book, there are plenty of passages to earmark.  

  

Too Short

"I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see." -- John Burroughs

Let My Girls Be Hermiones

 I've got two daughters who will have to make their way in this skinny-obsessed world, and it worries me, because I don't want them to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin.' And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls. Rant over.
-- J.K. Rowling

Purple Poetry and Stones Under Rushing Water

Yesterday my Intro to Lit classes started studying poetry, and I (of course) made a very snazzy powerpoint to use for my introductory lecture.  I always have to be honest with my usually-terrified-of-poetry students and tell them that I never even LIKED poetry until I was in my early twenties.  I feel like this confession usually gets a good laugh, considering that it comes from their English professor.  The poems I was always asked to read were so old and difficult to relate to... and then, one day, I discovered this poem by Jenny Joseph:

---------------------------------------------
WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
--------------------------------------------------

Poetry, I explain to my students, can be awesome. The secret is finding poems whose writers express an emotion that you recognize.

At the end of the snazzy powerpoint, I like to play several contemporary songs that demonstrate the power of a strong image -- what a poet/songwriter can express by using figurative language instead of logical usage. 

One of my favorites is this beautiful acoustic version of "Stones Under Rushing Water" by Needtobreathe.  I think it demonstrates EXACTLY how an image (stones under rushing water) can represent a powerful emotion.

Enough Bookshelves

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.  ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991

Tolkien at Year's End...

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

-- J.R.R. Tolkien

The last day of the old year.  A time for reflection and resolution...

Spent some time with someone a few nights ago and was reminded of the wonderful gift it is to be friends with a person who can always answer the question, "so what are you reading?"  So few people read nowadays, and finding a Tolkien lover is an added friendship bonus :)  Our bookish convo reminded me that winter is possibly the best season for enjoying tales of hobbits and elves and kings, so I am taking my Tolkien down from the shelf and revisiting those old friends...

I am praying that my relationship with the Lord in 2011 will be one of renewal and restoration -- I am trusting that some of the "frost" of the past year has not damaged the deepest roots of who I am in Christ.  Currently, I'm reading 1 John.  Five chapters.  Immense truth.  This year, I want to rediscover my King :)

Happy New Year, everyone.

Ridiculously, Fabulously Asinine

"You'll read it.  And then you'll read it again. 

And then you'll hug it." 

-- the ACTUAL words to a radio advertisement I heard today for a recently-published novel.

It was so ludicrous, I couldn't help but adore it.  In all its ludicrous-ity-ish-ness.   I mean, really.  REALLY.  What an asinine way to advertise a novel.  Sigh. 

"Hey honey, I bought you this book -- it's so good, you're gonna hug it."