Jul
10
So, while Alex says that he likes school, getting him to practice reading is like pulling teeth from the inflamed gums of a carnivorous mammal who once had an impacted tooth extracted with no meds when he thought he was going to get a sanguine treat.
As fate would have it, he needs the practice.
In addition to mild bribery, I have been looking for other incentives. I think I found one that works.
The chalkboard wall. I wrote him a letter which he actually read with me without making faces, pouting or otherwise threatening a breakdown of some sort. Hmm.
I have learned through this that Alex is rather discerning about his knock knock jokes.
I will draw full-scale comics on his wall if that’s what it takes for him to break the reading code.
A mama’s gotta do what a mama’s gotta do.
Apr
19
And I admit that I have a bit of a problem with my tendency toward hyperbole.
But thanks to Barrelhouse, which I recently discovered, I also found the object of my hyperbolic love: Erica Miriam Fabri.
Recently, at a meeting of my writing group, one of the writers said (and this is my paraphrasing) that every writer has a group of writers that belong to them. She meant that there are people who are sort of cut of the same cloth, or doing the same sorts of things. They are by no means your literary twins, nor even the bastard brothers you never knew about, but there is something of them that resonates with you and the kind of work that you’re generating. When I read Ms. Fabri’s poems, I felt like, “Yes! This one is mine!”
At least, we share motifs.
I think that it is too hard to procure a fresh new volume of poetry. You can’t just walk into a major bookstore and browse all of the new voices. Recently I vowed to buy more poetry, and I am glad that I purchased this volume. I will read it over and over. I will keep an eye out for this name. Which poets do you love?
Apr
09
I don’t know what it was about this biography, The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, but every time I picked it up, something about it made me think, “Oh, James Monroe is so cute.” And then I followed it up with a sigh.
This biography made me realize just how little I knew about President Monroe. Of the founder-presidents I have read about, he strikes me as the one that you just stop and say, “I like this guy.” (I haven’t yet read about Adams, nor have I finished my Jefferson bio.)
What stood out to me here was Monroe’s relationship to his family. He had two brothers whom he very desperately tried to help and support, but his efforts were relatively fruitless. His marriage, as portrayed here, was fun to read about. And his ties to his daughters, well, they just make you think, “cute!” And then you sigh. And then you read about, how at the end of his presidency, that people kept describing his dress as “of the old style.” You think about this, how he continued to dress how he thought appropriate though the times were changing around him, as the leaders of the revolutionary era faded and a new generation came forward, and you sigh again.
An appendix included the Monroe Doctrine. Despite all of the history classes I’ve taken, I don’t recall every reading it as a whole, which actually quite makes sense as the Monroe Doctrine was actually part (a few nonconsecutive paragraphs) of a state of the union type speech. I am glad to have read this bio, and this appendix, at this part of the President reading project, as the Monroe Doctrine is something that has had political implications ever since and has been interpreted very broadly since.
*sigh*
Mar
25
I am a sucker for those books that take you on a journey of someone’s year.
Eat, Pray, Love; Plenty; Animal Vegetable Miracle; The Happiness Project.
Are You There Vodka, It’s Me, Chelsea; Kiss and Tango; Cooking for Mr. Latte; I Loved, I Lost, I made Spaghetti.
I just finished The Slippery Year. There are so many things in the book that make me want to stop a stranger, point out a highlighted passage and say them, perhaps while drawing them into an inappropriate embrace, “This is why I love this book! Can’t you see it?” But, alas, I’m typically against touching people without their prior consent. Instead, I’ll offer you a quote from the book, one of the things that made me love it.
This comes in a part of the book where she has blown off (I use the term affectionately) a petitioner:
He shrugged and walked away. I watched him stop a woman on a bike. Within a few minutes they were chatting like old friends. She opened her fanny pack and pulled out two Odwalla bars and they sat down on the grass. Their heads bowed together, they began reading the Slowmandments. It was noon. They would be there until dusk.
“I’ll think about it,” I shouted to the man, feeling abandoned and a little sad.
Why couldn’t I be more like the woman on the bike? Trusting. Curious. Willing to share her snacks.
Mar
18
I am almost embarrassed by the way I got sucked into General George Washington: A Military Life by Edward G. Lengel. I listened to it and was stricken by the frequent descriptions of President Washington’s physicality. I don’t have a problem thinking of these men, the presidents, as flesh-and-bones people. Just ask my writing group who have been subjected to some poetry of mine on the topic. But this was distracting. I was taken aback by it, perhaps because this book is about Washington’s military history. On second thought, perhaps it makes more sense to hear these very visceral descriptions on this context. For the individual, the battlefield is very much about the body, and preservation of it.
I am glad that I listened to this book. It made me want to learn more about a some others of the era. Patrick Henry, Benjamin Rush, “Mad” Anthony Wayne are among them.
Reading about these guys always brings some perspective with it. George Washington, in his military pursuits, along with most of the continentals from this era basically had to learn on the job in these life-or-death times. How’s that for pressure?
I will never again be able to think about horses without thinking about George Washington and the American Revolution. As always, I found myself fascinated by the language and diction of those from a different era. When I think about the way that the founders spoke, occasionally, I find myself swept away by their romantic use of language. There are so many snippets of phrasing that I want to write down just so that I can refer back to them. Washington’s quotes that involve the concept of “manliness” are of those. However, one of the touching quotes that I loved was this: “I have grown gray in your service and now find myself growing blind.” Here, we see Washington as a man not invincible to the effects of time. Makes you want to hug him.
Feb
02
So, one of the birthday goals is to read a biography of each US President. This goal came from writing a poem or two starring a few of our Presidents. Then someone asked me if I was going to write a poem about each US President. I thought that it sounded like a good challenge. The problem, however, was that I just didn’t know enough about them to write about them. And a project was born.
It turns out that there are a whole bunch of people doing a Presidential Reading Project of some sort.
So far, I have read about Presidents Lincoln, Polk, Clinton and Kennedy. I have started in on Presidents Adams (the father), Wilson and Madison.
Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project, another book that I am reading right now wrote 40 Ways to Look at JFK, which I finished reading last night. Being of a generation that was not a direct witness to this personality and relies solely on the images that seem to be everywhere, my mind was blown by this bio. The presentation alone was interesting, reminding me that people all look different depending on how we look at them. I’ll say this, I came away from that book seeing Kennedy as very human, as opposed to a sterile icon. This is actually most of the point of this particular goal. You see, the original poems that started it all were about those moments that these men had, which we don’t think about much. We think of them in terms of their jobs, what they represented, but hardly as people like us, people who did things like blow their noses and occasionally burn toast.
I have about eight months to complete this project. It is ambitious, but I feel sure that I can do it. Actually, I hear President Madison calling right now.
Sep
05
Once upon a time, I wrote a poem that made some allusions to Julia Child’s sex life. When I workshopped the poem at my writing group, I saw some eyebrows raise at the very notion. Upon seeing the Julie and Julia film, I feel vindicated. Watching Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci play Julia and Paul child made me think about acting and feel amazed that two people could simulate, for the screen, the intimacy that they achieved. At one point, I found myself transfixed by Tucci’s fingertips as he reached for Streep. Then, I remembered that I was supposed to be watching the movie.
I had read Julie Powell’s book, Julie and Julia, quite some time ago and was looking forward to seeing it onscreen. I was not disappointed. I had forgotten, having read the book a few years ago, that Powell was on the cusp of her thirtieth birthday when this whole thing was happening. Suprise, surprise, on the cusp of my own decade birthday, I found myself relating to that portion of the movie. Julie strove to turn herself into a cook, essentially. I have worked toward becoming someone who runs. Somehow this movie made me think of what I have accomplished running-wise and feel good about that. You won’t hear me complaining about a movie that makes me feel good!
So, while Alex says that he likes school, getting him to practice reading is like pulling teeth from the inflamed gums of a carnivorous mammal who once had an impacted tooth extracted with no meds when he thought he was going to get a sanguine treat.