"My first teaching experience took place during this time, when one day, my friend Elizabeth invited me to visit her class at the Hunter elementary school. I stood before her students, who were maybe six or seven, and what I remember so vividly is all those little ones with their eyes fixed on me waiting. I knew I had to give something interesting and valuable, something that they would perhaps remember all their lives. I have never lost that feeling."
-- Bel Kaufman
"Test of Time" in August 2012 Vogue
One hundred one years old and Bel Kaufman is still reading and writing and following up with former students. I know that a lot of my friends in Curry will be able to relate to this awesome article in Vogue. I highly recommend trying to read it some how no matter if you are in education or not.
Also, reading about Marion Cotillard was a lot of fun (this month's (August) covergirl) I have been a fan of hers for a while and it is nice to get a sense of her personality. She seems unafraid of putting her true self into everything she does without worrying about the risk it may do to her (or her reputation) in the future, a different approach to life than many.
I have been thinking a lot about creativity, creation, and creative personalities. One of the books I brought to California with me is The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. This is a book I read for a class I took my very first semester at UVA. I highly recommend you read this book as well. I believe that Twyla Tharp does an excellent job of explaining the effort and science behind creativity in addition to it's application to daily life. She stresses the discipline creativity requires and the necessity of a strong knowledge of the basic skills of whatever it is that you do. In a world that is increasingly driven by technology and is increasingly fragmented (I am reminded of every discussion I ever had of modernist literature) I hope that we become more attuned to the beauty of basic disciplines and routines.
It takes more and more effort these days to enjoy what used to be called the "simple things in life" (time with family members without telephone calls, television, or texting; walks around the neighborhood for no reason but to get outside; gardening; actually cooking food and (preferably) enjoying it with family members or friends; blowing bubbles; going to the library; ringing the bell on your bicycle out of greeting rather than annoyance or insistance on getting around someone in front of you; finding shapes in the clouds). My rambling that began with creativity has ended with a list of things I wish I did more often. The point is that creativity and actual enjoyment of life doesn't all come naturally. I don't think that humans naturally do what truly pleases them. Something in our internal compass has been bent and we need constant reorienting around a fixed point not found in this world.
How many times have I made a choice NOT to do something that I knew would fulfill me and truly make me happy (cooking and eating fresh foods instead of fast food or sugar; going for a walk or a run outside rather than watching TV; reading a book rather than going on facebook for an hour). My prayer is that I would be continually re-magnetized pointing towards something meaningful rather than lazily spinning about in my comfortable glass case.
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