And He Was Loved!

I recently attended a memorial service for a former student who took his life....

I taught not only this student but his older brother as well. They are super bright, military children who moved around a lot, but they seemed to have adjusted just fine to the high school where I currently teach.

The student who committed suicide was quiet, yet funny, and he was active in both his high school and college drama clubs.

Hearing about him taking his life made me think about him and his brother wondering if there were signs that we all missed. Also, wondering if there was any way possible that this entire situation could have ended differently.

However, his pastor reassured everyone present at the memorial service that mental illness is just like any other disease with outcomes that are not always what we may like. The pastor comforted us by lovingly declaring that God is with us all of the time, and this child was not alone when he took his last breathe. He was with God, and God probably shed the very first tear.

The pastor mentioned love a lot, and I have wondered, since hearing about this child’s death, if he was loved enough. However, by looking at his parents, brother, and all of the people who filled that church, it was apparent that He Was LOVED!  Knowing this child, and seeing images of him that his family displayed after the service, I know that he knew that He Was Loved.

When the pastor stated several times that He Was LOVED, I thought about Pilate, from Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, who poignantly made the declaration to every person who was present at the funeral for her beloved granddaughter, Hagar, that She Was LOVED!

"Suddenly, like an elephant who has found his anger and lifts his trunks over the heads of the little men who want his teeth or his hide or his flesh or his strength, Pilate trumpeted for the sky itself to hear, "And she was LOVED!

It was important to Pilate that everyone knew that her dear, Hagar, Was LOVED!

It seems that death always makes people think about love, and many of us wonder if the person who died knew that he/she was loved, and oftentimes we also want everyone to know that the deceased person was loved. 

My people, there is something to this LOVE THING for sure... It is mentioned in The Bible so many times, and it appears that God places high priority on it. It is stated in the word that:

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE."  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

One of the basic human needs seems to be love and it is free and should be given and received freely, all of the time, so that at the end of our lives our families can be comforted by knowing that We Were Loved!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!

Over and Over and Over.....

Quote from Song of Solomon

Today, I've been thinking about the value of doing some things over and over; It's called practice....

For instances, in order to get better with cycling up big hills, a person needs to ride hills often...like over and over.

I hated cottage cheese; however, I needed to get creative about putting more protein into my diet, so I ate just a little cottage cheese over and over, and NOW, I am in love with cottage cheese.

There was a time when I would not read a book again. However, it seems that if it is a book where I want to get a deeper understanding or if I really want to fall in love with a book that I already love, then I must read it over and over.

This is my fourth or fifth year teaching Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, and every time that I read and teach this book, I fall more in love with it, and my teaching of this novel seems to get better. Every time that I teach it, I switch it up some, and every year it seems like I get more awesome ideas out of students than the year before.

So, this year, I decided to add a creative project to the teaching of Song of Solomon, and it is going so well. The students are pulling things out of this novel that I have never thought about, and I am definitely seeing a few things from a different perspective.

After class I was wondering if these are the smartest students that I have ever taught, or am I getting better at teaching this novel and creating activities that causes the students to soar.

Each year I have the option to teach whatever novel that I want to, and sometimes, I switch up, but I do believe that there is value in doing some things over and over and over....

If we keep doing Anything over and over; We must get better???

Or, I sure hope that we do. (sigh!)

By the way, one of my students was in Chipotle, and he noticed that a poem by Toni Morrison was on a Chipotle cup. He took a picture of the cup and sent it to me....

Well, I did a little research, and Toni Morrison and a few other writers are now writing for Chipotle. I am completely ecstatic that the literary world is colliding with popular culture, and my students are noticing it.

The student bringing in this cup with the writing of Toni Morrison on it confirms to me to continue to teach Song of Solomon over and over and over!

Happy Wednesday...

ALONE!

Soooo, I recently finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni AGAIN!

As I was reading it this time around, the thought came to me that sometimes we must take a figuratively journey, and we must take it alone. We may go through something, life happens, and the only person who may be able to help us is us. Other people may be there for support, but sometimes we must take the journey alone, with a higher power, that some of us call God.

One of the main characters in The Kite Runner, Amir, was compelled to take a journey. On this journey he had support and even a few guides, but he had to take this journey alone; no one could walk it for him. On this journey he had to rely on himself, and he discovered a lot of things about himself like the fact he could stand up for himself and others and that he could face fear head on and survive. At the end of his journey, Amir was a changed man.

As I was reading about Amir, I thought a lot about Milkman, one of the main characters in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, who also had to take a journey, and he had to take it alone. Like Amir, Milkman had support and guides, but he had to take the journey alone in order to grow.

Once Amir and Milkman took their journeys, there seemed to be some type of shedding of skin along the way, and they both seem to grow new skin that came with happiness, peace, and even relief.

Now, I believe that if we learn and grow through the small lessons that life teaches, we will be well equipped for the journey that we must take alone. You know how sometimes we will try to avoid tough situations or blame other people when things happen? Well, doing these things do not allow growth to take place and therefore our alone journey may be tougher than it should be or may even take longer than it should.

I believe that life does prepare us for next if only we would heed the lessons alone the way.

So, I try to be mindful about what I put into my spirit, because what I put into my spirit, may be just what I have to rely on when I take my journey and take it alone....

Life Will Force Us To Grow.........Ohhhhh Boy!!!

"If We Surrender to the Air, We Can Ride It" from Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Every time that I teach Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, there is always a message that I get from it. And on this read, a student pointed out the last line of the novel: "If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it," and this quote has been on my mind every since.....

Surrender, Surrender, Surrender! So That We Can Ride!

I've started training with a cycling team, and I must admit that every time that I ride with them, I am extremely nervous. The team consist of about fourteen men and four ladies, and these men are fast and furious. Now, I love to ride with these guys, because they are very helpful, caring, and emphatic to us women who want to ride fast and furiously just like them. However, loving to ride with this team does not keep me from being fearful. (Sometimes, we must act even if we are afraid!)

On the rides, I do a whole lot of thinking and trying to be in control instead of just surrendering to the ride.....

Yesterday, we did our training ride on the inside, because our regular route was icy. I put my bike on the trainer and the quote "If you surrender to the air, you can ride it" came to my mind. I decided to stop thinking and just surrender to the ride, and once I surrendered, I had an awesome ride. I sent a text to a friend after the ride and told him " I decided to surrender to being uncomfortable, and I had an awesome ride," and I did.

I am constantly having to remind myself that with whatever I do, I normally want to go to the next level, and biking is no different. I want to ride faster and stronger than I did last season. So, I must be willing to be uncomfortable, to stretch, to take constructive criticism, to get out of my comfort zone, to get rid of old bad habits for new good habits, to give up control, and to surrender to the change that is going to take place.

However, I have to constantly remind myself of my goal, because I always think about quitting the team and going back to my comfort zone. (My people, being uncomfortable is no fun, but it is necessary for growth.)

Many of us have set goals for the new year, and know that making these changes is not going to be easy; it will be uncomfortable, you will have to stretch, you may want to revert back to what you have been doing, you may cry, you may feel like 'why,' you may need to be coached, BUT I am challenging you and me to "Surrender to the Air, So We Can Ride It."

Me being me, I believe that this lesson that I am learning from cycling is soooooo much bigger than cycling; we just never know what God has up his sleeves, but I do believe that when we answer God's calling, it is always preparation for us to receive even bigger blessings that add to the good of the world.....

My people, "If We Surrender to the Air, We Can Ride It."

"I Wish I'd A Knowed More People. I Would Of Loved 'em All. If I'd A Knowed More, I Would A Loved More." Spoken by Pilate from Song of Solomon....

I never thought that I could love the novel Song of Solomon more, and I do. My love for this book is completely overwhelming at times. And, that love spills onto my students.....

This year, instead of teaching one AP literature class, I am teaching two AP classes. At times, the grading can be quite overwhelming, but the good definitely outweighs the bad. I now get to have discussions with double the number of students that I have in the past, and therefore, I am given more ideas to play around with.

Teaching this novel this year, I thought a lot about love, not necessarily romantic love, but just love between people.

Song of Solomon in the Old Testament in the Bible is a series of lyrical love poems that are written between a young woman and her lover. Many people believe that Song of Solomon is an allegory of God's love for us or divine love that is within our hearts. Soooo, Song of Solomon is all about love.

I thought a lot about why would Toni Morrison name this novel Song of Solomon? On the surface it appears that there is no love in this novel at all. However, after close analysis, it became clear, on this read, that this book is all about love.

Pilate, one of the main characters, stated as she was dying "I Wish I'd A Knowed More People. I Would Of Loved 'em All. If I'd A Knowed More, I would A Loved More." After I read this line and gave a lot of thought to Pilate, I realized that Pilate was love. Almost everything that she did was out of love. She almost killed a guy out of love for her daughter; she tried to save another character's life out of love; Milkman loved to be in her house, because she knew how to create love, and on and on and on. Pilate was one big ball of love.

There is a secret society in this novel that is called The Seven Days. "The organization is composed of seven Black men each of whom is assigned a day of the week who kill white people at random every time that a black person is murdered and the assailants are left unpunished" (Sparknotes). Guitar, a main character in Song of Solomon and member of The Seven Days, states: "It's about loving us. About loving you. My whole life is love." Those men, who were members of the seven days, stated that they did those killings because they loved their people; it was all about love.

A major theme in this novel is Journey and Flight, and that theme is based on an African American folktale called "The People Could Fly." In "The People Could Fly," Africans, who were turned into slaves, had special powers to fly back to African. So, Solomon, a character in the novel Song of Solomon, had the power to fly back to African, and one day he grabbed one of his children and flew away and left his wife Ryna and their other twenty-one children behind. I asked the students why did Solomon leave his wife and children behind, and one of the students stated that "Maybe he loved freedom more than this family." So, I began to think that maybe he flew away so that he could free himself and maybe find a way to go back and free his family. Maybe, his flight was all about love.

Yea, on this read, I realized that Song of Solomon is all about love.

If you have not read Song of Solomon, I highly recommend that you read it, and read it more than one time!!

I love this woman.......

Oh, What A Night!

My Toni Morrison Collection!

Yesterday, after work I went for a run, went to the grocery store, cooked, and then I decided around 8pm that it was time for me to read... I went to look for my Nook, and lo and behold, I thought that I had left it at school. For a brief moment, I almost went into panic. I only watch the news, and I had already watched enough. I am not fond of talking on the phone at night, and there was no way I was going to read another book when Song of Solomon was on my brain. Soooo, I was desperately trying to figure out what was I going to do from 8pm until I fell asleep.

I decided that I could read Song of Solomon in book form until I could get to my Nook. I checked the Toni Morrison section of my bookshelves, AND I have eleven Toni Morrison books on my shelf, but no Song of Solomon. (What the HELL, No Song of Solomon!)

So, I was forced to watch TV until I fell asleep!!!! (HATED IT!)

This morning when I got in my car to go to work, there was my Nook, sitting on the front seat!!

Oh, What A Night....

Words and Punctuation!!

I absolutely love language and punctuation; it is so powerful! When I received the above example of how language and punctuation can be manipulated to convey so many messages; I just had to smile.

When I think about how carefully author chooses words and punctuation to convey their messages, it completely leaves me in awe. 

In the foreword for Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison spends an entire page telling the reader why she started the novel with the sentence:

"The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o'clock."

It would be a shame  to read any of Toni Morrison's books and not notice and appreciate every sentence, in just the same way that it "pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it" as stated in the novel The Color Purple.

Today, I am so loving words and punctuation!!!!

I Got To Tell It!!!!!

So people, I got something to tell, and I must tell it NOW.

Here it is......

I got fire shut up in my bones.....

and the fire was caused by Toni Morrison and.......

this awesome novel: Song of Solomon!!!!

I did a sigh as soon as I got that out.

I have read Song of Solomon so many times, and every time that I read it, the urgency that I feel is unreal: I think about it, and I think about, and I think about, and I see something new every single time, and then I have more to think about, and I think about, and I think about........

I am so blessed that I teach Advanced Placement (AP) English, and I get to teach whatever novel that I want  to, and you know that I start every year with Song of Solomon. The discussions that this novel generates is enough to make me need to run around the school at least five times just to squelch some of the excitement that is "shut up in my bones."

Last week, one of my students asked me a question about breastfeeding in relationship to one of the main characters in Song of Solomon who was breastfeed until he was "old enough to talk, stand up, and wear knickers." This lead into a discussion about the woman on the cover of Time Magazine who was breastfeeding her child who was "old enough to talk, stand up, and wear knickers."

I mean, I have a whole classroom full of people to discuss one of my favorite novels with for at least three weeks or until every last one of us get sick and tired.

And every single time I read and discuss this novel, I am given something new to think about....Oh, how BLESSED I am...

Now, I am on chapter four of Song of Solomon, and it's literally like "fire shut up in my bones." As I am reading it and writing this blog, my heart is racing, and I almost want to cry tears of joy that Toni Morrison wrote this incredible book that has taken my love for reading and teaching to a whole 'nother level.

Wow, if you have not read it yet, you MUST......

Please read this novel.....OK

And if you have read it before, Please read it again......

My heart is on fire........

I got to go; Song of Solomon is calling my name!!!!

By the way listen to Toni Morrison talk about Song of Solomon...

"Ain't she amazing?" or in my teacher voice "Isn't she amazing?"

I just had to tell it.........

"Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison

I really feel the need to apologize to my readers. Please don't think that I have just neglected blogging. When I start something, I stick to it, unless it just doesn't work. So, here's what's been going on:

It's been a little over a month since school has started back, and life has really picked up for me. No more early morning workouts, naps during the day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner whenever I feel like it. I am back on a schedule.

I am still doing ridiculously, difficult workouts with the greatest trainer in the world, Berhane, working out on my own when I'm not working out with him, meeting friends out, reading for pleasure, and doing LOTS of reading for school.

I have been reading my students' writing to assess where I need to start and where I need to take them. Today, I read so many thesis statements until I finally told the students, "My brain is tired, and I can not read another one." They laughed, but of course, they still wanted me to read just one more.

I have been reading lots of short stories including "Thank You M'am" by Langston Hughes, "Marigolds" by Eugenia Collier, "The First Day" by Edward P. Jones, "The Worn Path" by Eudora Welty, "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker and many, many more. I have also been reading The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which I must say is going really well; the students really love this book. We are having interesting discussions, and this book is also generating some great writings from my students.

However, the book that has consumed most of my time is Song of Solomon by one of my all time favorite writers, Toni Morrison. I am starting the discussion of this book with my students tomorrow. So, I had to read it AGAIN (This makes the umpteenth time) so that I can have a fresh perspective of the discussions.

With Song of Solomon, Morrison has strung together so many different stories in a way that is very intriguing. The names of the characters is enough to stimulate nine weeks of discussions: Ruth, Milkman, Pilate, Hagar, Empire State, Macon Dead, First Corinthians, Guitar, Saul etc. If you notice, the names of many of the characters are taken from the Bible, and most of the characters are related to their name in some way.

I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite passages from Song of Solomon:

"You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless. You think that because he doesn't want you anymore that he is right -- that his judgement and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. Don't. It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love. Love shouldn't be like that. Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't even see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they don't wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.” 

Toni Morrison is DEEP, DEEP, DEEP! WOW!!!!!!!!

If you have not read Song of Solomon, I recommend that you pick it up tomorrow or download it RIGHT NOW! But listen, this is one of those books that makes a person think, so you can't read this book while you watch television; it requires undivided attention.

But, believe me, it's so worth it!

Happy Reading!!!!!!