Summer Daze...

Dear Maria,

I think my lapse in writing was due to a wretched combination of heat and humidity, but now a week of cooler weather is in the offing and I want to get my homework done so that I may have more time to play outdoors. Forgive me my absence and my fuzzy reasoning which is nothing more than good old-fashioned excuse-making.

Thanks for sending along the article your governor’s rather sudden change of heart regarding Common Core. Now that I have enough time to read articles from around the nation—and even enough time to follow links found on links—I find myself bemused by the rhetoric being twirled about in the name of political posturing. I would be more than bemused but am held in check by the plight of classroom teachers who must surely feel bewildered by what seems to be the test-of-the-month proposals that some administrators and elected officials are bandying about publically.

Of course, since I don’t feel the classroom effort in such a visceral fashion these days, perhaps being amused might be the zenith of my reaction to the ongoing bombast coming from all directions. On more issues than education.

So I have a notion to take a look at correlations between poverty rates and low-performing schools. Or to wonder about some sixteen-year-old fleeing parents and family and friends and, by traveling the length of Mexico, hoping to arrive somewhere with a future that might offer more than violence. Careful where you relocate, kid.

And thank you for adjusting your admonition from last year’s “to stay in the fight” to a more benign “at least to think about the issues”. My default—albeit simplistic—is are my ideas actionable? And the answer is, please. No. Or, no when I choose not to pick up a shovel and get back into the trench.

Keep sending me links to articles you think important, and I will read them and sometimes let fly—ideas only, no bombs bursting in air. The tasks in my world now are writ smaller, to wit, I listen (and in this art I will need much more practice), I encourage, and I offer up a prayer as needed.

Apropos of nothing in particular, the cardinals have become the new bullies in the trees—the young elms out front and the oaks in the back that are closest to the feeder. Apparently the bluebirds are summering elsewhere.

Keep cool.

Warmly, srk

 

 

 

 

With No Egrets, For Now

Dear Maria,

Perhaps it was no-egret Saturday, as only blue skies and an early sun greeted Max and me when we were out at the school last weekend. However, a bit earlier than usual for us. The ebb and flow of days, I guess. Or maybe there truly is something to the notion of different rhythms to the seasons. I know I have eased up—if one can slow slowed-down.

Of course, I don’t have that day count clicking along in my brain, or at least not with any urgency about getting my mind right and energy up over the next four weeks or so. I do wonder about folks who have their two-week hiatus maxed out as they feel they must vacation like it’s 1999. Always sad to hear of a vacation getaway rained out—a lot riding on that little piece of the year.

The acoustic lilies bloomed, finally. Last fall when I took the bulb out of the pot, it broke into several pieces, and so I put a few in each of three holes in the garden and this past week, two plants bloomed. A third has produced a shoot but is not nearly ready to flower. I may have dug that third hole in a less than fruitful spot. Location, location, location.

Nonetheless, the lilies are lovely and the lantana and plumbago and Rose of Sharon are blooming, and the roses are recovering from the War of the Beetles, the grass is green, and the trees are growing. An unremarkable birthday is in the offing, many books are readily at hand, health is good, and were I to complain about—well, about anything—I should be slapped upside the head.

This week several references to the Iroquois notion of responsibility seven generations out have surfaced in some of my reading. One article pegged it at 150 years, a simpler notion I suppose. Who is thinking now about how actions will impact family, the community, or the world in 2164? Imagine someone in 1864 thinking “Whoa, this might not be such a good idea for folks in 2014.” Or, “This is a great idea for the future that is unimaginable.”

Maybe the phrase should be our reach exceeds our foresight. A rough phrasing, that may—or should—give us pause. But, we are not allowed to slow down for fear that something might not be done. A moment, lost.

Enjoy the summer as it unfolds further.

Yours, truly, srk