A Very Literary Monday

Today I stopped at a coffee shop on my way home: Spring Creek in Milwaukie- shout out to them, it's a great place. They have a bookshelf with various reading materials for customers to peruse, including children's books. Another reason for a shout out. At any rate, I made three selections: Favorite poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Winnie the Pooh Storybook, and The Complete Tales of the Brother's Grimm. Figured that these would get me through my 20 minute stop with plenty of intellectual stimulation.

Spring Creek Coffee

I first selected a few poems from the table of contents in the poetry collection. I particularly enjoyed "The Rainy Day" and also "My Lost Youth" for which he is well-known (I think). I believe I read this poem in Senior Survey of English Literature, but wait- Longfellow is an American as was pointed out on the book jacket. Scratch that. At any rate, the lines, "A boy's will is the wind's will, and the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts" repeat themselves at the end of each stanza, and the result is quite favorable.

The Rainy Day

My Lost Youth

Can you relate to these poems? I think all of us can.

Second, I thumbed though the Pooh book. The book touted new illustrations by E.H. Shepard, indicating that this was an earlier edition. The actual book was in kind of bad shape, hopefully due to lots of love. There were only three Pooh stories contained within- including the one when Piglet is surrounded by water. If you haven't read the complete Winnie the Pooh stories, then you are officially directed to do so by me, your impromptu literary advisor. Don't forget "When We Were Very Young." My favorite poem in there is, of course, "The King's Breakfast." This poem is just plain fun, and if you don't smile when reading it then there's something just wrong with you. No offense, but there really is. Making a funny voice while reading it outloud is also advisable. 

The King's Breakfast

The King asked the Queen...

Finally, I skimmed through the table of contents of Grimm's Fairy Tales and settled on Cinderella, a story I have never actually read. Ugh. Lets just say that Disney has taken some liberties. Actually, I'm glad I read the story and it encourages me to read more of the Brothers' work.

Cinderella- The Bloody Version

Reading this sparked my curiosity about the Cinderella story. According to Wikipedia (insert grain of salt here), the story has its roots in Ancient Greece. Interesting. Apparently the Disney version draws upon the more popular writing of the legend by Charles Perault in 1697. Fairy Godmothers are a lot more fun than amputation. Bibbity bobbity boo.

It's Grimm.

The best part of this literary experience was, by far, the inscription found in the Brothers Grimm collection. I wrote it down and pass it on to you, fair reader, here:

"Rick + Tina: Found this book for cheep in I.F. Some classic tales 4 U 2. Tina you're beeootee FUL + deserve such classy tales. Rick, you are honestly one of my favorite dogs. You think like me + I'm sure we understand one another even more than we care to admit. Anyway Merry Christmas 12/31/89 (Illegible signature)"

I think I could write a story that revolves around this inscription. It makes me wonder, what ever happened to Rick + Tina? Clearly the book is out of their hands now. It also had a penciled-in price inside of the cover... was this the "for cheep" price, or was it sold later? What happened to the mysterious so-and-so whose name I couldn't make out?

Here's my fairy tale ending: Rick and the Mystery man, upon realizing that they do, indeed, understand one another more than they cared to admit, ran away together to live happily as man and man. Tina, happy to be rid of the effeminate Rick (she never did understand why he had a carefully guarded bra collection), went on to pursue a career in professional shopping. When she met Tony, the inspriation for Tony and Tina's Wedding was conceived. No longer having a use for the Grimm Collection (she did agree, however, that she was deserving of such classy tales), she used the thick volume as a doorstop occasionally until its eventual placement into a paper sack whose destination was Powell's (where else?). The rest, as they say, is history.

So, kids, are you feeling a "happily ever after" coming on? Works for me. That's a lot packed into 20 minutes, but it was a great way to start my week. Hope it is for you, too. See you in the next installment.

A dream come true.

P.S. Cinderella is my favorite "classic" Disney movie. I don't care how sappy it is, but I cry every time. I cry when the sisters rip up her dress and I cry when she has the other slipper in her pocket. Cinderella is such a lovely underdog to root for. I think she's gotten a bad rap and is stereotyped too much for her own good. She is a kind and loving person, even in the face of adversity- something I think we could all strive for. In the end, it is this sweetness and eternal optimism that is rewarded. Too bad she had to get a man to be fulfilled, but, other than that, I absolutely love the movie. Oh, what the heck. I love that she gets her man.

P.P.S: My favorite "modern" Disney movie is "The Little Mermaid." I sung the sh*t out of that soundtrack (on TAPE) and even had the T-shirt and sheet music. Another shout out for Emma who bested me with her amazing red scarf filling in for Ariel's tresses. Damn, were we cool. That was definitely THE Disney movie of my childhood. Best Disney song ever? "Part of Your World," thank you very much.

Decisions, decisions...

Two paths diverged in a yellow wood...

Decisions, decisions... right? Every single day, decision after decision. This leads to an interesting question- what motivates us to act the way that we do in a particular situation? Why might you act one way during one situation and another way during a similar, but slightly different, situation? Why might you think certain acts permissible under a set of circumstances but not under another? Here is a note worthy activity (With video questions! Yay!) from PBS that explores "hidden intuitions" that influence decision making in regards to moral dilemmas. Take the quiz:

The Trolley Problem

If you prefer to skip the video questions and go straight to the article, you can cheat here:

Test Your Moral Intuitions

In the last few weeks, I have been faced with some rather important choices. Moments of impasse when my decision will have significant impact on the way that the proceeding events will play out. A person looking back on his life will see clearly the moments that made a profound difference in the way that the rest of his life advanced. For instance, in 5th grade my Mom took me to an open-house event for the Milwaukie Track Club. I happened to like the uniforms, and began track as a result. 5 years later during track, I meet the person who is to become my best friend during high school and beyond. Thank goodness Maroon and Gold looked appealing to me. Freshman year of college, I knock on the wrong door and stand face-to-face with the man I will marry. The wrong door? Or the right one?

This leads to the ultimate question: Is our life driven in a prescribed direction? In other words, do you believe in "Fate?" For me, there are two ways to look at this question. On one hand, it is kind of nice to think that our life has had some sort of "plan." We were meant to meet someone, we were meant to knock on that door, we were meant to be who we are. Sounds great. Everything happens for a reason. This conveniently allows us to explain lots of unfortunate things that happen in our lives, as well as the amazing events. Even when something totally, completely, and utterly sucks, we can still claim that there was a reason for its occurrence. I will say that operating under this assumption does force us to find the good in things. A place for everything and everything in its place.

And now for option #2: There is no reason for anything, we weren't "meant" to do anything that has ever taken place in our lives (although we may have learned from experience, and that's usually a good thing). Our life has innumerable forks in the road at which we could have taken the other option, and, you know what? Our life would still be our life, and we wouldn't even know the difference.

If you ask me, the fact that we have the capability to ponder these two options is fairly impressive. Most species are too wrapped up in the business of survival to entertain such fanciful delusions. If we look back at the course of human events, however, it is clear that we like to find meaning for our existence and to ponder the "big questions." From a scientific standpoint (I think you know me well enough to know this by now....), however, if our species had not evolved (maybe the K-T event was a near miss) then what questions would there be to pose? Too... much... thinking... !?!  

Some days are like that, even in Australia.

Whales, Chimps, and Sex, OH MY!

One of my favorite topics in teaching about evolution is that of the history of whales. It is probably one of the most intriguing transformations in the history of life on Earth, one that facinating to think about and study. Recently I have had dreams about whales; dreams with powerful imagery of these awe-inspiring animals. I won't conjecture as to the meaning behind them, but anytime a theme or symbol recurrs in our dreams I would say that it makes us take notice.

Whales, as with all living things, are products of evolutionary processes. Evolution, at its very core, relies on the fact that nature is not "nice." Some individuals, inevitably, have to die in order for natural selection to occur. Sea World has been lying for years, as you can see in the following:

By our standards, many of these deaths are cruel; gruesome. Have you seen the preview for the Disney Nature movie about the Big Cats?

When I first saw this, I leaned over to Jerre and asked, "Do you think they're going to show the part where the male lions kill the cubs that aren't his?" Infanticide often occurs in nature. Lions kill the cubs after taking over a pride that once belonged to another male. Chimpanzee infants are killed by adult males- so often that females try to mate with every male in the group. The logic? If the child may be his, maybe he won't kill it. Our closest relatives have some seriously violent tendencies. Hmm.

Some of the reason behind this? Males reach food sources sooner than females who are slowed down by their young. It is hypothesized that shortage of food forces chimpanzee females to spread out and forage alone, thus inhibiting female bonding. Bonobos, on the other hand, have a much more peaceful society due to an evolutionary history that includes more plentiful food sources. If you haven't watched "Why Sex?" then you're seriously missing out. These powerful forces of nature have not only determined our physical characterisics, but also many of our behavioral characteristics as well. Here is a segment from "Why Sex?" and, if you are interested, the other segments can be viewed via YouTube.  

  

Intriguing science, I must say. We don't, on an everyday basis, think about our origins in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps we should. My students were shocked to learn that they share about 60% of their genes with a banana (well, the tree that produces bananas if you want to get technical about it.) This knowledge of our own existance is what makes us human. We alone, have the ability to reflect on our own origins and conjecture as to our future. A powerful thought.  

Teaching is a profession that revolves around the content that one teaches. Spring is time for evolution. Go forth, and evolve.


Other Articles/Links of interest:

PBS whale evolution video and synopsis
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html


National Geographic Article: Valley of the Whales
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/08/whale-evolution/mueller-text