Why Write? Why not.

Often in life we have to take a test.  Life is a test.  Sometimes it is a measure of our intelligence, other times it a test of will, and occasionally life can test our patience.  But the single grain of truth that is embedded in all of these tests is that life is a test of integrity.  Have you passed? Can you pass? Are you passing?   Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking.  For example, you are pumping gas at a local station and a man gets out of a car and drops a brown paper sack.  You proceed to watch the wind kick around his litter and think to yourself What a bum! Yet, mysteriously out of the bag marches $20 bills that are all folded symmetrically.  In an unbelievable parade the bills stream out into the gas station and dance in the wind.  You alert the bum and begin helping him pick up $20 bills immediately.  Illegal money? Probably. Me exercising my integrity? Most certainly.

Honor it.  Do the right thing, even if no one is looking.  Answer the call.

Writing is a calling.  Teaching is a calling.  Nursing is a calling.  Serving your country is a calling.  You do it, even when no one is looking, because it is right for you.

Planting a seed, even when no one is watching, will someday lead to the satisfaction of sitting under the tree and reading your own first book. Writers write because they are called to write. If you've felt the call you cannot ignore it.  Do the right thing and write, even when no one is looking.

Technology is transforming me

This year marks my Baker's dozen milestone for teaching English and I have arrived at a monumental crossroad. What to do? Turn here for safety, comfort, and continue to do what you have always done in the name of learning, which by the way, isn't working too well. Or turn here for danger, confusion, chaos, and perhaps a revolution of learning in the 21st century.  It reminds me of an over analyzed  poem that contains many simple truths.  For over analysis preview, see Mr. Wess Miller or click here or just read it for yourself and decide.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost (or Frosty Bob, as I call him, but only if you're in his tight-knit circle)

So there you have it, I feel like Rocky standing on the steps 

every time I read that poem. And yet, here I am, August 19, 2012, standing at the first line of the poem.  In approximately 23 years, I hope to be on the steps with arms raised high at the end of my teaching career. Don't misunderstand me, there have been days that I've walked away with a small victory, but this poem speaks of monumental victory earned after years of treacherous uphill climbing.   

Here I blog before you, connecting life and literature in a wall of words that communicate my innermost thinkings.  I will ask my students to do the same.  I will ask them to create a voice, connect their thoughts with support, and to passionately pursue a life of language that can be used to express yourself to the world around you.  If we as humans do not master the beast of words, we do not stand to accomplish much of anything in this world.  

Confession: I have never been a LOLer (Live Out Louder), but I will travel this road if it calls me to a greater ending as a teacher.  I will become a transparent learner parallel to my students in the hope that they will learn deeper and remember longer the power of words and language.  Let the games begin.

As always, please insert your opinion or comments as I always want my ideas challenged and to perfect my tongue of expression.