musical time capsules

i turned the music on when the kids left the classroom. and the current was rocking "wake up." i closed my eyes and was walking to school in india, the sun shining through the leaves, the fresh air and wet streets the only remnants of evening rains. the air fresher than anything i can describe with words. it's moments like this, small and fleeting, that i am so happy i could burst. when life feels like it is flowing in and out and all around and it's so full. the moment is not just that, but everything that led up to the present. i am sitting on my porch with josef and alousie. i am running on the mountainside, listening to brian play the guitar. i am walking to my classroom, talking with jamie. i am driving with the windows down. every emotion, every moment that i placed in that song doesn't expire, but the life emanates each subsequent listening. it's then and now. and it's why.

wonderful mourning, monday morning

as i aimlessly searched amazon.com for possible soul-shakers, i realized i am suffering from literary withdrawl. it happens each time a really wonderful book graces my day. the world melts away and personal contact with people seems secondary to completely delving into the world of the novel. as the pages dwindle, i always become cognizant that i will soon mourn and work, to no avail, to find a replacement.

this is not the first time it's all happened. jonathan safran foer, gabriel garcia marquez, jhumpa lahiri, j.d. salinger. they exist for our pleasure and misery. so. to fully mourn, in order to move on, i will give you, the people who may or may not be reading this blog, a top ten of books that are so good you will mourn their passing.

in no particular order.
1. unaccustomed earth by jhumpa lahiri. a.k.a. the latest culprit

how does she do it? specialize in little moments and phrases that make the characters not one-dimensional creatures but complex indivuals who denigrate opportunities and don't do the happily-ever-after dance. though all her books are incredible, this one is particularly noteworthy for its depiction of the individual's inherent solitude, and its beauty.

2. love in the time of cholera by gabriel garcia marquez

this book overtakes your life and embraces you into its bosom. ask anyone. if you want to think about love, its forms and follies, here you go. when the dust settles, you will absolutely need to move onto 100 years of solitude. and i feel like i am that kid at the end of reading rainbow... moving on.

3. harry potter and the deathly hallows by j.k. rowling

i cried like a child when this book ended. like a child. there's nothing more to say.



4. extremely loud and incredibly close by jonathan safran foer

though everything is illuminated is a finer work, this look into the life of oskar schell is wonderful. the descriptions are touching (is there a less la la word? i can't think of it) and the viewpoint is fresh. if i could meet one character on a desert island, oskar would make the short list.

5. the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers

truthfully told with a clarity of vision... you want to be able to halt the course of the novel, but knowing it impossible, the tragedy is oddly lovely.


6. nine stories by j.d. salinger

i don't know how he does it, but salinger is the king of clear, simple moments of humanness. the tale of the glass family, woven throughout his works, is somehow enlightening. really, any salinger would make the list.


7. their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston

oh man. the precursor to morrison, walker and anyone else who has business writing about strong women.




8. the unbearable lightness of being by milan kundera

this cover sucks you in, just like the rest of the book. the final scenes are incredible. the world outside stops, accordingly.

9. the winter of our discontent by john steinbeck

this book has such a clarity that it seems like it should be written now, not then. timeless, yes?



10. into the wild by jon krakauer

oh lord. that damn moose. this is beautiful, somehow.




11. beloved by toni morrison

honorable mention: the corrections by jonathan franzen, white teeth by zadie smith how we are hungry by dave eggers, the god of small things by arundhati roy, jitterbug perfume by tom robbins, breakfast of champions by kurt vonnegut, high fidelity by nick hornby, birds without wings by louis de bernieres

everything's coming up milhouse

when i found out i was accepted to depaul, i was in spain. the knowledge that i would not be forever living with my parents, teaching in shakopee, that the step would go down as a transition, thrilled me. i would be a student again, something i know how to do. knowing that shakopee was temporary didn't make the reentry any less shocking. nor did it change the simple fact that i am living with my parents at the quarter century mark. it's a funny thing, moving back home after 6 years. tom, my anthropology professor from olaf, spoke of his own return to his parent's house after graduate school. that we all regress to something different, a child, the parent of a teenager. and the striking reality is, it's no longer, really, our home. but we settle. we enjoy. we revel.

and, now, i know that that won't even go on much longer. knowing where i am going next year is that enebriatingly, exciting step forward. a few weeks ago i got an acceptance letter from harvard graduate school of education. and, after giving cambridge the once over this weekend, i sent in my deposit. so. to return, but differently, to the life of a student. heck yeah.