2002-05-29
My Horizon (& cat name babbling), posted at 11:40 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Today is a day in which I love my students.I'm giving them one of my favorite Their Eyes Were Watching God assignments, in which they must illustrate their favorite line from the novel. I love watching them find their favorite line. Some of the favorites that they picked out today include the following:
"They's jus' some puny humans playin' round de toes uh Time." (p. 54)
"Love is lak de sea." (p. 191)
"Night was standing across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands." (p. 150)
"She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. She called in her soul to come see." (p. 193)
"She knew the world was a stallion rolling in the blue pasture of ether." (p. 25)
"The sun from ambush was threatening the world with red daggers." (p. 31)
"Logan held his wad of tobacco real still in his jaw like a thermometer of his feelings while he studied Janie's face and waited for her to say something." (p. 26)
"Janie dozed off to sleep but she woke up in time to see the sun sending up spies ahead of him to mark out the road through the dark." (p. 120)
And, my favorite, chosen by a girl whose initials are the same as mine: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation." (p. 1)
I have always enjoyed that last paragraph, even though I was never sure what it meant. That is, yesterday's discussion I had with my class. We did Socratic Circle discussion to close out the novel. For one of the classes, it was tortuous, and it was obvious kids were just talking for the grade points. But for the other two classes, I really got the feeling that we were just a bunch of people sitting around talking about a book. Especially my 7th period - they were wonderful. I just sat down and let them go. We talked about Janie saying she had been to the horizon and back, and saw this as a statement that she knows where she is headed in life now because she has experienced life. I shared with them that this is one of the reasons that I moved to Baltimore, to experience my own "horizon" and decide for myself if I ever want to return to Michigan. The jury is still out on that, but either way, now at least I'll know. I told them that going away to college can be their chance to experience their horizon. The kids added nice comments throughout the period. The discussion gelled thoughts in my mind, and I'm sure it did with the kids as well. I told them afterwards that I was proud of their perceptiveness and maturity. After all, they're just ninth graders, and are discussing a wonderful but complex novel that I didn't read until I was 23.
Anyhow, back to today: the illustrations of the favorite lines are really cute and clever. I wish you could see them.
Now that I'm writing about it, I guess it's been a really good week so far, although it didn't seem like it on the outset. I was so not ready to come back to work yesterday, after having a pretty great weekend - it was wonderously uneventful, I caught up on a lot of extra work, and I even got along with Jeremy after a pretty major fight on Friday (I don't want to get into it too much because it will bring me down, but suffice it to say that he pissed me off big time by ditching me yet again on Friday, and we didn't talk for 24 hours. But we did eventually talk it out a little and I'm content. He's moving out in just a few weeks, so I want things to end well and am putting in the effort and biting my tongue.)
Ah, and the cat situation. I went to the SPCA after school yesterday with Holden (who I adopted there in October), and spent some time picking out a cat. It's so hard... much harder than dogs. Don't get me wrong; I'm not one of those guys who doesn't like cats. I enjoy them, although I am admittedly more of a dog person. But picking out a cat was tough. They just seem like they're all alike. I want a playful, affectionate, somewhat aggressive (re: can stand up to a big dumb dog), and friendly cat who can catch mice. I have no other specifications - no age specifications, no gender specifications. I guess it'd be better if they knew how use a litter box, but isn't that pretty much a natural thing for cats?
(Can you tell I've never owned a cat before?)
Anyhow, I had held a couple when I went there on Saturday with Josh. I enjoyed them both, but both were gone by the time I got back there. Either that, or I couldn't remember them. I held one I liked, and picked him out right away. One of the biggest factors for me turned out to be how long he'd been there. He's been there since 3/21, which is a long time. I want to rescue him. He's a medium sized, year-old, black and white kitty who didn't leave my arms or stop purring in the cat room. There was this beautiful female white cat there as well who I held, but I think I'll go with the black one. I felt bad about it, though. I feel like every time I took out a cat, that they were auditioning for a role in my life, and that any little thing they did could have a huge effect on whether I took it or not. The black cat stayed in my lap. The white cap with the beautiful eyes jumped off after a couple of minutes. That was the deciding factor. Sad, eh?
But I don't have him yet. For some reason, they had to call my landlord and roommate to verify that I could have it, despite the fact that I've already adopted and am a model pet owner. Yeah, it pissed me off. The landlord wasn't home. I had checked with her before, but they didn't believe me. Anyhow, I got the message today at school that they got a hold of her and it's all good. I can go pick him up after school.
Oh, one more thing. His name is Mountain. Got to change that. I don't name my pets after geological items. I've got to give it a real name. Probably something literary. Since he's a boy, I can't name him Zora (which was my first choice for a female dog name as well). Do cats ever really learn their name, anyway? I seem to remember this very funny Far Side cartoon about this. I'll probably go with a name like Poe, Atticus, or Langston. Or maybe I'll move away from my literary name giving fetish and go with something else. Often, when someone comes from MSU and meets Holden, they ask if he's named after the dorm on campus. Maybe I'll name the cat after another dorm. Holmes? Maybe I'll go with a name after one of my favorite musicians. Wally? Rivers? (Even after Maladroit, an album I'm not yet enjoying because it seems to be an even greater leap away from Pinkerton than The Green Album.) Buckley? Or, heck, how about after my favorite movie (Magnolia)
Uh... I'm not sure. I'll think of something.
This entry started out with a philosophical discussion of what my life's horizon is, and has degenerated into random cat name babbling. Time to go. Wish me luck at practice today!
np: Pink Pearl, Jill Sobule
nr: Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella