Kendall’s Quest:

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<li class="cat-item cat-item-1209"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/preparation" >Preparation</a> (8)
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<li class="cat-item cat-item-9137"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/prisons-and-prisoners" >Prisons and Prisoners</a> (17)
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<li class="cat-item cat-item-9140"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/seth" >Seth</a> (16)
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<li class="cat-item cat-item-132"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/travel" >Travel</a> (1)
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<li class="cat-item cat-item-9138"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/what-does-it-mean" >What does it mean?</a> (51)
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<li class="cat-item cat-item-9135"><a href="https://blogs.bootsnall.com/Grannygold/category/where-to-plant-myself" >Where to plant myself</a> (27)
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Politics (20)

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Preparation (8)

Prisons and Prisoners (17)

Seth (16)

Spain/Galicia (4)

Texas (35)

Travel (1)

What does it mean? (51)

Where to plant myself (27)

Anybody want a tripod?

June 1st, 2007

I finished grading my students’ final exams, turned in their grades on the computer, stood up, and went numb, blank, and slightly crazy. I am now free till August 20, and in that time Manko will move to her first apartment, I will move to what feels like my first apartment (first time in years I didn’t have a kid or two with me), and then I’ll take Basho to a kennel and set out on my next pilgrimage, to see how these Zen centers feel and whether one of them is a good fit for my next longer-term home. I feel spacey, disoriented, and all at loose ends; I’m excited, unfocused, and hopeful, and if I were a cartoon I’d draw big dark circles around my wide-open eyes and a wiggly line for a mouth, with little wavy lines and small circles rising up over my head. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Texas | 3 Comments »

Tags: Texas

Voicing the enemy

May 28th, 2007

Spent six hours today doing the layout for the next issue of The Midnight Special, the magazine of prisoners’ writing edited by the men in the Thursday-night creative writing workshop. I’m very excited about this issue, which I (ahem!) recommend to everyone. One of the pieces that moves me most came from an assignment based on Gloria Anzaldua’s “We Call Them Greasers.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Politics, Prisons and Prisoners, Texas | 1 Comment »

Tags: Politics, Prisons and Prisoners, Texas, The Midnight Special

It reminds me of what I wanted to become.

May 26th, 2007

Just saw Venus. God, what a film. How can it be so? Here’s a film about a “dirty old man and a slutty girl,” to quote Peter O’Toole himself, and yet it’s not about either of those things. It’s about the incredible drama of aging–despite the sordid details, the creeping decrepitude: there is still the beauty of the human desire to give pleasure, to appreciate beauty, and to dance. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books and Movies | No Comments »

Tags: Books and Movies, Peter O'Toole, Vanessa Redgrave, Venus

The book, the movie, the T-shirt

May 25th, 2007

Ever since the day of BrokeHeifers.com, I have been obsessed by the drama of the lives of Manko and Kendra. Not just as a mom, but as an artist and social activist, I am gripped by the power of this coming-of-age in America story of two young African-American women, one with a GED, the other with a high school diploma; both with no sense of direction, no marketable skills or talents; both with a terrific sense of humor and zest for life: what will happen when they strike out on their own in Houston in mid-2007? Almost anything is possible. The story they are about to create should be told. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Manko, Texas | 4 Comments »

Tags: Manko, Texas

BrokeHeifers.Com

May 23rd, 2007

I spent today looking at apartments with Manko and her friend Kendra, who’s going to be Manko’s roommate. They’ve been friends since they were twelve. Kendra’s a fine big strapping girl, taller than I am, mature and sensible, hard-working, well-grounded, great sense of humor. Kendra is still living with her mom and her mom’s five younger kids and has been working at the Wal-Mart in Wharton for the past year, and she’s making $700 a month now, although at the moment she has no money at all and barely had enough gas to get here. Manko, of course, has been working for Hollywood Video, although lately they haven’t been giving her more than 12 hours a week, and her bank account is overdrawn. I withdrew enough money from my savings to cover a deposit and first month’s rent on an apartment for the two of them, and off we went, in search of a two-bedroom apartment under $550 a month. We laughed till we cried, and I laughed so hard my cheeks are sore from so much laughter. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Manko, Texas | 1 Comment »

Tags: Apartment hunting, Manko, Texas

Reading Byron after Columbine

May 18th, 2007

On Wednesday I began teaching my new English Literature 2 class (from the Romantics to post-colonial and postmodern literature), one of those four-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week intensive surveys. I began, as I always do, by discussing what the so-called “Romantics” celebrate in their poetry: nature, sex, drugs, revolution, social justice, non-materialism, the artist genius, the Byronic or romantic outcast…. These values were an easier sell forty years ago than they are now, but the one that strikes no sparks at all from contemporary students is the notion of the romantic outcast. The very word gives them chills. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Politics, Texas | 1 Comment »

Tags: Columbine, George Gordon, Lord Byron, Politics, romantic hero, Teaching, Texas

Daughter poem

May 16th, 2007

Alicia just returned from her daughter’s commencement ceremonies at NYU this past weekend. Alicia said she didn’t expect the waves of emotion that overpowered her as they made this passage together, she and her daughter. Alicia brought to the poetry group this heart-stopping poem by Philip Booth, from his book, Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999. It says exactly what Alicia and I both hope will be true for our daughters: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books and Movies, Manko | 2 Comments »

Tags: Books and Movies, Manko

Learning “Humanities”

May 13th, 2007

I’ve been having a perfectly wonderful time grading exams today. No, really. I mean it. One of the courses I teach is called, for lack of a better term, “Humanities.” I require students to attend or see ten “cultural events” or objects (paintings, sculptures, buildings, rock concerts, car shows, dance performances, opera, etc.) and to (1) compile a portfolio in which they comment on what they’ve seen, using the terms applicable to that field, (2) make two oral reports to the whole class on what they saw, using those terms, and (3) write, at the end of the semester, an extended essay about the impact on them of those experiences. (This of course invites what they call “sucking up” or saying what they think the teacher wants to hear; but there is a genuine quality in many of their papers that encourages me to believe it isn’t all sucking up.) Most of my students come from the working class. Most are, by US standards, “poor.” That’s why they’re attending community college. They had little exposure to art in their childhoods; their school teachers were busy teaching them to pass multiple-choice tests, not how to see the world around them. Most of them had never been to an art museum or a live theatre performance till I forced them to do it. Here’s a sample of what they’re telling me: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Texas | No Comments »

Tags: Learning, Teaching, Texas

News from Lesotho

May 11th, 2007

I dreamed about M’e Mpho Nthunya last night, so I got up early, went online to get an African phone card, and called her. I hadn’t talked to her since November, and she whooped aloud when she heard my voice. “M’e Makie,” she cried out, “is it you, ke nete [truly]?” Yes, M’e, I answered, laughing with her at the wonder that we can talk to each other from worlds apart. She went on, “I dreamed about you last night, and we were talking about you with Ntsoaki [her granddaughter] all the morning. I was afraid you were dead because we didn’t hear from you in so long. I didn’t think you could hear us.” So that connection still works. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in About Africa | No Comments »

Tags: About Africa

Zen Poem

May 10th, 2007

Tai just sent me this poem by Ryokan, a Japanese Zen poet of the eighteenth century (it, and more like it here). It’s not yet where I am, but it’s where I’m aiming to be, and it helps me understand that odd detachment or distance I experienced at the workshop: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Books and Movies, Buddhism, Massachusetts | 1 Comment »

Tags: Books and Movies, Buddhism, Karen Allen, Katya Esson, Massachusetts, Ryokan