Making a list...

I am not writing anything new today. I have things brewing in my head. I am making a list of what I might grapple with in the weeks ahead and am looking for comments/input/requests. [Comments in FB, comments in the reply field to the blog, PMs in FB, or emails are all appreciated.]

Teaching: Transformative Journeys: Leo Tolstoy wrote,

“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”  My students have been reading about Ibn Battutta, a famous Tunisian explorer who logged nearly 75,000 miles in his lifeline in the 14th century. I am encouraging them to find personal stories where a traveler leaves, is changed, and returns with a story. This weekend they are looking for similarities in the plot of the Wizard of Oz, a Hasidic Tale: "The Treasure", and a Rumi poem. I hope too have some observations by late spring on the stories they eventually find and tell.

Show: The Walking Dead: The 90 minute season finale is on tonight. I am mostly caught up on the comic, and have found the Sunday night ritual of a little TV with my wife is worth looking forward to all weekend. I am not sure there is any redeeming quality of watching this show, but I am willing to look for it just to give this guilty pleasure of mine a little weight of importance.

Game: MineCraft: I did not understand the hours of lego like building I saw so many children engaging in. I felt there was noting "to show" for their efforts save a 3-D cyber model of block like art. I have been inquiring and have learned about mods, shared servers, code manipulation, and survival mode. I purchased the XBoxOne version and have been sucked into the quagmire of MineCrack. I'll have a lot more to say on this once I get a little more gold mined and figure how to safely travel to the nether and return with a tale worth telling.

Book: The Handmaid's Tale: I am just getting into this dystopian novel, am loving it's fiction, and am interested in the non-fictional parallels in the world I see on the news. I feel like the book should be a product of a decade older than the 1980s, but about a not too distant future. The cultural references make it feel a little dated in a positive way, and the underlying truths frightening. I am not sure what to think as I am just getting started. I do know that I like it very much so far This is my first trip into Margaret Atwood's writing and I really like her style. I hope her other work is as quirky and simply worded as I am finding The Handmaid's Tale.

Weather: It's snowing: I want to write about spring, purple flowers in the ground, fire pit construction, and baseball. Clearly mother nature wants me to wait on this topic.