We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight

On Thursday and Friday, the staff at my school attended the MANS convention here in Detroit (Michigan Association for Non-Public Schools). Being yesterday was Friday, I was very tempted to attend just a couple sessions and then leave right after lunch. But while sitting at lunch with a group of colleagues, a few of them mentioned a session they attended that was so powerful it moved them to tears.

Since there was a repeat session at 2:30 I forced myself to stay to see what this session was all about.

Bill Barkeley is legally blind and lost 85% of his hearing at age five. Given these disabilities, you'd think he'd just be sitting at home, allowing his friends and family to do for him all the things a blind/deaf person can't do. But in all the Bill has lost, he always kept his faith and always believed that God had a plan for him. And you'll never believe what he set out to do: climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. And climb it he did.

What is so inspiring about Barkeley's climb is not just that he did it, but that he sees his blindness and deafness as a blessing. He thinks that non-disabled people often don't know what to do with the gifts they have been given and as a disabled person, he was able to "see" that constraints help make clear what is possible in life.

Walk Your Own Path from Serac Adventure Films on Vimeo.

Poetry Friday

"Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave
your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap
one is best, with pages the color of weak tea
and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than
three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware
any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks
across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.
And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle
where a child a year or two old is playing as his
mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.
The title, the author's name, the brooding photo
on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray
book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher
it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower
falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody
in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

-Ron Koertge

Another One Bites The Dust

I'm having a major case of boredom with books lately. Nothing seems to be holding my interest. I just abandoned what seems like my tenth book in the past few months. My most recent victim that I tossed aside tonight was Julie & Julia. I was disappointed with how little the story actually had to do with food and how crass Julie Powell's writing was. I got about halfway through it and couldn't take any more. I hope the movie is better than the book. I need books to inspire me again. I need another Hunger Games or The Help to get me out of this slump I've been in lately.

Poetry Friday

This poem cracks me up because it's kind of making a satire out of the most famous poems of William Carlos Williams "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This is Just to Say"

An Apology

Forgive me
for backing over
and smashing
your red wheelbarrow.

It was raining
and the rear wiper
does not work on
my new plum-colored SUV.

I am also sorry
about the white
chickens.

- F.J. Bergmann

High On Books

Last week I did a book talk on The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and now it seems like half the 6th grade is walking around with a copy of the book in their hands. I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see when my words influence kids like that. Talking about books with kids and seeing that I can influence their reading habits - that is my drug of choice.

Who needs a lesson plan when you can just talk about books all day?

There's something about Michigan football that turns me into a sports fan

I'm not a sports lover. About the only sport I watch faithfully is figure skating, and even that has dwindled since Michelle Kwan retired from eligible competition. So it's very strange that U of M football turns me into a crazy fan, willing to denounce all of my Ohio relatives for having the audacity to root for the evil Ohio State Buckeyes.

OK, so I'm not THAT bad, but I do like to chide my father and other extended family on occasion especially when it comes to be that time of year when the most contested game of the season rolls around: OSU Vs. U of M.

So when my husband and I scored some tickets to the U of M vs. Delaware State game in Ann Arbor yesterday, I knew I would have to do something to antagonize my dad given his shame at having a daughter who is a Michigan fan. (But more on that later.)

While this was no means a game of OSU rivalry proportions given that Delaware State is a Division 2 team, it was still amazing to be there in the stadium rather than watching it at home on the couch. Thankfully Michigan won this game, and even though it was expected to be a walk for us, we all remember the travesty of last year's game against Appalachian State. So we Michigan fans take nothing for granted.

But by the time the second quarter rolled to a close, this is what the scoreboard looked like:


So yeah, no worries about having a repeat of the Appalachian State debacle. And even though the game was a cake walk for us and not much of a competition (though all of us in the stands were making our own goals for the game, "I wanna see 50 on the scoreboard before halftime" and "Let's try to not let them score ANY points for the entire game...") it was still exhilarating being at The Big House with 107,000 fans, all high fiving each other whenever the Wolverines scored a touchdown (and we were high fiving each other A LOT!). And even though I'm fighting off a chest cold that doesn't seem to want to go away, being there in the forty-degree weather, rooting for boys in maize and blue, even in my sickened state was an experience worth having. Aaah.... There's just something about Michigan football that I love. Maybe it's the rebel in me - since most of my family roots for Ohio State I have to be the voice of dissent. (I did grow up in Michigan after all so being a Wolverines fan is not that much of a stretch for me. But you have to wonder why I chose to be a U of M fan instead of a Michigan State fan).

I'd have to say though that more than us winning by almost 60 points, my favorite moment of the game had to be when our friend snapped this picture of my husband and me on my cell phone

and texted it to my dad saying, "Go Blue and Purdue!" (You see, Ohio State was playing Purdue at the same time we were at the Michigan game).

He called me later that evening and said rather begrudgingly, "So I got your picture... and OK I got the point!"

I love how college football rivalries bring families together. It's all in good fun until someone ends up with a black eye. :o)

Incidentally, this was the final score

I've never seen such a high number on a football scoreboard before.

Hail to the Victors!

Book Trailers Worth Watching

I love finding book trailers that rival movie trailers in lighting a fire under people to make them want to know more about the story. One of my favorite book trailers is this one of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


But I just stumbled across this book trailer for Th1rteen R3asons Why on Jay Asher's blog and it is phenomenal. There is honestly a lot of YA lit out there today that rivals adult lit in characterization and story lines. This is definitely one of those books that many adults would find a fascinating read.