Friday, October 2, 2015

Three Beautiful Things 10/01/15: (Dreadful), Thank You Notes, Using up Kale, Great Email

*I don't think I ever met Larry Levine, the WR 115 instructor killed in his classroom at Umpqua Community College. I don't know when he attended the University of Oregon, but if we were there at the same time, I don't remember meeting or knowing him.  That said, I feel dread, grief, anger, and nausea, not because I knew Larry Levine, but because I know our profession. Over the thirty-five or so years I taught, my fellow instructors and I worked with volatile people all the time, people who blew up, confronted us with anger, were a menacing presence in the classroom, and who posed different levels of threat and disruption. Some of us have been harassed, others have been stalked, and some have been physically threatened, shoved, or struck. Larry Levine was shot and killed.  I wish I could say what happened is unimaginable, but we, as teachers, lost the innocence of regarding such killings being unimaginable a long time ago. It's dreadful.

1. I decided it was time to bring back the thank you note in my life and I wrote a couple today on cards I had made at Costco that feature a picture I took of the Kellogg YMCA. The building was finished in 1910.

2. I really purchased too much of it when I bought that gunny sack of kale at Costco a week or two ago. But, it is keeping and today I found a sweet potato/shrimp/kale stir fry recipe.  Ha!  I subbed tofu for the shrimp because I wanted the meal to be vegetarian and it worked out pretty well.  (It would have been better with shrimp:  I admit it.)

3.  Julie has been making references on Facebook to risk and changes in her life and I emailed her today for some details and we had a great exchange about what might lie ahead for her and about her life in the 814.

No comments: