Three Beautiful Things 05/09/07:Beauty, Lear, Limbo

1. Jane King wrote me a lovely email. It included the following passage:

I'm a part of this little group that meets each Wednesday to discuss
the lectionary texts for the week. This is a comment for this week
in connection with Psalm 67 that I read this morning in DISCIPLINES,
an Upper Room Publication. I believe the author is Rene A. Perez:

"Many years ago I heard about a high school teacher whose husband
unexpectedly died of a heart attack. About a week after his death,
she shared some of her insight with her students: "Each of us is put
here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate, and give of
ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end.
It can be taken away at any moment. Perhaps this is God's way of
telling us that we must make the most out of every single day. So I
would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to
school or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice. It
doesn't have to be something you see, it could be a scent--perhaps of
freshly baked bread wafting from a house or the sound of the breeze
slightly rustling the leaves in the trees or the way the morning
light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground.
Please look for these things and cherish them. For these things are
the "stuff" of life, the little things we are put here on earth to
enjoy, the things we often take for granted. It becomes important to
notice them, for at any time it can all be taken away."

2. I received the kindest email from my student Katy who had done a fiercely beautiful painting of King Lear during the storm on the heath. She was grateful that making art was a project option.

3. I listened to a superb radio interview with Artur Lubrano, author of Limbo: Blue-collar Roots, White-collar Dreams. He discussed how his book explores the difficulty of blue collar family kids making the move out of the working class into the middle class. I have written about this about myself and his work more than validated some of my insights about the limbo people like me feel having made this move.

Three Beautiful Things 01/18/07: Jane King, Karyssa, Costumes

1. What a pleasure to run into Jane King on campus today! In her retirement, Jane has taken classes at LCC, including my Shakespeare course about twelve years ago, and has taken a keen interest in interdisciplinary learning communities and generously supported these efforts at the college. I have been in Jane's company at plays, lectures, my wife's performances, exercising at the YMCA, over food and drink, at receptions, poetry readings, and any number of other gatherings. Seeing her and having a chance to chat for a few minutes brightened my afternoon and sparked my feelings of gratitude for her good cheer and her service to education and to the city of Eugene.

2. I gave Karyssa a ride home after play rehearsal and enjoyed listening to her tell me about her forays into making wood sculptures.

3. Today I went for my costume fitting and I so much enjoyed going to the costume shop and having Heather hand me the exotic costumes I will wear as a Senator and as a gentleman of Cyprus: so much color and such an irresistable opportunity to feel like I'm someone else and living in the worlds of Venice and Cyprus centuries ago.