Ahhhhhhhh....

[xaara]

I love the subtle decadence of the world. I love the extravagance of the simplest leaf, the complexity of the most basic atom. I love the uniqueness of the taste of fresh air, and the unnecessary beauty of the sunset. I love animals in all their wildness and humans even in their most basic domesticity.

I love my ability to express my love. The gift of speech is so wonderful, and I almost always take it for granted, knowing that I will be able to communicate without conscious effort. It's a beautiful thing. It's the reason I want to teach English.

I've had so many horrible teachers who tried to instill in me an "appreciation" for literature and succeeded only in awakening a very real dread of reading for class. Reading should never be a dreaded activity. It should be an activity in which humans rejoice, as they do at the telling of a traditional story. It should be a communal activity involving hours of free discussion. It should be a distinct experience for each separate person, and it should seek to discover the point within that person's mind that resonates with it.

Maybe I'm naive and idealistic, but that's what I want to tell my students. I want to make one of them understand that reading is a thing of power and grace. I want to make one of them understand that he or she can leave the world forever in the pages of a book.

I think that would fulfill my life.

<<<<>>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>>

Spike

Would never have made a good poet. Didn't know the first bloody thing about funerals, then. Always assumed it rained for them, heavens weeping and all that rot.

It doesn't rain when they bury her – it's a brilliant California day – and so I'm stuck in the sodding shadows, watching the lot of them touch her casket one last time, wishing to God or the Devil or whoever I'm allowed to wish to that I could be there too.

But I live in the shadows. I kill in the shadows. I'm damned to the shadows.

I love her from the shadows.

Comments

[bel-baggins.livejournal.com]

I agree with you about literature teachers quite often instilling dread instead of excitement or appreciation. It's always seems they want to hurry us through one novel so they can quickly toss the next classic at us so that we're as eddicated as possible. :p I always questioned whether I really wanted to be a writer because I hated the reading I had to do for school. I've had to sort of teach myself to love reading again.

I hope you keep that love and enthusiasm for the world and the written word. It's something to cherish. And hopefully students will naturally just pick up on that.

-Bel

[xaara.livejournal.com]

I've had to sort of teach myself to love reading again. Exactly. When I talk to college friends, they tell me exactly that - they didn't really like reading and writing while in high school but decided to pick it up again in college and loved it. Fortunately, I have parents who never let me lose my enthusiasm for reading and writing, but a lot of less fortunate people are more or less steamrolled by their teachers.

Thanks for your words of encouragement. :)

oh...

[druimadeoir.livejournal.com]

Poor spike. I loved the last line. remind me to link you to my loveblender stuff sometime. :)

Re: oh...

[xaara.livejournal.com]

I loved the last line. Thanks. That was actually the first line that popped into my head when I began the series.

Reminder: link me to your loveblender stuff sometime. ;)