End of a trimester

School's out for . . . Thanksgiving. So this fall I was back behind the plow for the first time in a while. I think it went well. I really enjoyed teaching the lit classes. The best part was how they reacted to the novels. Well, I probably should have steered a few of them away from Brave New World. It's an important book, but not particularly entertaining to many nineteen year olds. However, several of them really enjoyed it. The students who read The Bell Jar responded to it with enthusiasm. I was surprised at how well it held up. Plath's writing style implants the material into your brain with surgical precision. I loved that book the first time I read it, and I was impressed this time as well. I think what I like about the book is that even though she is writing about a fairly horrific time in her life, it is not a grim book. The contemporary fiction I've been reading lately has an unrelenting sort of heaviness, a gloomy misanthropic view. It turns me off--after it depresses the hell out of me. (A notable exception: The Harrowing, a great, scary but well written book that I devoured.)
As for the other two books. I was so glad to get to read Slaughterhouse 5 again. I laughed out loud at the same time that I felt rage for the war machine that destroyed Dresden. And of course, Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Beautiful. This time I really lingered over the part where they really are "watching God"--something in that passage captures such hope and pathos. And the hilarious riffs of the card players! Once the students got past the dialect I think they appreciated the poetry of the book, and of course the love story.

Election Night & Head-On Collisions

So my daughter had a head-on collision on Saturday night right down the road here. As soon as I heard her voice on the phone I knew she'd been in an accident. But I knew she wasn't hurt too badly -- at least she could call me and let me know where she was. The scary part after that was wondering if other people had gotten hurt. But I managed not to worry about anything. I went into that numb get thru the ordeal and freak out later mode. When I got to the accident site, it was bad. Two smashed cars, glass and car parts scattered on the ground. My kid shaking in the cold night air. At least she had on my jacket that Mike G. had given me when she was a baby. Guardian Angel Mikey. And those good, good people who took care of her. Who were they? Fortunately, the guy who hit her was not seriously injured.

The next day I began to think that we've really gotten into a bad situation in this country. We on the left are pretty sure the right wing is evil, and they think we're stupid traitors. Both views are out of line with reality. But we've fallen into a vortex of hate and anger and blame. It's self-defeating. We have to start looking at our similarities. We all want the same things really -- a safe environment for our children, good schools, streets without potholes, an effective police force. We're not asking for a lot. But we're like dogs. You can throw any old bone out there and we'll all fight over it. Illegal immigration! Instead of seeing a problem and talking reasonably about it, coming up with solutions and making a few compromises, we grandstand and bicker and do nothing but make it worse.

So how do those two things relate? I wasn't worried about the politics of those people who stopped to help my daughter. And they didn't ask about mine. Maybe it's time to cut the bullshit. Stop believing in separation. It's a myth. We need to take care of each other. We need to work with each other to solve problems. When you need to paint a house, do you stand around slinging paint on each other or do you put the paint on the house?