The First Day of the Rest of My Life

Three cheers for the end of school! Hip Hip Hurrah! Hip Hip Hurrah! Hip Hip Hurrah!
Today has not been a particularly pleasant day, but it has been MY day, and that makes it lovely nonetheless. I shall endeavor to always remember that when in the future I am tempted to decry the passage of some day.
I have already dived into my summer reading, completing one little book and beginning another. I sped through the famous The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint Exupery over the weekend, in early preparation for viewing the opera during next year's Tulsa Opera season. I confess to being somewhat bewildered and not completely pleased by the ending. I shall, however, read it again more closely. I do wish to understand its popularity and the favor with which it is regarded by friends of mine. Has anyone any thoughts to offer on the subject?
Last night I begain the American classic Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. I've only finished the introduction, but it was quite interesting. The author of the introduction, Amanda Claybaugh, attempts to paint Stowe as an early feminist, explaining her obvious submission to her husband as "a canny strategy for turning those (gender) constraints toward her own ends. By sitting silently while her husband or son spoke on her behalf, Stowe was not simply conforming to the expectations of her audience, but also dramatizing her conformity and thereby transforming conformity into a source of power." I find this funny. Not surprisingly, I know little about Stowe, so I cannot positively refute Claybaugh's claims. However, I find it far more likely that her explanation is a feminist's pitiful attempt to make a feminist hero of someone who dared to accept her role as wife. And that amuses me.

Overdue Quotes

It has been quite a while since I posted any inspriational quote from Domestic Tranquility. Here is a beautiful synopsis of a woman's job, based upon Virginia Woolf's character Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse, a book I may now have to read:

. . .Mrs. Ramsay produces little, daily miracles by imposing shape and staibility upon life's chaos. For her husband, her children, and those who might join her faimly circle, Mrs. Ramsay calms the whirlwind, stops time, and with the gift of her attention, structures for others a moment to share with her, a moment that they would never experience without her mediation. In these moments of permanence, Mrs. Ramsay teaches others that they count for something in this life. . . .for those individuals who have no Mrs. Ramsay in their lives, there may will be no moments of permanence in which they know that they count. They will be like unfinished canvases with a "centre of complete emptiness," without shape or stability. What is there in life that can replace the woman who "resolved everything into simplicity" and made "of the moment something permanent?" (author's quotes taken from Woolf)

Boring Blog

Are boring posts better than no posts?
That is the question of the day. Yesterday's question of the day came from a student using a dictionary: "Does O come before I?" Please keep in mind that I teach high school. Fortunately, some other student told the querying student to sing the alphabet, so I didn't have to.
I have not consumed any of my water today. Oops. Bad health for me. I really should make a more concerted effort to drink, rather than finishing my water only when I'm thirsty.
I'm going home now, finally, to find something healthy to eat. I hope this lonely little post satiates some great need until I have more time!