[conjuring] All Hallows' Eve [a song]

 

[Photo, by permission Krystal Moon Cosmetics (Instagram)]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcbMhIIz8cY&feature=related

...a marvelous Canadian voice, conjuring All Hallows' Eve...

People[1] JD Salinger

 

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   We grew up in worlds that no longer exist.
A world where childhood reigned supreme.  A world where our worlds were not circumscribed by fears of creepy people doing creepy things to kids [for the most part].Even in places of worship.  A world where we frolicked at will, before school, after school and all day and all night long during the summer holidays. A world pre-dating technological hand games, virtual and augmented realities, and where we lived inside our own imaginations, inventing games, games and more games. And, when we wanted a bit of normality, there were always pick-up football games [aka soccer in these parts] waiting in the wings.

And there was only a one ring circus...thankfully.

  That is the world we wish to remember...and celebrate in the month of November.
A world about children in the past tense of our memories; a world where innocence pivoted between the vagaries of 'good and evil' ; and a world where catchers in the rye were completely unnecessary.

  And, just to whet your appetite..


Children have a straightforward and uncomplicated way of telling the truth, especially when you least expect it. JD Salinger chronicled this axiom only too well, especially in his memorable book of short stories[see below]. And we adults aren't always ready for it...time come ready or not. 

   The other day I was in my favorite coffee house when a beautiful young mother walked in followed by an equally stunning little girl. Heads turned, mostly for the young mother. I fixed on the little girl--her mixture of seriousness and playfulness reminded me of the little girl in A Perfect Day for Bananafish.* She sat down next to me and focused her attention on this piece of fabric she was clutching. She exuded a focus and presence that would soon, in all probability, be lost.

   Her mother  handed her a small glass of milk along with a biscotti. The little girl ate and drank with only one hand; the other hand all the while clutching the mysterious fabric. The mother noticed that I was watching, smiled and said: 'She never goes anywhere without it..."
I smiled an avuncular smile. 'Everyone should have such a loyal companion,' I offered by way of reply.
'It's my blankie,' the little girl confirmed.
'It's her blankie....she calls it Haber...' the mother added, by way of explanation.

A wave of childhood swept over me at that moment, memories racing back and forth  and flooding my mind.
'She seems very attached,' I observed, stating the obvious. 'That's the trouble with us adults...we've lost our blankie..'  I confessed freely.
' I  know. I miss mine.....my blankie that is....I mean really miss it!' she admitted with equal parts frankness and astonishment.
Her eyes misted over.
She smiled as she wiped her eyes. 'Well, we have to go to a gymnastics lesson.....it was nice talking to you.....' 
They got up to leave.
I tried to thank her for the insight but my voice choked.
Choked by a loss 'too deep for tears.......'**

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* one of the stories in Salinger's aforementioned book

**borrowed from Wordsworth's Ode: Intimations of Immortality

And Then There Were Four....

 

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Topaz: Today’s podcast from the WGBT studios features our latest addition to the blog family, Mr. Slinger..

Mr. Slinger: Wow!

Topaz: Good…now the introductions are dispensed with why don’ t you tell us a little bit about your latest blog idea..

Mr. Slinger: Wow! Happy to…where should I begin? Despite my sartorial evidence to the contrary, I am not used to being the centre of attention. At least with adults!

Topaz: Not. A. Bother! Why don’t you tell us how the idea for the blog—Mr. Slinger’s BlogBook of Days-- came to you?

Mr. Slinger: Wow…good question. Actually, the idea was pitched by three of my students who were working creatively one afternoon in the Light Bulb Lab at the back of my classroom….

Topaz: Wow! Students!

Mr. Slinger: Yes indeedy! I read their proposal several times and when I thought long and hard about it, it made a certain amount of ….I almost said ‘sense’!!

Topaz: I think I know what you mean…please continue..

Mr. Slinger: Well…or Wow…what ever comes first…I have always had a secret wish to be a blogger…I was hoping I might bump into a Genie on a beach somewhere and he/she would grant my wish. No such luck! And Robert Chambers’ nineteenth century Book of Days has always been one of my favourites…you could say it’s a permanent visitor to my bedroom nightstand..

Topaz: Wow! A blog union, forged on a nightstand….just wow! Perfect..

Mr. Slinger: ..now Chambers was writing more than one hundred years or so ago, so his personal noosphere was very different back then,,

Topaz: ‘Noosphere?’ Wow! You have done your blog homework!

Mr. Slinger: …so the blog I am proposing needs to be very different than that of Chambers, and be more of a mirror of our fragmented, random mass ‘of competing fictions’…and that’s the exciting part…it’s a leap into the darkness and light, but without snacks!

Topaz: Wow! Nicely articulated. A mundane question would be to ask which of Chambers’ topics might find their way on to your blog…but a better question is when can we expect a blog from Mr. Slinger?

Mr. Slinger: Wow! Soon, very soon. That’s all I can say, other than Wow!

Meet Mr. Slinger [2]

 

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As you, dear readers, are no doubt aware, there are teachers, and then again there are Teachers. The first fosters learning; the second fosters learning and often leads us to places of understanding.

Occasionally, there are Teachers who teach both learning and understanding…and something else. Something quite often indescribable, but usually a something that most discerning students recognize [wordlessly].

Consider the above—especially that last sentence-- by way of introductions to our teacher and reluctant blogman, Mr. Slinger.

     Now, it’s not that Mr. Slinger is ‘the glass of fashion, and the mold of form’ [as Ophelia was wont to exclaim], wearing artsy shirts, funky ties and spectacles that hung around his neck by a fancy chain. No, all of that is externally pleasing to the eye, but not quite IT.

Nor is it that he eschewed typical teacherly greetings to his students every morning, with a beatific ‘Howdy’ accompanied by a low high five for each and every one.

Or those tasty snacks that he would conjure up  in his kitchen, different every day and delicious to the tastebuds of young learners. And he would—at the drop of a Wow! --break into an improvised, interpretative dance and mesmerize his young charges.

Mr. Slinger was all about ‘sleight of hand’ learning and understanding and life hacks for young people. Most of us didn’t even notice…we were too busy having fun to realise that we were also learning and understanding.

    At the back of his classroom was his Light Bulb Lab, an oasis of creativity where we could draw, write, create, build, experiment [a different one every day], and most importantly use our intelligences creatively.

So, one day, while basking at the Light Bulb Lab, three of us came up with the idea of Mr. Slinger’s BlogBook of Days, a compendium of interesting topics wherever his whimsical senses took him.   We drafted the proposal in a short paragraph, added a couple of illustrations and presented it to Mr. Slinger at group sharing time.

       Mr. Slinger removed his spectacles from around his neck and  placed them on his face, bit into a Crunchie snack bar, read over our proposal not once, but twice, sat back in his chair and exclaimed: “Wow! That’s all Mr. Slinger could say. Wow!”

Meet Mr. Slinger..[1]

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Micheal writes...

Blogger's Note:  I come from a 'long' line of teachers--me, myself and I. 

Kinch taught for a bit here and there, then found another calling. I have been fortunate [indeed blessed] to have known some Master Teachers [some of whom have found their way onto the pages of this Blog]: Isabella Fisher, Robert Edgar, Luis MacIver, Patrick Paton to name just a few.

And then there's the Master of all Master teachers--one Patrick Grugan, aka 'the Grug' aka 'Magnificent' aka 'Teacher Man' [see previous Blog posts]. He taught me more about teaching than people who have, for whatever reason or another, been assigned to 'mentor' me [I loathe that expression]in the arts of its whatness.
 
Teaching, or what a Temple University professor once described as 'assisting in the art of discovery', defies easy codification. And formulaic recipes [despite the many treatises on the subject].

 Akin to the art of the controlled accident [a term borrowed from Sumi-e painting] it invites a relationship between teacher and learner, knower and known, in mystical and often alchemical ways.

All of this is by way of introducing a new 'column' on the Blog...Mr. Slinger's BlogBook of Days....Scots writer Robert Chambers 'Book of Days' [updated], with a side of Mr, Singer's whimsy. 

In our first blog --consider this a kind of Prologue--you will meet the illustrious Mr. Slinger, surely worthy of joining the pantheon of Master Teachers mentioned above...

[to be continued...]