Bird Droppings February 3, 2020
To create writing, for some seems so difficult in a digital world.

 

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” Aldus Huxley

 

In 1965 I was introduced to this author in a tenth grade English Class. The book was Brave New World, written in 1932 and you would think that a book thirty years old at that time would not have been that controversial. However, for our class and the reading list we had, an English teacher was let go. What amuses me is how these books we read in 1965 did impart more than simply the words contained between the covers; it was a catalyst for thinking that was developed. This is what education and learning should be about. Challenging students to look further than that day’s lesson.

 

Today on another hallway in our school Literature teachers use the books my tenth-grade teacher was fired for as part of their reading list as do many high schools across the country. Such books as 1984, Anthem, and Brave New World which were so controversial in their time fifty to seventy years ago, still today can inspire students and adults to think and ponder beyond the moment.

 

“To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking — and since it cannot, in order to become its echo, I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.” Maurice Blanchot

 

In a crazy writing world of words and I include music lyrics, interpretation becomes a part of the art as well. The response from the person receiving the words or lyrics is an essential piece of the reality of the work. I seldom in my own writing throughout symbolism and or metaphor. I tend to rely on others to provide through various quotes and feedback differing opinions and realities. My oldest son and my wife have Sirrus XM radio and both by chance are listening to Tom Petty radio currently. For forty years Tom Petty blessed us with words and lyrics. In all of that time until just recently even though of my top twenty all time rock songs Petty was there I did not consider him for my play list until recently.  I watched a documentary on his life put out in 2007. Tom was the narrator throughout the film clips. As I watched I realized how amazing this song writer was. Great musicians and song writers sought him out as a peer. Hence the group, The Traveling Wilburys. A compilation of some of rocks greatest song writers. So as the day unfolded a I Look back on a few moon images of a waning moon before my camera started acting up. I took a quick drive to corner store and a song flew by and words that caught my attention at 4:45 AM this morning.

 

“Well I started out down a dirty road. Started out all alone and the sun went down as I crossed the hill and the town lit up, the world stood still. Well, the good ol’ days may not return and the rocks might melt and the sea may burn. Well, some say life will beat you down break your heart, steal your crown. So, I’ve started out for God-knows-where I guess I’ll know when I get there. I’m learning to fly, I ain’t got wings coming down is the hardest thing.” Second chorus: “I’m learning to fly, around the clouds but what goes up must come down” Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty

 

I got home and asked my son and wife as to how they took the song. Several differing views and I found as I searched others too differed in their interpretation of the song. I went to Tom’s own words for how he described the song.

 

“I think i was coming to grips with the view that you can be optimistic, hopeful and as good a person as you want to be, but it’s not going to make life simple for you. Nothing will. You can have all the success you want and it’s not going to make your life-really your personal life-much easier than anyone else’s. The song was also influenced by the Gulf War. It was written during the time the war was breaking out, everything was very grey, and there were burning oceans and oil fires. I was disappointed by the war and the attitude of the American people. I certainly didn’t blame the soldiers for going there, but I felt that few people wanted to challenge the Bush administration on its lies. It was a bad time and I really think it influenced the tone of the album (Into the Great Wide Open).” As per Tom Petty

 

Words on paper seemingly simple language and yet such differing ideas. Drugs was a leading rationale for many. But Petty was writing about life and politics of the time. Petty was a fan of Bob Dylan and I think back to a great Dylan tune and words. “The times they are a changing”. I seriously wish I had paid more attention to Tom Petty while he was around. A great writer he will be missed.

 

“Writing is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.” Sir Winston Churchill

 

Each morning as I sit down and wonder about the direction that the ideas may or may not flow. I try and find a spark a starting point for the day. Sort of my kick start of the day to revitalize my own cerebral cortex. I was thinking of experience as a start earlier but within the semantics of the word so many limits the concept of experience. I was seeing a teacher and most as I read were seeing experience as a limit, coming back to a note the other day and actually I used yesterday talking with future teachers, the idea of a container as per students. That was until I read this line from Huxley and heard a tune from Tom Petty.

 

Over the past few days numerous emails from former classmates in high school perhaps prompted by nostalgia and finding a few in Facebook, remembering fondly a nearly forgotten class of tenth grade yet one that truly started a process of thinking that has continued for me nearly forty five years later. But the direction changes as I look, it is through writers and writing that we convey so much.

 

“To write what is worth publishing, to find honest people to publish it, and get sensible people to read it, are the three great difficulties in being an author.” Charles Caleb Colton

 

“I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it.” William Faulkner

 

Each day I walk outside and look at the sky. On an almost clear morning much today with no clouds to be found as the front passed through earlier I can see stars spreading through the sky. Constellations, for some they are beacons of direction and purpose. If it is clear tomorrow I may be following the waning moon for a bit in the morning when I get up and check on the sun rise. As the seasons pass the constellations change as to time of day and position in the sky and often as I go out I am greeted by a new or slightly different sky appearing before my front door. If by chance I am writing at home as I have for a few years now I can go out into the back yard surrounded by pine, pecan, black walnut, persimmon and oak trees depending on where I stand much will be obscured and I see only a shrouded sky laced with the branches.

 

As I read the Faulkner note so often this is true, we do not think about something till we read what we have written. Many the times I will return to a piece a week or months later and find a new meaning or understanding of what I was thinking at that time. I wrote a philosophy of teaching paper some time ago and until it was returned with comments I wasn’t sure what my philosophy was. A journey that began in reading, then in experience and moves through writing for it does take written word to be read.

 

“You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.” Horace

 

I find in working on my dissertation and reviewing previous thoughts from even seven years ago my interpretations of others writing is differing. What is art for example? I start each day reading and then more reading.

 

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.” Samuel Johnson

 

It is true as I write each morning glancing through previous writings and reviewing articles and emails and any books handy at that moment looking for and pondering where and how I will direct my thoughts. Often my morning consists more of reading than actually putting words to paper or computer screen. It is so many times a search for an idea a thought that has eluded me.

 

“If written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn’t need to have the rest of the universities attached.” Judith Martin

 

“Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors — somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascinating — none of us can name two French generals or department store owners of that period. I take enormous pride in considering myself an artist, one of the necessaries.” James A. Michener

 

What comes so easy for some it has been said may not be for others. I sit each morning writing two or three pages reading numerous articles and emails and then as a teacher go into a class and ask students to write 500 words about what they learned this year in school. Most will say nothing, since that makes it so much easier to write. As I think as to where that student is coming from, maybe they never read Brave New World. It could be because somewhere, somehow, and or someone did not give them the opportunity.

I have found both in the past and currently it is because somewhere and someone did not teach them to read effectively or to think beyond just surviving day to day. It might have been that was the only alternative.

 

I was reminded in an email of Dr. Laura Nolte’s famous poster, “Children learn what they live” as I spelled checked I made an error I had typed “Children learn what they love”. As I thought a bit you know what? That is just as true too especially in education. So how do we help children love learning, and love reading? I wish it could be an easy answer. Perhaps we can start with ourselves. Perhaps it is the teacher content with only a bachelor’s degree or basic certification and insists they know all. Perhaps it is the teacher who stops reading and insists they do not have time or interest. Today I am searching reading wondering and still trying to teach as I go. Let’s all set an example today and keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts and always give thanks namaste.

 

My family and friends I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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