Post-It Note Tuesdays

To the Man in the Moon

I don't want your sweet potato pie clouding up my scarlet eyes I don't need your cinnam0n scent obscuring my heavenly vent I can't take your ruddy plains messing with my passionate veins I won't take any of your creamy notes Enticing me to phantasmagorically float ............up................. .................up................... .....................up and away......................... with you

in your lofty boat.

On Turning Ten

by Billy Collins. one of my faves. The whole idea of it makes me feel like i'm coming down with something, something worse than any stomach ache or the headaches i get from reading in bad light-- a kind of measles of the spirit, mumps of the psyche, a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul. You tell me it is too early to be looking back, but that is because you have forgotten the perfect simplicity of being one and the beautiful complexity introduced by two. But i can lie on my bed and remember every digit. At four i was an Arabian wizard. I could make myself invisible by drinking a glass of milk a certain way. At seven i was a soldier, at nine a prince. But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light. Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my treehouse, and my bicycle never leaned against the garage as it does today, all the dark blue speed drained out of it. This is the beginning of sadness, i say to myself, as i walk through the universe in my sneakers. It is time to say goodbye to the imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number. It seems only yesterday I used to believe There was nothing under my skin but light. If you cut me I would shine. But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I bleed.

i was born in the wrong century

Okay cyberspace, i come to you begrudgingly. Wanted to share some of my old writings (and new ones) with the universe. Please be gentle.

an Inauguration Interrogation

January 23, 2009 "What if he gets shot on his way to the podium?" "How much do you think the secret service guys get paid?" "What if you are there and you have to go to the bathroom?" "What if Bush gets shot RIGHT NOW?" "What's that on Aretha's head?" All morning they have been peppering me with questions as we watch CNN. Our inauguration party has consisted of Presidential Bingo, word searches, and sprinkled donuts. "It's stupid--to stand out in the cold for this," one snaps. "Ms. Templeton, why is this such a big deal?" The sentence burns through my brain. We have just finished studying the Civil Rights Movement. We have read books this year dealing with themes of racism and discrimination. Many of them are multi-racial, including the kid who asked the question. I know many of the freezing observers have experience these themes much more vividly than myself, an affluent white girl who grew up watching The Cosbys and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Our collective history is disappearing before my eyes; changing, and I want them to experience this deeper than having a new square on their Bingo card. All morning i've been alternately watching the TV screen and anxiously processing their reactions. I must say they appear enraptured by Obama's speech. They are eagerly taken with the promises he is making, and they fall in love with the picture of America he paints. For a few brief minutes, it appears he is talking directly TO THEM. And, my God, the youthful innocence burns brightly in their eyes! These kids who cannot imagine being banned from a restaurant or sitting at the back of the bus. (These are kids who, for the most part, have refused to get on the bus in the first place. Many actively reject the educational opportunities their ancestors could only dream of.) My goal is to impart the collective wisdom and shared knowledge of our history. I want them to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. This idea floats in my brain and I struggle to formulate an answer to the horrific question just posed.Usually this is the point where I would dissect on a long tangent explaining the creation of our government and the importance of the Constitution. I would hastily attempt to make these truths evident to them, and eventually segway into the historic nature of this day in terms of the progress our society has made. (This is the same point, also, where many students would roll their eyes and find their word searches suddenly appealing.)Certainly we have gone over Jim Crow laws, MLK, Rosa Parks, and Brown v. Board of Education. How do i make it real for these little bodies trapped in these integrated seats? Yesterday to today? How do i get them to connect there to here? I furrow my brow unintentionally and take a deep breath, briefly entranced by Obama's rhetoric. Before I can say anything, a classmate turns to his seemingly apathetic peer, chomps on his sugary glazed donut and says, "Dude, because it is." Anticipating my sermon, Mr. Apathy turns toward me, ready to hear me spout about the crucial nature of this moment. My eyes stay locked on the TV, my inability to turn away trumps looking him in the eye. "I couldn't have said it better," I reply, "Because it is."