Day 79 - August 1, 2010 - A Rose by Any Other Name...

“But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.” - Anne Bronte

Flowers are one of my favorite things found in nature. I guess that is the case with a lot of women. I like orchids, daisies, lilies, irises, pansies, fox gloves, sunflowers, tulips, roses... well, really, you name it and i probably like it.

Roses are interesting, though. Arguably, roses could be called the flower of literature. It is almost cliche to compare love to a rose... it has been done so many times. Authors and play writes have written about roses. Many poets have written about roses. There are songs about them. They are considered to be the default "romance" bloom. What do you buy for your girlfriend on Valentine's Day? Red roses.

They certainly are beautiful, but I often wonder why popular culture has gravitated towards them so much. There are hundreds of types of flowers all around the world. It isn't really a question I know the answers to... just an afternoon's pondering.

Perhaps, like so many other things, roses should thank Shakespeare for their popularity.

Day 78 - July 31, 2010 - Bonafide Bookworm

“Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce, old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Behold: my stack of text books for the upcoming semester. If you look closely, you will see that a large number of these books are in fact Shakespeare's plays. Although I do enjoy Shakespeare from time to time, I am hoping that I can keep up with the reading load for this class! It will be a great challenge, certainly. I expect to become a better writer/teacher along the way. What better place to start than with the man who revolutionized English story telling as we know it?

It is still going to be quite the challenge, though. I'll hang in there!

Day 77 - July 30, 2010 - Time Winds and Unwinds

“Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out It's all about timing.” - Stacey Charter

Time has a funny way of winding up and down. As soon as one phase of life ends, another begins. This particular clock requires winding to work. As soon as it begins to slow down, the clock must be re-wound in order for it to keep working. Life kind of feels like that now... in this transitory phase. When one thing ends, I must rewind the "clock" and start over. As it ticks away, I know that, when it is unwound, I will be at the next phase and must rewind my "clock" and continue living.

This is by no means a bad thing. It simply means I have a certain amount of time in which to grow and learn in each phase of my life. I can't sit around a listen to the sound of the clock ticking, but when it is time to start over, I must embrace the future.