I started looking through some old journal entries for ideas. As I re-read the words below, I realize they still hold true, despite being four years old! I wonder what that suggests about how I view the world?
* * * * * * * * *
Knowing my passion for Dr. Seuss, a friend sent me this quote by writer/director Gary Ross, "Ultimately, so much Dr. Seuss is about empowerment. He invites us to disappear into our imagination and then blows the doors off what that can mean." So what can a door tell about life? About others? About ourselves?
Here are my
kitchen cabinets. These doors are indicative of my stubbornness and my
creativity. The cabinets are
constructed of that icky maple-y veneered pressboard product sold as “wood.”
Their brownish color reflected that tackiness. When I decided to re-do my house, I came
up with the idea of wallpapering the inserts of my kitchen cabinets AFTER I
repainted them a forest green.
That re-painting notion was my first perseverance discovery. Turns out
that it is damned difficult to make paint stick to the surface of kitchen
cabinets, which are protected against the odors and steams and normal kitchen
miasmas that accompany cooking. Painting kitchen surfaces requires pre-sanding,
surfacing, sanding, surfacing, sanding and surfacing BEFORE the actual paint is
applied. I could have painted the entire house by the time the cabinets were
finished. But my wallpapered doors are sooooooo cool that even 7 years after
their creation, they still garner compliments and make me feel successful! In
this instance, it’s not what’s behind these doors that is significant, it’s
what ON them that is indicative of my refusal to quit on a dream.
Speaking of dreams, on the
right side of this picture is my classroom door at Middleburg High, the day
before our volleyball team traveled down to Orlando to compete for the State
Championship. My classroom neighbor, Letreze,
and I stayed at school until 10:30 the night before this to make (God Bless
Big Stencils.) and put up the door signs. When the students came down the hall that
morning, one of the girls screamed, ran around the corner into the next hall to find her
best team-mate. They stood gawking and laughing and texting the other team members
and the coach. Before the opening school bell rang, the girls were all there,
so I asked them to pose for a soon-to-be-champions picture. Unfortunately, they went to dinner a few hours later at a local Orlando eatery and 8 of the 10 got food poisoning. The
FHSAA delayed the championship game 24 hours; the girls lost by only four
points in the final tie-breaker match - becoming the poster children for competitive perseverance! In this instance, it's not what’s on the
doors that counts, it’s what’s in front of them that is indicative of my
efforts to connect what happens in my classroom with what happens in my kids’
lives.
This final door represents a
combination of the previous two: my stubbornly creative approach to melding
academia and real life – this is the door way to Norman Hall, site of the
University of Florida’s College of Education. I first walked under this arch and through this door in
2003. I walked into a world of new friends, frustrating experiences, guest
lecturer spots, and travel adventures. Behind this door, I found a new
career as an on-line instructor in the UF Graduate School, a potential new
career as a how-to-book-writer in digital photography, and an appreciation for
my own worth as well as my diverse intellectual pursuits. Past this door, I
discovered two women who are my intellectual and chronological peers; together
we three have learned the true meaning of the phrase “soul sister.” In this
instance, it IS what's behind the door that has significance; it indicates that
at 61 I am still going strong and still open to new experiences and still
asking , “Why?”
No comments:
Post a Comment