Durng The Long Winter, the Ingalls family roused themselves from discouragement and feeling cold to the bone. To do this they read whatever was in their tiny house that was inspirational. More than that, the kids (and the parents) recited great pieces of literature from their memories. I could'nt believe American kids once did that. That gave me the cornerstone for my graduation service project:
Great Ideas from the Past! My council approved my project outine last night ... and thanks to my Palladio "Sister," Harmony Brook. She
insisted that I read that book by Laura Ingalls Wilder. At first, I was insulted, "That's a girls book, I can't read that with you! Can't you find one by Walter Dean Myers we can read together?"
Harmony's eyes narrowed, "Myers is great, but I want you to tap into America's rugged past. Unless we review the past, we forget how much wnet before us. I am doing everything in my power so you don't make a common mistake when recommending change in your lifetime. And you will be a change-maker when you mature, Frederic!"
I started to get my back up with that hint that I had a way to go in my maturation process, but she stopped me,"Reading
The Long Winter, will open your eyes, Frederic! We will have important insights to discuss during our dinner meetings. It's my job to help you identify deep truths about life and human nature. I mean to do my best in that regard. You'll get the real meaning in adages like the one you heard from Giovanni last week: "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
Well, Harmony was right! See, here in this report, I can only open a tiny peephole (like Laura and Carrie made in their window looking out onto the blizzard for seven months). All I learned, about what's really important about family life, community life, school life, and inside each person,
is so amazing that it has become the foundation for my Contribution of Great Merit.
The kids I tutor in Brooklyn, will benefit immediately -starting in Saturday School! They will begin to memorize proverbs - and make sense of them by journalling connections all week long -and through events and relationships in their everyday lives. Kids that can memorize proverbs will graduate onto paragraphs from great books (like
The Long Winter- but I will type a variety of paragraphs onto sheets of paper -so there's no illustrations to distract them like I was
before I knew better).
So here's a taste to whet your appetite throughout this amazing, multi-age, international campus!
Appetizer ...
The scene: Chapter 22 THE COLD AND DARK
Two months of blizzards one after the other. The house is so cold their breath frosts in the air unless thyey are sitting around the wood stove. That's colder than I ever imagined. And the family is running out of food ,and fuel to stay warm. Try having brown bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner...except at lunch yo get a boiled potato -and sorry guys, no butter, no gravy, no greese even. They are loosing their minds with the constantly howling winds, grinding wheat, twisting hay into thick sticks, and sitting in the dim kitchen all day to stay warm.
Except that Pa and Ma get them back on track as soon as they veer off. They make them do family chores morning, noon and night. Nobody gets a free ride here, except three year old Grace. Ma doesn't let them get away with feeling sorry for themselves, even for one minute. She makes them recite inspiring words from great thinkers. She makes them remember and act out beautiful writing too. Carrie and Laura recite a scene with the character Ellie, from The Swan's Nest, that changes how they feel inside ... and this changes their experience of their freezing cold house:
On page 232, the author says, "The air was warm and quiet there, the grass was warm in the sunshine, the clear water sang its song to istself, and the leaves softly murmured. The meadow's insects drowsily hummed. While they were there with Ellie, laura and Carrie almost forgot the cold. They hardly heard the winds and the whirling hard snow scouring the walls."
The moral of this section: Our mind is a powerful place and we can learn to control how we think and what we think. Because... if we don't, someone else will! That could be better for you but it could really be worse...depends on the goodness of the messages around you ... in the news...on the radio...and in the lyrics to music we play over and over.
Think about it, (my new "Signature")
Frederic C.
UpperArmory: Little BroSis Club
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