Wednesday Hodgepodge: Short-answers edition

I'm twenty thousand leagues under the writing sea right now, so this week's entry in the Hodgepodge is going to be brief.

1. Something little you are loving right now? 

Our current hamster. His name is Alcibiades.

2. Red roses or pink peonies? Red wine or pink lemonade? Red lipstick or pink polish? A cotton candy colored sky or a fiery red sunset? A book-movie-song you love with the word red or pink in its title? 

Roses, lemonade. Pink lipstick. Sky pictures, I like them all.

3. What's something you currently have your heart set on doing-going-seeing-or experiencing?

Story here.

4. Who would you most like to have a heart to heart with right now? Is that possible? 

Only virtually.

5. Write an acrostic for the word L-O-V-E. 

Lasagna

Or

Very

Easy Takeout Burgers: Which would you rather have for Valentine's Day dinner, honey?

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

That doesn't involve complaining about whatever?

Well, no legislator or bureaucrat can stop the sap rising in the maple trees. Spring will be here soon.

Linked from The Wednesday Hodgepodge at From This Side of the Pond.

Christmas C.M. Countdown, Day 5

"...do we recognize that the proportion of Love must be preserved as duly as the proportions of Faith?" (Ourselves, Book II, p. 21) 

An instructed Conscience-judge is not tolerant of court employees who take time off for personal distractions. Anyone caught humming "I Just Want to Be Your Everything" will be severely scolded, and that includes friends to friends, princes to courtiers, even parents to children. Why?

"Over-fond and exclusive" relationships, besides being unhealthy, "shut out other claims of duty and affection" (p. 21). They can even be dangerous. Being exclusive is good in certain matters, Mason admits, such as in being faithful to one's spouse.  Deep loyalty to friends is admirable. But to be obsessed with any person, and needing to control their actions as proof of mutual love, is "unchaste."

In Chapter IV, Mason gives a literary example of friendship-done-to-excess, from Marlowe's play Edward II. Here's a slightly more recent example: the shapeshifting character Odo, employed as the space station security chief on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Odo is a loner; he seems to be part of no recognizable species. He is excited when  he finds that there are others of his kind, that he is, in fact, part of a "Great Link," a melding of all such beings. This, in itself, is fine; it means that Odo has a "family"; it could even be taken as a metaphor for the Body of Christ. But this newfound connection causes conflict. Vulcans can perform mind-melds, but this species can body-meld or "link" with each other; and in Odo's case, his fascination with linking causes him to ignore relationships, his job, and time itself. Odo eventually regains his sense of proportion, but these events cause others to question his loyalties; and (SPOILER) his initiation into linking eventually threatens the existence of his species (think virus).

(Now here comes the real spoiler. If you've never seen the ending of Deep Space Nine, and still plan to, don't read this.) During the series, Odo also finds true love with the space station's second-in-command, Major Kira. Although their relationship has a lot of bumps, they both discover something about love: they cherish, but don't need to possess each other. In the last moments of the final episode, Odo makes the decision to sacrifice his happiness with Kira to save his species (although they caused a war and don't seem to deserve his help) by fully entering the Link, possibly forever. (It looks like he's swimming out into a lake.) She understands and accepts his choice. That is love.

"Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God’s equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high, and has given him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus “every knee shall bow”, whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end, “every tongue shall confess” that Jesus Christ” is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Philippians 2:5-11, J.B. Phillips New Testament

From the archives: What violence kills

From a post in November 2015

I read an interesting blog post recently: Simone Weil and Homer, by David Beardsley, on the Circe Institute blog. This is the part that struck me:

"By not making the clear connection to the one war, however, she made a clear connection to all War; to the eternal process that is inevitable when one country, one sect, one person, seeks domination.

"She also describes those moments of love that do break through the 'monotonous desolation:' hospitable, filial, brotherly, conjugal, even the friendship that can occur between mortal enemies such as Achilles and Priam.  'These moments of grace,' she says, 'are rare in the Iliad, but they are enough to make us feel with sharp regret what it is that violence has killed and will kill again.'”

Quote for the day: Why not to fight at Christmas dinner

"What can we give Him this Christmas?  I think one thing in our lives that would bring Him great joy was to bring peace into the fellowships in which we find ourselves...Not everyday, mind you.  For God does call us at times to stand our ground and to be His salt and light to the world.  There are those whom He ordains to forge Truth in a dark world.  But during these days ahead, when families are surrounding the dinner table, we can give Him the gift of bringing peace to the Season." ~~ Brenda at Coffee, Tea, Books, and Me, "Sunday Afternoon Tea - Silent Night"

A Homeschooling Valentine

Illustration by Joan Walsh Anglund, from Love is the Best Teacher.

Quote for the day: how to love a person

"For when you come to think of it, the only way to love a person is not...to coddle them and bring them soup when they are sick, but by listening to them and seeing and believing in the god, in the poet, in them. For by doing this, you keep the god and the poet alive and make it flourish." ~~ Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

(Christians might prefer to say "the image of God in them," but you get her point.)

It's Advent Not Christmas: C.S. Lewis on Gift-love (Day Four)

"But Divine Gift-love — Love Himself working in a man — is wholly disinterested and desires what is simply best for the beloved. 

Again, natural Gift-love is always directed 

to objects which the lover finds in some way intrinsically lovable — objects to which Affection or Eros or a shared point of view attracts him, 

or, failing that, 

to the grateful and the deserving, 

or perhaps 

to those whose helplessness is of a winning and appealing kind. 

But Divine Gift-love in the man enables him to love what is not naturally lovable; 

lepers, 
criminals,
enemies, 
morons,
the sulky, 
the superior, 
and the sneering. 

Finally, by a high paradox, God enables men to have a Gift-love towards Himself. There is of course a sense in which no one can give to God anything which is not already His; and if it is already His, what have you given? 

But since it is only too obvious that we can withhold ourselves, our wills and hearts, from God, 

we can in that sense, also give them. 

What is His by right and would not exist for a moment if it ceased to be His (as the song is the singer's), He has nevertheless made ours in such a way that we can freely offer it back to Him."

~~C.S. Lewis, "Charity," The Four Loves.  Line-breaks mine.

Quote for a Sunday

"There is of course a sense in which no one can give to God anything which is not already His, and if it is already His, what have you given?  But since it is only too obvious that we can withhold ourselves, our wills and hearts, from God, we can, in that sense, also give them."  ~~ C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Countdown to School: Pedagogical Passion, Part Three (updated with a Circe link)

Part One is here.
Part Two is here.

It's (less than) one week till school starts, and I'm still thinking about passion.  And perfectionism.  ("I do too eat breakfast," Dollygirl huffs.  'I just eat it later.")  One of the big controversies on Ontario news radio this week is a proposal that all public-school students should be measured and assessed for obesity, using the Body Mass Index.  "I've noticed," says Mr. Fixit, "that when our doctor uses the BMI, she looks mostly at the measurements chart.  Not at me."

Proponents of standardized tests (educational as well as physical) might want to chew on that one.

I'm thinking about something Dr. Fried wrote about in The Passionate Learner (see Part Two), about sometimes being satisfied with a "good enough" framework for learning.  Not that there isn't room for improvement, but just because you can't make everything or everybody perfect in every way doesn't mean that you've failed.  (Everybody goes through that. Ann Voskamp wrote a bestseller, but she's still feeling like a failure because her vegetable garden went belly-up.)  Classroom teachers are human beings. Homeschooling parents are human beings. Students, public-schooled or homeschooled, are human beings. We don't love them or respect our kids any less because they don't always say yippee about math lessons, or get all excited over a book that their forty-something mom thinks is wonderful, because they didn't click with a particular teacher or do as well as they thought they should have in a course.  But sometimes we're so worried about getting it all right that we don't notice the things that are already...all right.

What are my goals for lighting a little fire for Dollygirl this year (not just filling the pail)?  If it's not about dumping the curriculum, then how can I give her a bit more responsibility for getting from "beginner" or "don't care" in some aspects of learning to "pretty good" or "expert" or at least "I am starting to get interested in this?"  For instance, if I'm not thrilled about the fact that she doesn't voluntarily read a wider variety of books on her own, maybe it's time to ask her to make that a part of her school year.  It's not about nagging or criticizing...but it could be her personal goal as well as something I think she should be doing.

If I take some of what we're doing in Ambleside Online's Year 7, along with the Grade 7 objectives given in Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year and even the Typical Course of Study lists that I used to map out language and math...and adding some "check where you are" levels suggested by Dr. Fried in The Passionate Learner (which appears to be out of stock on Amazon--how annoying)...I might come up with goals like this.  These are NOT, by any means, perfect or complete.  Just thought I'd warn you.

READING, WRITING, SPEAKING, LISTENING

• I read different kinds of fiction and nonfiction materials (including novels, short stories, plays, newspaper articles), both during school and on my own time. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I am getting to know some classic books I haven’t read before. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I read and enjoy different kinds of poetry, and I have memorized several poems that I like. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I listen to and participate in discussions, dramatic presentations, storytelling sessions, and oral reports. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know how to get information I need from books and online sources. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• When I get an unfamiliar book, I know how to look through it quickly to see what it’s about or if it has the information I’m looking for. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know how to find prepositions, mark off prepositional phrases, and show the other parts of a sentence. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I write often and produce a variety of types of writing such as descriptions, reports, journals, blog posts, stories, poems, and letters. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I write about people and things I care about. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I write about ideas and feelings that are important to me. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can edit and revise my own work (checking for spelling and grammar problems). ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I understand more spoken French than I used to. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert

SOCIAL STUDIES (CHRISTIAN STUDIES, CITIZENSHIP, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY)

• I know the major events in the Book of Acts, and can follow Paul’s journeys on a map. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know when and what the Dark Ages were.  ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know about the importance of religion and especially the Christian Church in the Middle Ages. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can describe life in the feudal society of the Middle Ages. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can relate my own life situation and choices to the challenges of living in the Middle Ages. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know a lot about the geography of Western Europe and England, including countries, cities, rivers, lakes and mountain ranges. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know what money is and how it works. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert

SCIENCE AND NATURAL HISTORY

• I know what science is, what it can and can’t do. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can outline the high points of scientific history. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can use the scientific method to carry out experiments, and write lab reports to explain my findings. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know about the theory of evolution, and the reasons many Christians dispute the evidence for that theory. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know the basic ideas of geology, rocks, soil and minerals. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know how various organisms (life forms) use food for growth and energy.  ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know how typical plant and animal cells are put together, and what they do. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can talk about atoms, molecules, and the periodic table of elements. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can describe some chemical changes.  ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I know many local birds, insects, trees, and other plants. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can explain environmental problems in my neighbourhood. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I help my family and my community improve our environment. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert

MATHEMATICS

• I know about prime and composite numbers. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can use the order of operations (BEDMAS).  ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can solve problems involving exponents. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can solve problems involving percents and decimals. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can add, subtract, multiply and divide with both positive and negative numbers. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can use ratios and proportions to solve mathematical and real-world problems. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can use estimation skills to solve different kinds of problems. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can collect, organize and interpret data using a range of methods (graphs, tables, charts). ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can figure out how to approach a math problem, and what strategies and tools to use in solving it. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can choose and use appropriate measures of length, area, volume, capacity, weight/mass/time, and temperature. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND FINE ARTS

• I am working on improving my personal fitness level by participating in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I am familiar with the elements of good nutrition and personal hygiene. (I know what I should eat and how to take care of my body.) ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I listen to a range of musical pieces by well-known composers, and to multicultural musical selections. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert
• I can compare and contrast the different purposes of art and the ways in which various artists communicate their message. ¨ Beginner ¨ Sometimes ¨ Pretty Good ¨ Expert

I heard a sermon last Sunday, a typical 2013 message aimed at younger people, and at older Christians who are burned out on "church" and church vocabulary.  What does God want us to do?, asked the preacher.  Not "worship," at least, not in a ritualistic, formulaic way (I remember the prophets had a bit of an issue with that as well).  Not "serve," at least not if it's only out of fear.  The right answer was "love."  It reminded me of Micah 6:8, "do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with your God.".

And in the end...Dr. Fried talks about relationships.  Charlotte Mason talks about relationships.  This homeschooling and teaching deal is about relationships. It's not about the charts, and the check-offs, and the educational BMI's.  It's about loving our children, as they are, and letting them know that, first and overall.  When that's firm--then we do math.

Have a great school year.

(This is the end of the "Countdown" series.  We need some real-life time to get ready for EVERYBODY'S school next week.)

Update:  this link to a Circe blog post was just passed along by an Amblesider.  Hop on over and enjoy.