Change Is In The Air

Although I have enjoyed my current job for the most part, teaching ESL,I'm ready for a change and so I've got a new job! I'll be working with kids and philanthropy programs and I am excited!  I went to a  murder mystery dinner theater to celebrate, who knew Denver had one of those?!  It was a blast, except for the hokey conga line.  In fact, if you look up hokey in the dictionary, you'll see conga line right after pokey.  But the acting was fun, the rest of the audience participation was a hoot, and the food was delicious. 
I start my new job in two weeks and I am so excited.  Things that would have stressed me out last week, didn't phase me today.  I started to feel my blood pressure boil, and then remembered: they're only my issues for two more weeks.  Then I get a whole new batch of issues, and I am ready for them!


Some things I learned this week - for my Bucket List - Eisa in Arabic means Jesus, and there is an Arabic surname, Aleisa.
Torpedos were first used during the civil war, Denver has a fun mystery dinner theater, and the word 'sass' used to refer to root vegetables.   Sassafrass makes more sense now.

Atlas Shrugged

One of my favorite books, and probably the most influential in my life, has been made into a movie which I saw last night.  Although Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 had no marketing budget, the theater was filled to the front row on opening night - tax day of all days.  If the movie were just for me, then I'd give it a thumbs up.  The cinematography was great, the music was very nice, the acting was pretty good.  And of course I love the story, and I do buy the philosophy.  But I had bigger hopes for this movie, hopes that this would spread the sense of Rand's philosophy to a public that isn't interested in reading a book that's more than 1,000 pages long, in very small print. Unfortunately, the movie seemed to be made more for the current followers of Rand, assuming they've all read the book, and not so much to reach any new people.  The book is a story as well as a vehicle for the philosophy.  I was hoping the movie would be more of the story, and let the actions (philosophy) speak for itself without any monologues or stilted proverbs.  The movie was pretty much preaching to the choir, and I don't think it will change any minds on the other side.  I do hope it will stir debate in the blogging world, and even further.

It was very good to see the silent other side present and accounted for, and to hear the applause at the end of the movie from everyone, that this movie and story does represent principles and a kind of integrity that is not dead or even dormant, just not represented in the media.

Here is a poem I wrote back in high school, inspired by the book.

The Hero 

When the last light falls

and falls to dark,                                                                                                        

that’s when we will begin

we the few who love our lives

will fight and we will win.

A single man faced the wall,

more gathered close behind.

They were here to take his life,

or rather, take his mind.

“You know the truth” a short man said,

“you know we want what’s best,

we need your mind to make it work –

and then we’ll let you rest.”

The single man said nothing

but “this life and mind are mine.”

The men shouted “It’s your duty!

you can’t just leave us all behind!”

The man with the mind gave them a smile,

then turned and looked away.

The men began to scream and shout

“don’t you care what the people say?

“We told them we would save them,

we told them we had you,

and you would bring us all to safety,

there is no more we can do!”

“You have to!” they all chanted,

“think of your fellow man!

Just sacrifice your mind to us

and we can finish our plan.”

The man with the mind just smiled,

and induced a state of fear

among the men who shivered,

and cried when made to hear:

“When the last light falls

and falls to dark,

that’s when we will begin,

we the few who love our lives

will fight and we will win.”

KEH

Things I've learned this week: How the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, that walruses look white in the water because they're conserving heat and all there blood is at their core, while they look pink on land because the capillaries in their skin dilate; the ukelele is actually a Portuguese instrument called a machete, and became a ukelele when the british officer nicknamed ukelele ( Hawaiian for 'jumping flea') made it popular,  peaches are native to China, and I can be happy for someone else, even in the face of my own big disappointment.

More Girl Power

Last week I finished reading Half The Sky by Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn.  It had more stories on abuse of women in the sex trade, but also abuses of women's basic human rights around the world.  Sound depressing?  It would have been very if that were all the book was about.  Instead, it reports on the abuses, and then acts on a kind of philanthropic how-to guide to best practices.  Besides a list of organizations in the back of the book, it gives a rundown of different policies or organizations that tried and failed and why- not because the situation is hopeless, but that the approach was inappropriate or ineffective.  Half the Sky is well written and inspirational, and is on my list of must-reads.

As for my daily learning tidbits, here are some highlights: the Oscar statuette got his name his very first year from the librarian at the academy, saying the thing looked like her Uncle Oscar, a fruit farmer and wheat farmer in Texas.
The word Halibut comes from the old English word for flat fish - butte - and holy, put together.
And I learned too late that chevre is, unfortunately, a kind of goat cheese.  Here's to trying new things!
 

Check, and Check!

Since my last post on my bucket list, I have been adding to and working on checking things off.  Last week I checked off sending a 'thinking of you' letter to someone 'just cause'.  I need to do that more often because it had a very positive effect.  (That can go hand in hand with 'using all the stationary I own'.)  By the end of April, I should be able to check off another one which is to learn something new every day for a month.  So far, on April 1 I learned that in the US, there was a direct correlation in the drop of maternal mortality and infant deaths with the introduction of women's right to vote.  Girl Power!

On April 2nd, I learned that the word 'boondoggle' was first used in 1930 by a boy scout leader, and later used by opponents to the New Deal to describe some projects as money-wasting and unproductive.
On April 3rd, I learned that it was Chairman Mao (of all people) that curbed a lot of the abuses against women in Chinese culture with the onset of Communism and said that women "held up half the sky."  Quite the enlightened crack-pot.

As an aside, yesterday I picked up a book called 'Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused', a collection of modern Chinese fiction.  Just the title amuses me, I hope the writing does as well.
In the vein of spring cleaning, renewal, new ideas, motivation and such, here is a little poem I wrote yesterday after our 84 degree weather.

The first spring day
I absorbed the sun,
now I itch all over.

KEH