WORD TO THE WISE: Sage Advice from the Class of 2021 to a NEW Generation!

 

Well, it is hard to believe, but we have closed yet another year at Odyssey.  After a rollercoaster ride of a year, the Class of 2021 managed to finish their senior year sitting for DP exams, returning to an in-person option to be with their friends, and yes, they even were able to attend a very fancy Masquerade Ball themed Prom!  As they are gearing up right now for a traditional graduation ceremony, we are getting prepared for summer assessments, and a new year of DP Literature and Language analysis!

This is a surreal goodbye for me.  Honestly? It is the last class to have one of my own children as part of the mix.  Next year, there will be no more "Caraway" kids on campus.  But it is also a tough goodbye because we have been through so many ups and downs through a difficult ending of their junior year and the beginning of their senior year.  While it managed to come together in the end, it has been a bumpy ride to get us all there, and it has certainly managed to bring this class closer together. They have, no doubt, learned a great deal over these past four-plus years; not just academically, mind you, but also in the realms of life skills and cultivating and nurturing relationships, through all the trials and tribulations.

Class of 2021, it is for this reason that great reflection is in order; a reflection that can help our next generation of upperclassmen--juniors and seniors--as they navigate through unfamiliar and uncertain waters and build upon their knowledge as IB scholars.  Please know I will ALWAYS and FOREVER be in your corner, cheering you on, through all of life's challenges and celebrations!  LOTS of love, gratitude, prayer, and pride to YOU from me!

So, IB Language and Literature Students of now and tomorrow, here it is, advice from your seniors to you:  those who have successfully reached the summit of IB Language and Literature in the DP program will give you pieces of the map and a compass to guide YOU on your journey.  They have officially and successfully finished both years of study against some pretty crazy challenges and odds, so really take their words to heart!  And to you seniors who are quoted here, please know that I have learned just as much, if not more, from working with you as you did in this classroom, and I will miss your intensity and determination through all the seasons.  This advice is quite meaningful in light of the experience, and so...

Buckle up, here we go!

Be engaged in class and show that you are paying attention. Mrs.

Caraway is cool, and she'll work with you if you work with her!

Try not to overthink your assignments and follow the given deadlines. It honestly makes it soo much easier to write your final if you’ve kept up on all the little steps along the way.

The level of effort you put in is the grade you’ll get! -Alyssa Ludlow & Isaiah Flores

Nobody is thinking about you like you think they do. ASK the questions you need; there are NO dumb questions! Paying attention to the in-class discussions with Mrs. Caraway will help you understand not only what is going on in the book, but also help give you information for your lit trackers.

SHE KNOWS. When you come to class unprepared, she can tell. She has been doing this for a REALLY long time!

DO THE BLOG. They will sneak up on you and they are honestly an easy grade bump!

Keep track/organized with your past notes. Every assignment relates to one in the future, so make sure to keep tabs on your previous units!

LIT TRACKER NOT LIT AFTER! You will have a straight anxiety attack if you wait until the last minute to finish these! Get a good team together and get it done WELL!

ENJOY THE TIME YOU HAVE. There are a lot of fun projects and things we get to do in class together. Take this time to enjoy them. It goes by too fast. - Rachel Dionne

Put thought and effort into all your assignments because, in the end, it will benefit you.

Be engaged with every book you're reading in class as well as class discussions because you can always learn something new. - Ciara Thompson, Ishan Perera, Eben Townes.

When being introduced into the DP Program, you'll find Mrs. Caraway's Language and Literature class incorporates a different style of work. With all the pieces of literature we read, there is an assigned lit tracker that is due at the end of the book. I would strongly recommend completing them as you go not only to prevent procrastination but to generally format your essay in the end. With a completed lit tracker, you basically have your essay written with the quotes and analysis.

Throughout my two-year course in Mrs. Caraway's class, I have come to learn how important it is to gain perspective. This perspective can be gained through the different units and contexts that unite both literature and your personal life. By first gaining your own perspective and opinion on a certain topic, your overall appreciation for this class will grow immensely. I have found that when I really dedicate myself to the literature and material that I am learning, I am able to become more open-minded and perform better in the class.  

When you first start the DP Language and Literature Program, become familiar with your end goal. Familiarize yourself with what exactly you will be tested on; recognize the differences between paper 1, paper 2, and look deeply into what the IO consists of. When you know your end goal, you know what you are working towards and how exactly each piece throughout the program fits into your path.

Future juniors and seniors, I plead with you to come to this class with an open-minded attitude and willingness to gain a new perspective as you dive deeply into the reasons and impacts behind the literature. -Paige Thelin, Zack Wright, Sara Swanson, Martin Ramirez

Keep up with the reading assignments. It will help you with your assessments and your DP exam. However, if you have trouble reading quickly, find an audiobook and listen along as you annotate the novel.

Maintain a balanced lifestyle with school and your personal life!

Check the language arts website!!

Do rough drafts/outlines on time (you WANT the feedback!) - Lauren Peterson, Max Oransky, Terry Grabau, Noah Caraway

Stay Organized!

Practice for the IO; don't stress about it! - Joelle Zipp, Fiona Cassidy, Hanna Dixon, Kiyah Bell

Any IO resources make sure to keep them and do not put off the IO preparations! - Clare Lanzotti & Ashley Mills

For every book that you read, make sure to keep detailed ANNOTATIONS and mark quotes so you don’t have to go back through.

I HIGHLY recommend actually buying the physical books, versus online! It’s so much easier to follow along, and remember valuable quotes if you have the book in your hand.

Keep all your documents such as your past essays, practice paper 1’s, group analysis. One good place to keep this is in Padlet! You can upload your documents and they will always stay there!

Tell Mrs. Caraway as soon as possible if you need help or if you are scared of anything. (Like phobias). - Brooke Barbee, Haley Larkin, Melissa Sanchez, Yovi McCombs-Zepeda

Always ask for feedback. Getting feedback is usually uncomfortable but we only grow when we are not comfortable! Not settling for "good enough" and continuing to seek out excellence is impossible without asking for help. Going above and beyond for your learning is never something you'll regret.

Don't settle for "I don't know." Always critically evaluate and digest everything in class! Especially in L & L,. This will help you to write better essays, have more compelling discussions, and enrich you as a learner.

Seek out a full understanding of IB. IB operates within a very specific philosophy of teaching so to be successful, you need to understand this philosophy. Make sure to get the syllabi for each of your classes and formulate a study plan for the tests ahead of time so you are prepared come May of your senior year. - Claire Barragan-Bates, Noah Moore, Reese Padgett, Hunter Hershberger

This class is low risk with a high reward. If you are willing to retain the knowledge given, you will, without a doubt, become a better writer and reader than when you joined this class. - Talon Roberts

Don't be afraid to reach out to your teachers.

You'll regret the things that you don't do more than the things you do. 

If you plan to go on a trip, or miss class for ANY reason, talk to her first!!! (AKA: Tell her when Senior Ditch Day is!!)- Matthew Kenison, Hamza Aziz, Andrew Dixon, Kiana Charette

Always show up!!!!!

Stay attentive. The most regretful thing you could do is not to pay attention in class. Year 2 is incredibly fun and interesting. The topics that we talk about are things you bring home and talk about with anyone that just so happens to be next to you. So, do take my advice and pay attention.

The biggest takeaway from this class that I would put onto future students is to soak in every bit of information Mrs. Caraway throws at you, whether you think it's necessary or not. Her class isn't easy, but it is definitely worth all the hard work! I have noticed that I have become a much better writer than I was before coming into her class because I took in every piece of feedback I received from her and put it into the next essay that I wrote. If you take the time to listen to her advice and use it in your writing in the future, you will be a better writer at the end of the two-year program!

Okay, now it's time to reflect and respond!

Future Year 2 scholars: What piece of advice above really resonates with you? What advice or words of reflection would you like to add?

Year 1 Scholars: Welcome! What words of advice do you find most helpful or interesting? What do you see as your greatest source of anxiety and/or excitement? Why are you here, and what are you hoping to accomplish this year?

THE KILL ZONE: Why do (should) authors allow the good to die? (SENIORS ONLY)

 

We have come to the end of A Thousand Splendid Suns.  As a reader, once again, I am somewhat traumatized.  Yes, it's true.  I am traumatized along with the rest of you, only this will be my 7th time reading through this book, and the seventh time I have been plagued by this trauma.

I am pretty sure that makes me a literary masochist.

I am pleased to say that time has healed me to the point that I won't feel the need to carry the book around with me like a security blanket for the next month, but still, I will, as Markus Zusak writes, be forever "Haunted by humans."  That is just the reader in me.

The writer in me smiles through the tears.  I nod in agreement with and in awed respect for Khaled Hosseini, and while this story breaks my heart into hundreds of pieces, I get it.  I understand.  

I would have done the same thing.

Now, please don't throw orange peels at me through your screens.  You are, as always, free to disagree, but I must return to a quote by James Scott Bell, a mystery/thriller writer, who said this:  "Every story is a resurrection story.  Every single one."

The question is, how does this resurrection come about?  How is the mystery of great truth revealed and internalized?  How is it that our characters who seem, at times, doomed, find salvation?  Often, sadly, the answer is through sacrifice.

Novels, film, & theater all offer stories that are all about redemption.  If we are honest with ourselves, that is what the story of life is all about.  We all are broken by the world.  But within us is something pretty amazing:  the tenacity of the human spirit.  It keeps us hoping...it gives us the faith that no matter what happens, no matter what the chaos of life throws at us, no matter how badly we might fail at handling these challenges, there will always be the chance of redemption.

As I am writing my second novel, I am having to make some hard choices about what to do with some of my beloved, messy, beautifully flawed characters. What makes sense?  What rings true?  What needs to happen so that my reader can find that golden message that we must face the logical consequences of our choices and behaviors?  These logical consequences are tough.  They are cruel. They are hard.  But through the tears and punctured hearts, (and often ONLY through them) we can discover that there is ALWAYS (I repeat, ALWAYS) the hope and promise of restoration...of truth, of honor, of love, and of wisdom.

With the death of one, comes the renewed understanding and strengthening of another.

It is the angst that is writing.

It is the raw beauty and brutality of life.

It is what will continue to keep us...

Haunted by humans.

Enjoy this article that explains the reasoning behind "killing the good characters."  Please read it with an open mind and understanding that it is relating to fiction writing.  

Please comment and give me your thoughts. What points did you find most true for YOU?

http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/2013/03/killing-off-good-characters.html

HUMOR, HOMAGE, AND HUMILIATION: Explaining and Differentiating Between Literary Intentions (JUNIORS ONLY)

 Ever since Alanis Morissette released her song "Ironic," people have started buzzing about the true

meaning of certain literary terms and whether or not they are truly being used properly in context.
Irony confuses, and like the two p's and satire, which will be addressed momentarily, it depends somewhat on the intention of the writer or speaker.

Irony requires an opposing meaning between what's said and what's intended.  Stop.  Think about that for a long moment.  Even the definition is somewhat head-scratching, so if you often find yourself confused by irony, you're in excellent company.  One of the confounding factors of irony isn't just that its definition is a bit, well, complex, but also the sheer number of possibilities for correct usage.  It's bad enough that irony is hard to grasp but now add to that fact that there are, in fact, a multitude of definitions for different forms of irony, including verbal, dramatic, and cosmic. The sheer plethora of ways ironic can be used meaningfully suggests that is something of a "catch-all" for a situation that seems odd, upsetting or amusing.  Enter Ms. Morissette...

If it rains on your wedding day, that may be seen as a coincidence, but not irony.  However, if you moved your wedding to an indoor venue because the forecast predicted rain, but the day turned out to be sunny, and then the sprinkler system at your venue malfunctioned and doused the ceremony with water, so you all get wet, after all, THAT'S ironic.  If you win the lottery and drop dead before claiming the money, that is simply good luck followed by bad luck.  If you meet the man of your dreams and then meet his beautiful wife, that's just a bummer.  But if, then, a song called "Ironic" contains no irony, is that in and of itself ironic?  Nope...not really.  It may just be an example of ignorance.  It depends on the creator's intent.  So if Alanis purposely wrote a song about irony with no ironic content at all, is THAT ironic?  We are getting closer...

Here are six ways to look at Irony.  The first three are the ones we study and must understand clearly:

1.  VERBAL IRONY:  when a speaker or writer is intentionally using words that literally convey the opposite of their true beliefs, generally for the purpose of "cosmic" emphasis (sarcasm).  In fact, there is a strong overlap between sarcasm and comic irony.  Example:  Saying "Oh, that's just fantastic," when the situation is really poor.  OR Dimmesdale's sermons about how sinful he is, and how he deserves disgust resulting in the congregation loving him and following him even more.

2.  SITUATIONAL IRONY:  A sharp divergence between expectations or perceptions and reality.  Expectations, of course, often differ from results, but to rise to the state of irony, the gulf between them should be vast and the contrast sharp.  (See the wedding example above with Ms. Morissette's song breakdown).

3.  DRAMATIC IRONY:  Perhaps the easiest to understand as its use is so specialized.  The device in which the reader or audience is tipped off to a crucial fact still unknown to one or more of the characters.  Example:  The audience and friar know that Juliet isn't really dead, but Romeo doesn't.

*4.  COSMIC IRONY:  Not very often used.  It denotes the idea that the fates are against us, if not indifferent to us, and that our struggles are the result of higher forces amusing themselves at our expense.  Example:  The owner declared of the Titanic, "God, Himself, cannot sink this ship."  Well, you can infer the rest.

*5.  HISTORICAL IRONY:  Some things become ironic with time.  If the passage of years creates an amusing juxtaposition between a historical event or claim and what has happened since to contradict it.  Example:  Isn't it ironic that the inventor of the machine gun thought his new weapon would end all war?"  Answer:  YES! It is, in fact, historically ironic. :)

*6.  SOCRATIC IRONY:  The pretense of ignorance used to draw an opponent into slipping up or revealing flaws in their argument.  Example:  She used socratic questioning in order to enable him to realize the holes in his emphatic argument.

How's that for confusing?  If that isn't enough, irony is only one way to bring in humor or thought-provoking elements in literature.  There are also parody, pastiche, and satire....Buckle up, here we go!

PARODY:  An imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialize an original work, its subject author, style or some other target, by means of imitation. Example:  The movie "Airplane" is a parody of 1970's disaster movies.  Example #2: Most everything created by Weird Al Yankovic.

PASTICHE:  A work of visual art, literature, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists.  Unlike parody, the intention of pastiche is to celebrate rather than mock. Example:  Many modern artists seek to produce works of impressionism in homage to Renoir and Monet, who are very much beloved.

SATIRE:  A genre of literature and art in which the vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, corporations or society, itself, into improvement.  Although funny, its intention is to shame or offer constructive social criticism.  Examples:  The Daily Show, most political cartoons

Just for fun, the definition of cynicism, or cynical, is an inclination to believe that people are motivated purely by self-interest.  It is a form of skepticism that often leads to the production of satire.

There you have it!  Here's to understanding the various ways authors, speakers, poets and artists humor us, pay homage to us, and humiliate us in all sorts of creative and confounding ways!

I have attached the Morissette song for you to evaluate, armed with your new knowledge of irony.  I have also attached two very funny little videos for your enjoyment from parody artist and comedian, Tim Hawkins.  Reply with the following:

1.  Did you find any examples of true irony in the Morissette song?  Give me an example of irony in something you have heard or read.  What type of irony is it?  Why?


2. What are each of the funny little videos an example of and why?

3.  Which of the previous definitions confused you the most?  What literary device do you find most confusing?

Alanis Morissette:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc
Tim Hawkins Video #1:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5R8gSgedh4
Tim Hawkins Video #2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO2eh6f5Go0

LES ÉTOILES DANS LES YEUX: How a Woman of No Importance Never Gave Up on Freedom

 In 1942, the Gestapo put forth an urgent transmission through their ranks: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." 

 The "dangerous woman" they were hunting was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who had managed to talk her way into Special Operations Executive, or SOE; Winston Churchill's own spy organization dubbed the "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." Virginia, who operated under a slew of code names, including Marie Monin, Diane (after the Roman goddess of the hunt), and finally, "La Madone" served in two mission tours and eventually led an army of Maquis in the Plateau over Chambon Sur Lignon affectionately named "Diane's Irregulars."  Virginia Hall is a legend on that Haute-Loire plateau even to this day.

But Virginia was more than just a female spy with a "very particular set of skills." 

She was the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines,

and despite her prosthetic leg, helped to light and fan the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Her pioneering work setting up circuits in France inspires much that goes on even today in the Special Forces. The CIA acknowledged that the Jawbreaker team it sent into Afghanistan before and after 9/11 in 2001 was a direct descendant of her secret operations with the French Resistance in WWII. 

Valor truly does come in many forms, but it rarely reaps the dividends that it should. Maybe that is part of its very definition--that quality that makes it so noble. So often, men and women of valor are the most humble and unassuming of them all. Still, as I read Virginia's story, I was shocked and angered by the discrimination she faced, even after her incredible almost superhuman accomplishments in France. Although she earned the distinction of being one of the first female agents in the CIA, newly formed after the war, Virginia was still routinely looked over, passed over, and underestimated. She, herself, even had more combat experience than the first three directors of the CIA. And yet, despite her notable successes and savvy in the field, Virginia was sidelined--shunted into the backwater accounts--probably because she had so much experience, that she overshadowed her jealous male colleagues who felt threatened by her. One of her fellow agents and supporters angrily observed that "her experience and abilities were never properly utilized, never mind recognized." 

Virginia Hall had initially set her sights on becoming a diplomat in the 1930s, but her own country repeatedly turned her down before she reached out to SOE and became the legendary "limping lady" that the Nazis viciously hunted for almost four years, but never managed to catch. President Roosevelt, himself, ironically (and hypocritically) snubbed her for advancement because of her handicap--her prosthetic leg--which was later to receive its own code name in the field: "Cuthbert." But, as so often happens as society has time to reflect, a new curiosity was triggered after her death in 1982.  The Washington Post described Virginia as a "Baltimore schoolgirl who became a hero of the French Resistance, while The New York Times called her "one of the most effective and reliable agents of the Second World War."

But, according to Virginia's biographer, Sonia Purnell, what the Times and others could not say--and could not have known--was "just how a woman of no hope, no prospects,

and apparently, no importance had risen to such heights; how, in concealing her identity from others, she had at last found who she really was and what she really could do. Furthermore, how, in fighting for the liberty of another nation, she found freedom for herself" (Purnell, 308). 

While her own country may have not dedicated any time to pomp and circumstance to honor her legacy at the time of her death, four thousand miles away in France, "Diane's' Irregulars" convened to share their devastation at the news and marvel on her great legacy. Indeed, "the warrior they called La Madone had shown them hope, comradeship, courage, and the way to be the best version of themselves," (308) and that would never be forgotten. When they talked of, shared, and remembered her with awe and affection for her incredible exploits, they smiled and looked up at the wide, open skies with "les étoiles dans les yeux." 

Despite all the adversity, discrimination, and lack of gratitude and appreciation Virginia Hall ultimately faced, fought, and encountered, she remains a beacon of light to those who served with and alongside her. Since I have read her story, she has become that inspiration to me, as well: the "woman in khaki who never, ever gave up on freedom." Those who know me best understand that is a fire in my heart, as well. 

I realize that in these strange and challenging times and, indeed, at this time of year, we are all busy and fighting for the time to just complete a thought, much less read a book for pure enjoyment or personal growth. But, still, I encourage you as your English teacher and fellow sufferer of the high expectations of the IB Diploma Program, to carve out some time to read or listen to the biographies of those who conquered adversity--who, against all odds, found a way to be a light for others. Theirs are so often tales of thanklessness, lacking the glory they may richly deserve, but I would argue this is so much a part of their appeal. It is what makes them true and dauntless heroes in a world so desperate for them.

What are some things you face now that you feel stand in your way of achieving your dreams? What shadows of doubt are cast over you that may, at times, make you see yourself as a person of "no hope, no prospects, and/or no importance?" How can you, like Virginia Hall, find a way to climb over and past them? I feel like if she were here with us now, she would tell you, "Never give up. Limp, if you have to, but keep moving ever forward." When the Nazis closed in on her during her first mission to France, and she needed to find escape at the very last minute, Virgnia had to cross the Pyrenees Mountains into Spain, hiking a distance of 35 miles, up 9,000 feet in altitude in November snow that was often three feet deep. She did this with a prosthetic leg. When she finally made her way down into freedom on the other side, her stump was bloodied and blistered and "Cuthbert" was badly damaged and in need of extensive repairs. But you know what? She made it. Freedom was her cause. It was her fire. It was her passion. It was the driving force inside her spirit that kept her going "in spite of" and "no matter what." It would seem that neither the Nazis nor Nature, herself, were any match for this woman of no importance -- this woman determined to succeed. 

 In your comment below, feel free to name and call out your fears and stumbling blocks. Then, describe how you have or will face and conquer them to achieve the passion of your heart. Perhaps, like Virginia, you will inspire others in some way to do the same, with "les étoiles dans les yeux." 

 Always. 

PS: Currently, there is a film out that in part details Virginia Hall's story.  It is FANTASTIC!  It is called A Call to Spy.  Here is the link to watch the trailer: A Call to Spy Trailer 

Currently, a film called A Woman of No Importance is in filming, featuring Daisy Ridley in the role of Virginia Hall. Keep your eyes out!  Here is a link to more information: A Woman of No Importance film

I SIMPLY REMEMBER MY FAVORITE THINGS...

 Once again, Christmas is in the air, hopefully bringing us warm memories of time well spent with those we love.  Better than the presents we give and receive is the presence we offer with our friends and family--time spent truly savoring each others' company, setting aside all the daily stresses and responsibilities, if only for a little while.  Taking time to stop and look at all of the beauty around us, to engage in deep conversation, to get out and enjoy the beauty of nature here in the desert; now, perhaps more than ever, these are all good ways to refocus, set new goals for the upcoming year, and empower ourselves to pursue our dreams.  Another way is to stop and consider all the things we love, those things that make us smile --things for which we are so grateful...and then, put pen to paper.

Christmas is the best time to do this, for sure, but it is important, as our dear friend Charles Dickens suggests, to "keep Christmas alive and well in our hearts, all the year through."  As we prepare to say goodbye to 2020, a year most of us are THRILLED to put behind us, to be sure! I am, once again, renewing the "My Favorite Things" post: an annual activity to make a list of the things that each of us holds most dear--those things we love and cherish in this life.

So, to review for those who have done this before, and to introduce to those who are new to the blog this year, here are the rules for the annual Favorite Things post:  Make a list of your 25 most favorite THINGS.  The key word is THINGS.  No people allowed on your list!  That removes the pressure you may feel to name every family member and friend.  People and things should never be categorized together.  People come first.  This list is much more light-hearted!

This was REALLY tougher than I thought to narrow it down to 25 for me (initially, I was afraid I would draw a blank!) but here is what came to mind first for me.  Try to just take pen to paper and write what comes to your mind first.  These will probably be the most honest.  :)

Let's begin this beautiful Christmas Season, and ring in the New Year with a list of all the things we love...those things for which we are most grateful, shall we?

MRS. CARAWAY'S FAVORITE THINGS...(in no particular order)

1.  Cathedral bells- especially those of my favorite, Notre Dame.
2.  Listening to Christian playing Chopin on the piano
3.  London's Christmas Market
4.  Ice-skating
5.  Watching my daughter dance, and my sons play the sports they LOVE
6.  Normandy - and being in the presence of REAL heroes

   

7.  Paris at twilight.  I mean, check out the light!!  WOW!!

8.  Kauai...walking on the beach with my dearest friends = heaven!
9.  WW2 History--in movies, books, photographs.  I cannot get enough.  I am a WW 2 history NERD.
10. Handwritten letters from people you love
11. Word-smithery: writing with such passion, you lose all sense of time and space. 
12.  Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.  NO ONE loves Christmas Eve like I do...
13.  Things that sparkle (candlelight, glitter, jewels, etc)
14.  Standing on the stage at night after the last rehearsal - anticipation everywhere.
15.  The color RED
16.  Really good French wine...and French food...and everything French.

17.  Thunderstorms

18.  The sound of my children laughing out loud together
19.  A well-told story--verbal, on the page, in film and on the stage:  in all of its forms.
20.  Outrageously unique and beautiful vintage shoes
21.  Unexpected discoveries around hidden corners in my travels through Europe
22.  My faith and the mystery of GRACE.
23. PERFUME.
24.  Riding on Airplanes to new and exciting places
25.  LOVE.  The greatest of these.  ALWAYS.

Now, it's your turn... 

Make YOUR list....it cannot include people.  It must be a list of things (which may include sounds and feelings).  

May this mark an attitude of gratitude in your heart, that you may keep the joy and love of Christmas all year through!  

UNSUNG HEROES...a tribute on Veteran's Day

 

In Flander's Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard among the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
in Flander's Fields...(Major John McCrae, May 1915)

This Wednesday, November 11, 2020, America will pause to observe Veteran's Day, or as it is known across Europe, Remembrance Day.  It is one day: twenty-four hours, 1,440 minutes,  or 86,400 seconds; that we are to stop and remember those who sacrificed all for our freedom.

For most of us, Veteran's Day is a happy relief from school and work--a day to sleep in, binge watch your favorite programs, go out and play a game of tackle football with your friends, or just enjoy a BBQ in the yard and the beautiful Arizona weather we are so blessed with this time of year.  It is a day we celebrate, in our own way, our freedom to do the things we like to do or take a well-needed rest from our responsibilities.  I have always had a very deep appreciation for our Veterans as I come from a family of people who served their country with great pride.  However, I don't believe I ever truly felt the weight of what that day means until 2013 when I stood in the Globe Theater in London on Remembrance Day with my Will Power Cast of Taming of the Shrew.

Every November 11th in London, during the 11th hour of the day, everyone stops:  pedestrians, cars in traffic, people going about their business in the office or at school.  All of them stop and offer two full minutes of silence, and then the church bells chime, all throughout the city, to remember the dead.  Our tour guide at the theater that day told us this would occur, and so, in the middle of our tour, we did as Londoners do:  we stopped.  We stood silently, many of us wearing our poppy flower remembrance pins.  We waited in that silence, bowing our heads until the chimes of Westminster reminded us wistfully of the wondrous gift of our lives and our freedom.


Every time we visit London with Will Power, we visit Westminster Abbey which is located near Big Ben and Parliament. During the entire month of November, surrounding Westminster Abbey, there are small crosses decorated with red poppies with names on them.  They fill in the grass all around the large cathedral, each bearing the name of one who was lost.

In 2014, an artist was specially commissioned to create glass poppies to fill the grassy moat around the Tower of London-- one poppy for every British subject who served and gave his or her life in all of the battles since WW1.   With my Romeo and Juliet cast that year, I had the incredible honor of seeing that sight.  I have included pictures here because this is one of those times when words truly cannot capture the magnitude of such a sight.

For this blog, I wanted to take the time and honor some of the heroes--some of the lost.  I have chosen four.  They have fought in different battles and in different ways.  They are not well known or widely celebrated, but they are, most certainly, heroes who offered great sacrifice--one of them, the ultimate sacrifice.  They are but four of thousands of these such unsung heroes, and they deserve our reflection.  I hope that after you learn about them and read a little bit about their contribution to our world and our freedom, you will give them a few minutes of your time and remembrance this tumultuous month of November...

JOHN ROBERT FOX: The ultimate sacrifice

The 92nd Infantry Division (African American soldiers division) also known as the Buffalo Soldiers, was a division that fought in WW2.  First Lieutenant John R. Fox was a member of the 366th Infantry Regiment when he sacrificed his life to defeat an enemy attack and save the lives of others.  In December of 1944, Fox was a part of a small party that volunteered to stay behind in the Italian village of Sommocolonia.  American forces had been forced to withdraw after that village had been overrun by the Germans.  From his position on the second floor of a house, Fox directed defensive fire.  German soldiers were attacking, and they greatly outnumbered the small handful of Americans.  Fox radioed the artillery to bring its fire closer to his position.  As the attack continued, he ordered fire directly onto his own position.  The soldier who received the message was stunned, as there was little if any chance that Fox, himself would survive the offensive strike.  When he questioned the order, Fox simply replied, "Fire it.  That's an order."  His sacrifice gained time for the US forces to organize a counterattack and retake the village.

After the war, the Italian citizens of Sommocolonia erected a monument to honor the men killed during the artillery barrage:  eight Italian soldiers and the American, Lt. Fox.  Fox was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on January 13, 1997.

NANCY GRACE AUGUSTA WAKE:  Code Name, "The White Mouse"
Nancy Wake was a British Special Operations Executive agent from Australia during the later part of WW2.  She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the ferocious French Resistance or "Army of the Shadows" that fought against Nazi occupation; she was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen.  After the fall of France in 1940, she became a courier for the French Resistance and later joined the escape network of Capt. Ian Garrow, helping Allied pilots who were shot down over enemy territory secretly escape through the Pyrenees Mountains from France into Spain, where they could be flown out to rejoin their troops.  Just three years later, Wake was on the Gestapo's most wanted list, with a five million franc bounty on her head.  On the 29th day of April in 1944, she parachuted into occupied France near Auvergne, becoming a liaison between London and the local maquis group headed by Capt.  Henri Tardivat in the Forest of Tronçais.  From April 1944 until the liberation of France, her 7,000 maquisards fought 22,000 German soldiers, causing 1,400 casualties while suffering only 100 among themselves.

Nancy's husband George was tortured to death in 1943 by the Nazi Gestapo for refusing to disclose her whereabouts.  Nancy Wake was awarded the George Medal, the US Medal of Freedom, the Médaille de la Résistance, and, three times, the Croix de Guerre.

VASILI ARKHIPOV:  The Man who Saved the World

Vice Admiral Vasili Arkhipov was a Soviet Navy officer credited with casting the only vote that prevented a Soviet nuclear strike and all out nuclear was during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Such an attack would have caused a major global thermonuclear response which could have been our WW3, destroying much of the world.  As flotilla commander and second in command of the diesel powered submarine B-59, only Arkhipov refused to authorize the captain's use of nuclear torpedoes against the United States Navy, a decision requiring the agreement of all three senior officers aboard.

Apparently, on October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of eleven US Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph located the B-59 near Cuba.  The Americans started dropping signaling depth charges, which are explosives intended to force the sub up to the surface for identification.  There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days, and those on board the Russian sub had no idea whether or not war had broken out.  The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, decided that a war had probably already started, and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.  As such a decision required the three top in command to unanimously agree, Arkhipov was the one voice that saved the US Navy and probably, the world that day.

LARRY FROST:  Vietnam War Veteran and My Friend
You have all come to know Larry Frost as the author of Conversations in the Asparagus Patch.  He is a dear friend of my family and the husband of Sherri Frost, a woman I am proud to call my best friend--literally since birth.  Sherri is the type of friend who stands with you through it all in life: the storms and the celebrations.  They are an incredible couple of great faith and grace who are truly an inspiration to me each and every day of life.

Larry is a man who has been a great leader in business and his community and a mentor to many over the years.  He has shared with us, personally, some of the most remarkable stories I have ever heard from his own war experiences as a Vietnam Veteran.  If you are not someone who believes in miracles, you most certainly would change your mind if you heard Larry's stories from Vietnam.  Larry doesn't consider himself a hero, but his wife and his friends most certainly do.  He is a man who deeply loves his country and would willingly lay down his life for another in a time of great crisis or peril.  While very humble when it comes to his own accomplishments, Larry does, however, consider those amazing young men with whom he served as heroes, and probably none more than his best friend, Shelby.

My family had the honor of finding Shelby's name on the traveling Vietnam Memorial 

Wall a few years back, and I later had the chance to find it on the real wall in Washington DC in the winter of 2019.  I want to share a poem, with Larry's permission, that he wrote for his friend Shelby with all of you.  I have included a link to that poem at the bottom for you to read.  I think you will learn that Larry has forged an eternal bond with his young friend from so many years ago, and that his very deep and strong faith has seen him through some horrifying tragedies he experienced when serving his country in the United States Army.

War is ugly.  It is a monster that steals away the best and brightest and leaves the rest haunted by misery and images too horrible to speak--too ghastly to forget.  It represents the very worst human beings can be; that ugly, selfish, hatred that seeks only to avenge, kill, take, and destroy.

But on Veteran's Day, we are not honoring the wars, themselves; we are honoring the heroes that dared to face the plague of battle so that we would not have to.  They represent the other side of human beings--the extraordinary and unbreakable spirit that longs for life, beauty, freedom, love and opportunities for happily ever afters.  I am going to quote my friend Larry Frost here to sum it up:  "Where do we get such men and women?  Only a loving God could ensure that in each generation there will be people with this level and courage and strength."  Larry also shared with me that Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, in his book On Combat once said, "If we were to go but a single generation without such men and women, we should surely be both damned and doomed."

I look forward to another November someday when I will fly across the Atlantic to London Day; to journey back and see the poppies surrounding

Westminster Abbey; to once again look out across that sea of crosses and red flowers in complete and utter awe at the brave souls that dared to stand up against the evil that threatened the freedom of their time and generation.  I am not sure when I will be blessed with that opportunity again, but I know that I will, at that moment, reflect upon the extraordinary: those who were willing to lay down their lives so that I might stand there on a day of rest and relaxation and freely express my gratitude to them.  Wherever you are on all of your November 11ths to come, I hope you will take the time out to remember and do the same.

Please watch these two videos (links below) explaining the origin of Veteran's Day and honoring American Veterans.   Then, please enjoy the amazing videos that were created on Memorial Day on Omaha Beach in France and the recent 75th Anniversary of D-Day Celebration that occurred in June, 2019.  Finally, click on the link to read Larry's tribute to his dear friend Shelby and the baby girl his friend would never meet.

In your blog response, comment on your own reflection.  I conclude this very special blog with this, one of my favorite poems.  It was brilliantly used by President Ronald Reagan as he stood where I have stood twice before with my family and scholars, on the shores of Normandy in France, honoring the men who stormed those very beaches to liberate France, and Europe in 1944:

Oh!  I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth 
Of sun-split clouds, and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence.  Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew--
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God. 
~ John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Video One:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvkrwxsLXAw

Video Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQUxu9uyyBs

Video Three, D-Day Soldier's Memory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdzWRdZgan0

Video Four, D-Day 75th Anniversary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdvfJFU7lvE

Larry's Poem for Shelby:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WANxIQgDVeliEcjTKKRFpcAVXNAaT8VQ/view?usp=sharing