My Week In Words

Love me some Mad Men quotations. Especially when they’re said by women. And why wouldn’t I cut them out and stick them in my journal with washi tape?  I’m sure Joan and Peggy would do the same thing. This week, one of my students said, “I didn’t even know about washi tape until I met you, Mrs. Feyen.” Clearly, I’m helping to pave the way as Joan  and Peggy did.

Last week there was an MFA residency on Whidbey Island (which MFA residency, you ask? Why, the only one that matters). Whidbey Island is not a city but it is one of my favorite places in the world. I was sad I couldn’t be there, so I spent some time looking at my journals from previous residencies and found this gem.  I believe that to make things up means you are creating. You are finding something out about the truth of what you’ve been given.  Note that you don’t have to be confident in your happiness, or excitement, or even joy. Jeanine is saying be confident in whatever emotion you are feeling.  Don’t run away from it. Don’t dismiss it. Do something with it.

I have been bitten by the Shakespeare bug. Listen to me: if you want me to understand and/or love a thing, you need to make me teach it to middle schoolers.  This is perhaps a theory that could be tested in regards to scrubbing toilets, handling raw meat, and cleaning the baseboards in my house. If I had to teach those things, I might love them (or, ehem, DO them). Nevertheless, I love teaching Romeo and Juliet. I was so afraid to teach it because I didn’t think I’d get it.

There is nothing better in life then thinking you know something about yourself and finding out with wonder and joy that you were wrong.