Rambles in Bedford, NY and A Piece of Unsolicited Advice

On a visit to my nearby parents, I walked and jogged about 10 miles over the past 24 hours, up and down Middle Patent Road in Bedford Village, New York. Now the site of million-dollar homes, this forested neighborhood was a flashpoint  during the American Revolution when British burned the entire village of Bedford to the ground.  

Theme Thursday: Shadow (Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama)

I walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama last month. The bridge, which stretches across the Alabama River, is named for a Confederate brigadier general. But the bridge gained notoriety in 1965, when it became the scene of a bloody attack by local and state police on peaceful civil rights demonstrators attempting to march to the state capital of Montgomery. My walk filled me with sadness.

That day, March 7, became known as Bloody Sunday.  The police - who also deputized all white males in Dallas County over the age of 21 - used horses and cattle prods and billy clubs to attack the marchers and chased them all the way back into Selma and even to the churches where they sought refuge.

I had the grace last month to encounter a woman who participate in this historic event as an 11-year-old girl. My friend Meredith, her daughter, Anna, and I spoke with Mrs. Bland for nearly an hour before I walked across the bridge. As I walked, I was haunted by her words, how she said she thought the blood dripping from her sister's head were tears.

Linking up with Cari today!

Walking Over the Hudson River

Once upon a time, the Poughkeepsie railroad bridge was the first bridge of any kind to span New York State's Hudson River from the Atlantic Ocean to Albany. Opened in 1889, its promoters claimed it was the longest bridge in the world.

Now the  Hudson, which flows from upstate New York to New York City, is spanned by many bridges. and the old Poughkeepsie railroad bridge is the world's longest pedestrian bridge.

On an overcast afternoon earlier this month, my husband and I walked that bridge, dubbed the Walkway Over the Hudson. This project is an excellent example of how preserving historic sites can save money and revitalize an area. It would have cost $50 million to tear the bridge down; transforming the bridge into a state park cost $38.8 million.

Preparing to Teach: To Enter Into A Yearly Journey

First, a disclaimer: I didn't invent that phrase "to enter into a yearly journey" to describe teaching high school. I swiped it from a woman named Anglica Q., on the website Ignatian Spirituality.  You see, "Ignatian spirituality,sees God as actively involved in the world and intimately involved with us in every moment and place." Yup!

Angelica Q.  tweeted:

"I find God in my service as an educator--in the eyes of my students with whom I 
enter into a yearly journey.

I stole her description it because it perfectly encapsulates how I feel about teaching high school, and about the learning communities I try to cultivate each year in my classes. 

August looms. I am closing my summer reading books, finishing two graduate school classes, and preparing to teach two new courses: American Literature and American History. This book is in my purse.

When History Comes Alive: Listening to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., In His Kitchen

Montgomery, Alabama is a remarkable place: the Confederate States of American was founded here and, less than a block away in the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the American Civil Rights Movement began. Today, with my friend Meredith and her daughter, Anna, I toured the church and its parsonage, which is at 309 Jackson Street. In 1956, local segregationists had bombed that home, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , pastor of the church, was living with his wife and children.


A highlight of our tour was the kitchen, a place where Dr. King said he had a religious epiphany, where he felt Christ's presence, which gave him  the strength to soldier on. He learned that night   to never fear death.

Our docent, Rev. John Wesley Summers, (pictured at left with one of his grandsons) played an audiotape of  King's writing to us as we stood in that kitchen. We were permitted to take pictures in the kitchen, but not in any other room of the house.Listening to Dr. King's words in that kitchen gave me goosebumps; they reminded me that we all belong to Another, that our strength and hope comes from the One who called each of us into being.

"Red Tails:" Action-Packed History

This snowy winter afternoon, while our sons were spending time with friends, my husband and I went to see "Red Tails," the movie inspired by the heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American pilots who fought in World War II as a segregated unit in the U.S. Air Force.

The movie, produced by George Lucas, is getting mixed reviews, with one film critic calling it "middling" and another saying that the real-life Tuskegee Airmen deserve better.  My husband and I, however, found the film fun, poignant and action-packed. It tells an important chapter of American history. Too many of us don't know enough history or about the history of African Americans in particular. This film will entertain you, inspire you and educate you.  I cried when it was over.

Talking with Teens about Beowulf, Fate and Their Futures

Today my juniors spent the whole class period writing and talking about whether fate rules us or whether we rule our own destiny. The subject relates to the poem we are reading together in class: "Beowulf." I was touched to see so many of them, despite the wounds they might carry, still see what is possible; still see themselves as unfolding and not as victims of the hand of Fate.

"A Tale of Two Cities" and the Paradox of Sacrificial Love

My sons and I returned home last night from a long, wonderful day trip to New York State to see my parents, my brother and his family. My husband and I settled in to watch a movie: "A Tale of Two Cities," a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production from 1935. The film, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic tale, is the story of men and women who become caught up in the bloody aftermath of the French Revolution.

If you are expecting instant payback for your time, this is not the movie for you. The film builds its characters and its suspenseful plot methodically. Be patient. By the end of the movie, I promise you will be on the edge of your sofas. The movie's sensibility is profoundly Christian and seeks to answer the question: What is one's purpose in life?

Detailing the Beauties of Married Love: "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"

I ordered "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," the 1969 version from Netflix by mistake. I meant to order "To Sir With Love" starring Sidney Poitier as a rookie teacher in an inner-city school in London. Instead, Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark arrived in a red envelope on our front porch. My husband warned me it wasn't that great a movie and that the 1939 version was far superior.

Nonetheless, we both ended up enjoying it. This movie is G-rated and I do recommend it for families, particularly those with young teens who don't mind singing and schmaltz mixed in with romance and a slice of British history. Our 11-year-old watched with us and alternated between enjoying the story and mocking the budding romance between the two leads. He's at that age.

The story is about a shy, socially awkward Latin teacher schoolmaster at a British boarding school. On vacation in Pompeii, he falls head over heels for a London showgirl with a checkered past. The story in this movie begins in the 1920s and spans about 30 years of Arthur Chipping's life.

A Fly in My Hair, Les Paul, and the Fall of Constantinople: Midsummer Musings by an 11-year-old

Our younger son, now a few months shy of 12, was born after 20 minutes of hard, unmedicated labor, with Pitocin rushing through me and no time for an epidural. I was swearing like the world's worst sailor. He came out so fast that for the first few days his head was purple and the rest of his body looked like he'd spent too much time at the beach without sunscreen. (In fact, our then-three-year-old asked me 'Why isn't the baby's skin white like ours?")

Anywho, it felt like he just couldn't wait to be born, to start tasting everything this great world has to offer. He never crawled. He walked at nine months, and by the time he had his first birthday was running so fast I could not catch up to him. Irrepressible. Ebullient. That's this boy.

Sometimes, I feel like he got the wrong mom. How did he end up in a family of mulling introverts? Then again, maybe God put him in our lives to teach us what unmitigated joy looks like.

"The King's Speech" and the Power of Perseverance

Okay, maybe the 50 or so folks at our local public library who watched "The King's Speech" tonight with my husband and me were the last people on the earth to see this Academy Award-winning film about King George VI's struggles to overcome his stammer.

But if you are among those who haven't seen this movie yet, do. Other than some foul language, spoken by the king himself as he struggles to find his voice, this movie is a great movie for families. It's an inspirational story,  a love letter to speech therapists everywhere, and its message is about how trust and perseverance can help us overcome many obstacles.

A Saintly Life and a Spire of Lilies: St. Paulinus of Nola

Today is the feast day of St. Paulinus of Nola. I wrote this post last year for the YIM Catholic site and am reposting it now...

St. Paulinus was born to an aristocratic Roman family in the fourth century after Christ but his saintly life is revered to this day, particularly in southern Italy, where he is remembered for his devotion to the poor.

(Pictured here is La Festa dei Gigli in Nola, where several large statues in honor of the saint, placed on towers, are carried upon the shoulders of the faithful around the city.)

Two aspects of Paulinus' life intrigue me. First, the writer's correspondents are a who's who of fourth century saints : Martin of Tours. Jerome, Ambrose  and, most notably Augustine. Second, my paternal grandparents grew up a stone's throw from Nola, in a region beset by wrenching poverty and natural disasters. Nola sits outside Naples on the plain between Mount Vesuvius and the Apennines.