"Things in nature merely grow. There is no suicidal or angry rose, there is no depressed or rebellious lily. Plants have but one goal: to live. In order to live they grow when they can, and go into dormancy if needed." ~ Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li
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| one a fact, one a problem (and an excellent example of how to use a semicolon) |
I already have a lot of material that I call 'think like a tree'. A tree can survive a wildfire and add it to its rings - a shitty year of hundreds of years. And if it can't survive, it can send its resources to others intentionally. You might think only people can have grit; I am going to not just challenge that assumption, I am gonna suggest maybe we have less of it than any other still-living thing. They will get handed that idea by reading a memoir about the death of two children, so what are they gonna do? Say "fuck that"? No, jesus, they have hearts and minds. So they'll give the ideas courtesy/repect.
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| "known better" |
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Reflection: What does it mean / look like to "tend" something?
Experiential learning (+ discussion forum for weekly uploads of update photos): a bonsai. Why? "There is no good way to say this: words fall short."
I am sorry (not sorry) for the giant headache it may be for my bosses to order general education bonsai trees for my umpteen failing students. I can hear my supervisor (close friend, we're 🤞), "but they're all going to die!" (he will laugh soon as he says it cz I always say GET TO YOUR POINT, WE ARE ALL GONNA DIE) Yes, probably, almost all the wee trees will die. But each for its own reasons (did not get what it needed but got who knows what instead) that will show the students how they personally "tend" and feel about it and that it is a fact of failure that it can happen despite best efforts. The pot will be a souvenir from the class = a reminder that they could always try again. Folks need solid metaphors. They can feelthink if they do what I ask; I'll reach right into human hearts through bloody chests in my way too. Like magic.
It might be a disappointment to meet the rest of me, many sides of whom can be unsure and proven wrong and all kindsa human.
"People by behaving predictably and unimaginatively are good only at confirming what I already know, and I think to myself: where you are is where the husks of life gather; where you are is where I won't be. There is little comfort in that knowledge, but still it is a relief that Death has made it easier for me to pay no attention to the husks of life."
I cannot remember not feeling that way.
Grit rules of thumb:
1. Do not be a husk.
