Novelist Barbara Kingsolver says, “Wisdom is like frequent-flyer miles and scar tissue; if it does accumulate, that happens by accident while you’re trying to do something else.” As a teacher of writing courses, she is inevitably asked by earnest 20-year-olds: “How do I improve my writing?”
Kingsolver’s advice? “Quit smoking, and observe posted speed limits. This will improve your odds of getting old enough to be wise.”
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When J. K. Rowling, author of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, had been out of college for seven years, she found herself at a dark juncture in her life. At that time, she says, she had failed in life on an epic scale. “An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded. I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain without being homeless.”
In short, Rowling says she was the biggest failure she knew. And while she says there is nothing ennobling about being poor, she believes she reaped benefits from her failures. Failure, she says, stripped away all the inessential aspects of her life. She stopped pretending to be anything other than herself, and it was then that she began to earnestly pursue the only work that mattered to her. It was not, she says, the fairy-tale transformation to success so often written about her in the media.
Learning to imagine played an important role in Rowling’s life, yet surprisingly it has nothing to do with the colorful world of Harry Potter she created. Instead, she says, she learned to imagine when she worked for Amnesty International in her 20s. There, she was exposed to people and people’s stories from all over the world that were filled with terrible realities that she herself had never experienced; she looked at pictures of people who had disappeared without a trace, read testimonies from people who were tortured, and saw pictures of their injuries. She learned how evil human beings could be to their own kind.
Though seeing this dark side was anything but inspiring, Rowling says she also saw what was good about people while working for Amnesty. People who themselves had never suffered these atrocities organized to help people who had, because they could imagine what it was like to be surrounded by malevolence. Choosing to exercise your
January 2008 newsletter
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The oldest person who ever lived, according to The Guinness Book of World Records and other official documentation, was Jeanne Calment of Arles, France. She lived to be 122. And many medical experts and scientists have wondered what it was that allowed Calment to live so long. Theories abound, but here are some of the facts of her life:
Calment stayed active and rode her bicycle until she was 100. She ate two pounds of chocolate per week and smoked until she was 117, quitting only when a doctor told her the chocolate was bad for her and she was too blind to light up the cigarettes herself.
She accepted others despite their flaws. When Calment was 14, she sold Vincent Van Gogh canvas and colored pencils from
her father’s shop. She didn’t think much of him, saying he was rude and possibly “loco”—but said she forgave him for it.
Calment’s “It is what it is” philosophy kept her stress-free. “If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it,” she advised.
She was known for her tart sense of humor. Calment once rebuked an interviewer: “When you’re 117, you see if you remember everything!”
Janaury 2008 Newsletter
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Carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns is an age-old tradition dating back to the Celts and their traditions of their holiday, Samhain, celebrating the end of summer, the year and honor loved ones that had passed away. The pumpkin is native to North America so before the discoveries of Columbus, they carved gourds or turnips. Coal would be placed in the middle for light. Jerry Ayers from Ohio holds the record for the fastest carver at 37 seconds.
October 2008 Newsletter
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Hundreds of years ago when English physicians wanted to learn about the human body, it was difficult because there were numerous regulations to follow. Doctors were typically allowed to dissect only one body over the course of their education - and once the dissection had been accomplished, the physicians were reluctant to relinquish their prized skeletons. But it wasn't socially acceptable to keep the skeletons, according to Webb Garrison in a Why You Say It (Grant Press). Consequently, doctors often hid them in a dark corner of a closet where they wouldn't be discovered easily. Eventually the phrase came to mean hidden evidence of any kind.
October 2008 Newsletter
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If you had to guess the age of the world's oldest living tree, what would you say? Five hundred years? One thousand? Try 9,550. The spruce was discovered in Sweden in the Dalarna province, along with a cluster of about 20 other spruces all more than 8,000 years old. The tree's age's was determined by using carbon-14 dating. It would have been a seedling about 7500 B.C.
Before the spruce was found in Sweden, the oldest living continuous standing tree believed to exist were determined to be about 5,000 years old. Here are a few other tree facts:
October 2008 newsletter
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Boo! Halloween is here once again - and, commercially speaking, the holiday seems to gain popularity as each year passes.
Last year, the National Retail Federation released the following projections about the 2007 celebration based on its research:
October 2008 newsletter
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'Tis the season of weddings and celebrations. Sure, you have been to three weddings already, but what about the two this fall?
Gift giving has become easier with bridal registries available in almost any store. According to www.theknot.com, 85% of brides want something from that very list. However, being able to treat the couple to a creative gift is sometimes more fun. For example, www.about.com, suggests that if you have been to where the newly weds are going for their honeymoon, treat them to a gift certificate to a great restaurant or for a fun excursion there.
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More than a half century ago, New England college students enjoyed pies from the Frisbie Pie Company. And it wasn't long before tossing those empty pie pans became a fun and popular game.
At the same time, Fred Morrison invented the Pluto Platter for the Wham-O company. Thrown like an empty Frisbie pie pan, students called them Platters Frisbies. Wham-O founders Rich Knerr and Arthur Melin quickly obtained the marketing rights for the name college kids had nicknamed their product. But they didn't spell it right, and the Pluto Platter became the Frisbee. Inventor Morrison thought it was a terrible name, but now 87 years old and living in Carpinteria, California, he says it just goes to show that he is a bad judge of names.
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Did you know more than half our nation's apple production comes from Washington state? This fall no matter the level of educations, bring your teacher an apple and share these facts with them!
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