Where You Come from Isn't Always Home

My students have been writing personal narratives for the last week. Guest teacher, Shelley Moon, a woman who knows how to crack open the most difficult coconut, instructed students to go to whatever story they were having the most feelings around needing to write. I don't want to get into specifics about any of the narratives, besides to say that while they ran the gamut from sweet, funny, tender, sad, and angry, way too many of the stories revealed the catastrophic damage done in children's lives by adults...unimaginable pain delivered by those who should be most trusted.

The song "Take Me Back" has been humming through my heart all week.

"Where you arrive can be home 

Where you come from isn't always home"
-Siouxsie and the Banshees

Listen to the song here: http://mysp.ac/ifd1Gb

There were a lot of tears in the classroom, and even more compassion and empowerment as kids told their stories.

The lesson I hope they learn as they grow is that

"It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind"

 I am thankful each day that I have a job that reminds me to give my strength to love.

Soundtrack for a Revolution

I have been blessed with student teachers sent from heaven this school year. Jesica, the current student teacher whiling away the hours with me (trudging through the raging torrents of hormones and axe body spray, more like), got enthused about a documentary called Soundtrack for a Revolution. It tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement through the music that lifted people's spirits, brought them together in solidarity, and gave them righteous courage in the face of death. Students loved the movie...and trust me, if 14 year-olds are into something of an educational nature, it's good!

I feel obligated to forewarn you: the soundtrack to this film is not available anywhere. Complete sadness possessed me as I typed that sentence. The good news is, it's available to watch instantly on Netflix.

 

Since I'm on the topic of music and the Civil Rights Movement, I want to share another moment of courageous musical expression with you. In the midst of the second wave of the KKK-- it started in about 1915, and was known for it's violence (lynching, maiming, etc.)-- when membership ranged somewhere in the 6-8 million range in the USA, and adult, white male membership averaged between 20-40% depending on where a person lived, Billy Holiday and the Jewish songwriter Abel Meeropol collaborated to create a brilliant piece of activism. The song, "Strange Fruit", was a refusal to accept the continuing legacy of racism, a refusal to let the public look the other way, and perhaps a refusal to be owned by the fear of the lynch mob.

Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear strange fruit,

Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,

Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,

Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,

For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,

For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop,

Here is a strange and bitter crop.

 

 

Of course music was central to the Civil Rights Movement; lyrics sung like an incantation or prayer in the oldest language.  I am so thankful for all the people -- those who were martyred, and those who lived-- who refused to let the threat of death deter them from protesting and bringing change to this country.

 

If you want to explore the topic of lynching further, and feel brave enough to face the skeleton-in-the-closet of lynching postcards, visit this site.

 

Touched by the Hand of God

Ryan and I like to create difficult musical questions for each other to answer.

There are the classics: What are your top three albums of all time? Who are your three favorite vocalists?
The more eccentric: Name your top five Adam Clayton bass lines. Name the best Jarvis Cocker sighs or other extraneous sounds.
Most recently: What is the one song that sums up your musical taste?

I thought this would be a really hard question to answer, but the song that does that for me came pretty quickly to mind; "Touched by the Hand of God" by New Order from the 1987 single.

The song was originally provided for the soundtrack of a film called Salvation! that was a parody of televangelism; it's fitting then that the video for this song is also a parody...one I thoroughly enjoy but didn't see until long after I'd gotten hooked on "Touched by the Hand of God."

The song itself is serious in tone...It's New Order after all (and Bernard's marriage had just ended, so more angst than usual). Perhaps it's about the singer realizing what he wants when he's just lost his chance at ever getting it. More likely, it's about trying to preserve identity in the midst of illusions fading, things breaking, realizing that giving has turned into someone else taking....and yet still desiring proximity, connection, love.

There are so many ways I love this song...

I love the intensity, the immediacy.

I am a sucker for electro-rock; this song's got me dancing one bar in. Bernard's vocal is understated, passionate, pre-Jarvis Cocker whispery.

I love the desperation, the attitude, the barely restrained angry.

And check out the sweet, sweet, MELODY BASS LINE!!

Turn on the mood lighting and see what kind of dance moves this song inspires in you.