"The Apple of my I"

I hit the books again this week.  Yep, that means dusting off those notepads and pulling out the rusty Arabic vocabulary.  However, rather than bore you with excruciatingly predictable comments on “the first week of school,” I’ve decided to utilize this moment to bring you a random but fun “school secret.”

I have always been overjoyed at the fact that my name contains the letter “I”.   For one little line, it is a remarkable letter!  There are endless possibilities in the “dotting” of one’s “I”.  I have experimented open-mindedly but usually end up back at the classic "heart" for a dot.  If you are wondering what this has to do with the school secret, don’t lose faith yet.  For you see, I liked my writing class a lot in Junior High.  For several years, we focused on creative writing, which involved tenacious vocabulary expansion.  Now I don’t mind telling you I had a fairly good vocabulary.  The embarrassing part is that this vocabulary expansion was in part fueled by my desire to find new, exciting words containing plenty of “I’s” for dotting with hearts.  Yes, I was known for slipping in an unnecessary use of “ubiquitous” just so I could dot both “I’s” with hearts and make a curvy little “q”.  Even in Latin class, I would choose to write sentences with words requiring “I”.  This was rather clever of me even though it was pretty dippy.  The only problem with my mastermind determination in this area was that Joey figured out what I was doing from the beginning.  And he was relentless in his teasing about things such as this.  His persistent banter about my strange obsession drove me to give up the quest for “I” words.  Thus, if my vocabulary has dwindled from its former mélange of meaningful expressions, I know whom to blame.

So, the school secret of the day is indeed the letter “I,” which has always been the “apple of my ‘I’”—sorry for that rather ridiculous pun, I just couldn’t resist.  :-)

In other news, my past two posts appear to have been extremely full of foresight.  For you see, this week I was treated to that odious—oh, excuse me.  Did I say odious?  I meant edible of course . . . wink, wink.—brew which my mother is so very fond of.  Yes, the resplendent halls of our villa overflowed with a whiff of broth (note the sarcasm as this broth obviously has no flavor or scent).  In any case, I slurped it up like a four-year-old with a slushy.

My post prior to the one on stew also becomes rather ironic given the times.  It was, as I am sure you remember, concerned with “The Road to Plato’s Academy”.  Well, I have once again departed down this highway of knowledge over the past few days.  In my Political and Social Thought class, we are reading none other than Plato’s own little devil, The Republic. 

Interesting read altogether, but I am most fervently troubled by Plato’s view of human nature.  I seem to have an uncanny knack for finding “human nature” discussion questions.  When I brought up the subject in class today, my querulous classmates bemoaned my persistence on the subject, asking if I “try to find human nature problems in everything we read”.  I responded that one’s view of human nature is key to one’s worldview.  It becomes a question that merits scrutiny no matter what text one is reading.  With an apathetic groan, my ever-intrepid classmates acquiesced to my request, and I had my say about what I consider Plato’s huge fault.  While he acknowledges that humans are driven by “appetites” and “desires” for unworthy things, he tries to find a remedy within the human saying that each human being contains a “divine spark” of goodness which must be enkindled into a full flame of goodness.  In this soul, according to Plato, Reason would rule and all other “desires” would serve Reason.

Now I could go into a loquacious tome on the problems with considering Reason the highest good, but I really must get back to actually reading Plato instead of writing about it, so I will be brief.  Can one really suggest that a disillusioned soul (seeking fulfillment of its appetites and desires) would find something better on its own or even within itself???  That is what Plato is suggesting, is it not?  That humans have the divine spark (of Reason) within them and that they can enkindle it?  While Plato astutely realized the human condition to be plagued by a problem, an imperfection, he couldn’t see beyond the human.  He looked for the answer within the human instead of within God.  And it just doesn’t work like that.

OK, enough fun for now . . . back to my innumerable readings.

Walking the "Road to Plato's Academy"

One of the entertaining tidbits we found in Athens was the ancient "Road to Plato's Academy".  Of course, being the history buffs we are, we couldn't resist taking our own little stroll down that proverbial highway.

As I reflect on my life, however, I realize this has not been the only time I’ve walked this road.  Surprise you though this may, I was not born reading Plato, Thucydides, or Herodotus.  Just like normal human beings, I had to learn my alphabet.  I too “sounded out” the onerous tales of “Dick and Jane”.  Despite my natural affinity for all things literary, I have worked up in my reading from the meanest of stories.

Thus, it seems that “walking the road to Plato’s Academy” symbolizes my intrepid journey along the path of words. 

What, you ask, did you read as a child?  Well, those of you who see what I read now will no doubt find my former reading lists juvenile and jejune.  I, however, refuse to let these books be denounced.  While they may not satisfy a cultivated reading taste, these books became my stepping-stones on the way to Plato’s Academy.  Without these volumes, I might have slipped in the mud, fallen down, and gone running home without ever arriving at my reverential destination.  

It is with this said that I give you, “Elisabeth’s Reading List for the Young and Young-at-Heart”. 

Please understand that however many times I may read “Jane Eyre”, “The Age of Innocence”, or “City of God”, I will always hold a special place in my heart for the following books.  They have served as milestones in a great journey and conversation.

According to Madeleine L’Engle, “The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been.”  That’s how I feel about these books.  It’s all right to move past them because I’ll always have them in the deepest reservoir of my mind, just waiting to be recollected and reminisced over.

A GINORMOUS thanks goes out to Mom for teaching me to love reading from such a young age!  Without her, I would still be at the Athen’s city gate, not even realizing I should walk towards Plato’s Academy.  Seriously though, Mom has been the driving force in my education!  Although I always loved reading (due to her unending read-alouds when I was too young to read for myself), I did not always want to read “books for school”.  Thanks to Mom’s tireless efforts, however, I did not lay down in the “road” and say “I’m sitting right here, and you can’t make me move.”  When I tried to quit, she kept metaphorically dragging me by my hair towards the Academy.  :-)

So, here’s the list . . . it’s by no means comprehensive because I probably read about a million other books besides these, but these are some of my favorites.  And by the way, I’m a “series girl”.  If it includes 65 books, it’s got to be good, right?  Not really, but that was my naïve, childhood reasoning.

• The Boxcar Children—these were some of my favorites from very early childhood!  I think I was reading these in the figurative cradle of reading.
  
• Little House on the Prairie—Mom read these aloud to me when I was about 4, and I loved them!
  
• The Chronicles of Narnia—Another awesome read-aloud from Mom when I was 6 (My, what a wonderful mother I have!).  The only problem was that we had a hard time finding quiet times to read together.  Often, Mom would be completely engrossed in the book and keep reading while I went to bed.  Then I would wake up and be furious, so I would start reading and get ahead of her during the day while she was taking care of Emily and Abby . . . good times, good times.  We could never stay together, but we tried.  My favorite was “The Horse and His Boy”.  Everyone is always like “Boo!” about that one, but I loved it (just goes to show how unusual I am.)  I remember one night when Mom read almost the entire “Horse and His Boy” to me in one evening.  It was like a marathon or something.  We would get to the end of the chapter and Mom would say, “You need to go to bed.”  But I would BEG for “one more chapter” and she would acquiesce because she wanted to keep reading just as much as I did. 
  
• The Betsy Series—You know, “Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill”, etc.  I’m embarrassed to say I still like picking up one of these (the one’s where she’s in High School) every once in a while.  They bring back wonderful memories of being curled up in bed late into the night because I didn’t want to stop reading.
  
• Nancy Drew—Oh yes, I read every one from 1 through however many the author could think up.
  
• The Hardy Boys—you would think I would have gotten tired of the same-old, same-old, but nope.  I read all of these too.
  
• The Bobbsey Twins—It was like Nancy Drew or The Boxcar Children as twins.  How cool is that?  ;-)
  
• A Wrinkle in Time—SUCH a good book!  That whole series is good, but this one definitely deserves its place in the shelf of classics.
  
• The Redwall Series—Hey man, you can’t go wrong with talking animals!
  

Some of the series above are perhaps slightly unworthy of praise.  The following books, however, deserve enthusiastic acclamations!

• The Witch of Blackbird Pond--It reminds me of a sort-of children's version of The Crucible.
• Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
• Johnny Tremain
• From the Mixed up Files...
• The Iliad and The Odyssey (abridged versions by Rosemary Sutcliff)
• The Eagle of the Ninth
• The View From Saturday
• The Black Arrow

The list could go on and on and on and on . . . eventually, though, even The Boxcar Children ran out of mysteries to solve (teardrop).  Bereft of all reading enjoyment, I set out on the Quest for Bold, New Books!  Soon, I found, the Puffin Classics!  Oh yes, delving right in, I read every classic on the shelf (albeit slightly abridged) from “Jane Eyre” to “Pride and Prejudice” and “Great Expectations”.  This was truly “The Start of Something New” to quote “High School Musical”.  Suddenly, I not only had enjoyable reading material, I also had thought-provoking, challenging, interesting, timeless, reading material.  The world became a whole lot brighter, metaphorically and literally—I had a great time reading these new books and I also began to understand the world in which I lived (if only a little bit).  This “sea change” to return to “Hamlet” occurred around the time I turned 10.  Slightly before this, Mom became a strong proponent of Classical education, so reading these classics at a young age fit right in to her teaching philosophy.

After a few years rushing through these somewhat abridged versions, I was ready to progress to “THE REAL THING”!  From “The Great Gatsby” to “The Odyssey” and “As I Lay Dying”, I have been reading these classics voraciously ever since—both in the classroom and out.

Now before you say, “That’s great for you, but I am SO not that nerdy.  The classics just aren’t my type,” you have to understand that I don’t particularly like these books because they are nerdy.  I continue reading them because they are expository in a certain way of the world in which we live.  Each book brings up a new question and exhibits a new worldview.  When these texts interact with one another, suddenly tentative answers to unspoken questions begin to formulate in the mind.  Yet these tentative answers only require more reading and thinking and hypothesizing and theorizing.  The only book I have ever found to be completely true is The Bible.  Everything else is full of right and wrong, Biblical and unbiblical, true and questionable, difficult and obvious.

Besides, the classics were written for normal people, not nerdy scholars.  The philosophers sitting in their high towers contemplating “great thoughts” weren’t the only people who read “The Iliad”.  This book like so many others was used as an educational tool.  Apparently, somewhere in the time since the Ancients, we’ve lost an appreciation for great literature because we deem it “too difficult” or “too boring” or “not useful”.  The problem with this is that if students are only fed information while they are in school, they never learn the ability to think originally for themselves and be self-learners.  Reading and not only reading, but struggling with a text as you compare it to the objective truth, The Bible, is crucial in learning to think well.  Thus, I am convinced that Classical Education has it right, the Socratic method is truly “the way” to go! Sorry, but I had to get my little plug for Classical Education in here somewhere.  :-)

Anyway, back to books . . . the wonderful (or frightening) thing about all of this is that there is always another book!  For each book I finish, there is invariably another one on the list, screaming my name.  It’s a never-ending conversation, which brings me back to Plato’s Academy.  In some ways you could say that I’ve reached Plato’s Academy by joining the great conversation of classical literature.  However, Plato may have been the end of one segment to this journey, but he was only the beginning of this odyssey to date.  Thus, by reaching the end, I only reach a new beginning.  Perhaps I should travel across to Augustine and then continue on until I reach Tocqueville.

Wherever I travel, though, I will always remember how far I’ve come.  To end this post any other way than with a heartfelt thanks to my mother would be entirely hedonistic, or at least wrong of me.  Without my Mom’s undying enthusiasm towards my education and her commitment to helping me learn to the best of my ability, I would probably still be reading The Boxcar Children.  Now remember, I have a very special place in my heart for those four adventurers, but it was time to move on to bigger and better things.  Thanks to Mom, I press on each day to reach my full potential as a student who thinks well with a Biblical worldview about history and the literature it has produced.

Note:  No, it is not suddenly Mother’s Day although you would think it might be from the way I’ve been writing.  In any case, however, every day should be Mother’s Day because my mother is absolutely amazing!!!!!!!  :-)

Also, for a fabulous essay on Classical Education, particularly the Socratic method, see this article.