When I committed to this blogging everyday (OK, every weekday) idea, I did not anticipate the danger of empty brain. Most people don't realize that teachers, much like their charges, run out of steam at the end of the year.
As you might imagine, this can make teaching a bit of a challenge.
To counter the problem, I always save the book The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, until the very end. The content is high interest and the style very modern. It never fails to induce some pretty decent conversations, even among students who have reached brain saturation.
Set during the Vietnam War, the book, which is a collection of short, linked fiction as opposed to a traditional novel, presents a series of stories that examine the importance of storytelling, the truth of war, the burdens carried by those who serve and a host of other topics. The language can be harsh and vulgar one moment and unbelievably lyrical the next. It's masterful.
This year, immersed as I am in the writing world, I'm looking at the book with fresh eyes. I'm hoping that my own work will contain quotes that resonate with the reader like O'Brien's work. So I'm going to keep writing, even if I have to squeeze the words out of my head like a sponge.
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