The Misbegotten Notion of a Tenacious Heart

The nature of a formless, 

The pure stigma of turbulent bliss

Vexes the mind with elusive solace

Like birth from sleep in the lightest kiss.

Effortlessly on feathery tides,

The light of love flows ethereal strings;

Every color in the other confides

Complete, now stronger, hearts spread their wings.

As stygian water, the dark returns

The folly of circumstance, time, or strife.

Now a sanguine, savage, cold fire burns;

You clipped your wings to end a life.

In both delectation and agony doth love survive

For its strength declares that we are alive.

-Jacob Willis

Summary: Lynda Barry's "The Sanctuary of School"

Lynda Barry’s short memoir, The Sanctuary of School, is a recollection from her early years as a child in elementary school. Barry illustrates that, as a child, she grew up in a less than stable home environment, and describes how she went unnoticed in that household. One day, she leaves early in the morning to go to school, and shows up to school several hours before the school buildings, a collection of portables, opens. She waits on the playground until she is greeted by the morning janitor, who lets her come with him to open the school and get it ready for the day. In that moment, when young Barry is helping the janitor by pushing his trash bin and turning on all of the lights in all of the classrooms, Barry recalls that she feels a sense of importance and belonging, which is more than she ever felt at home. Soon after assisting the janitor, young Barry is greeted by her teacher, who is surprised to see her there at all. Her teacher suggests that she go to the back of the room and draw a picture. Barry does, and as she does so she describes a feeling of peace that she encounters while drawing. The picture that she draws is supposedly the same one that she always draws: A house, with a blue sky and a yellow sun, happy and peaceful. This is meant to symbolize Barry’s yearning for a more stable home environment, and how she is able to escape to her ideal world by creating it in a drawing. Overall, the story seems to be a statement regarding the importance of funding the arts in public schools, because for many children in similar or worse positions than the young Lynda Barry, art can often times be the only method for finding peace in a chaotic world, both at home and at school. 

Significant Learnin' (Assignment #1)

The lesson that I learned, I learned over a long time.  I have always been a pretty kind person. I really do take pride in helping people; it makes me feel like a hero. If there is ever an opportunity for me to help someone out, even if it’s something small like picking up something that that person may have dropped, I have always been eager to do it. I just liked being able to be a hero for a little bit. I was in my sophomore year of High School when I learned the lesson that I have deemed important enough to blog about for my HS class. My friend, Rebecca, was a very complex creature. She was like a book, filled with information, but was sealed by super glue, covered with duct tape, locked down with chains, then locked inside a cage, which was then thrown inside safe, buried in a cave on top of a mountain, with the entrance guarded by forty-three dragons. I could see that she was always upset about something, though she rarely showed it. She would often talk to our other female friends about whatever it was, but I was never a part of those conversations. At first, I just let it go, thinking that they were probably just gossiping or something. Soon I became curious and tried to find out what was going on, which was how I discovered that she was talking about whatever it was that was upsetting her. As her friend, I wanted to be there for her and help her through her troubles; I wanted to be a hero. So, I went to her, telling her that she could rely on me as well. This, of course, went nowhere. A few days passed, with no change, so I went to her again, just telling her that I was available. Again, this made no progress. At this point I began to realize that Rebecca didn’t trust me. While this did hurt, it also fueled me to get her to trust me. So, being as stupid as I was, what did I do? I kept pushing. I kept trying to get her to confide in me so that I could understand her and then help her.  I tried being as nice as possible, I tried being friendly and I gave her a lot of compliments. As it turns out, she didn’t like compliments, which made absolutely no sense. Every time I told her I liked her hair or her shoes, she would just glare at me. It was the most confusing thing in the entire world, and I wanted nothing more than to understand it. Eventually she started avoiding me altogether, and I still didn’t get the hint. I wasn’t a very smart sophomore. I asked her why she didn’t trust me, why she wouldn’t talk to me, when all I was trying to do was help. She never gave me an answer, but instead, she told me that she just didn’t trust me. Let’s just say that after that, she started flat-out hating me. After wallowing in defeat and self-loathing for pushing away my friend, I suddenly learned exactly why my advances didn’t work. The realization hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s a pretty basic lesson, but I learned that some people just don’t want to be saved. There are some things that people have to just deal with on their own. Not only that, but I also learned that it is very, very important NOT TO PUSH PEOPLE. If someone doesn’t want to do something, even if it’s something as simple as talking, then you don’t try to make them do it. Ever. Everyone has free will, and it must be respected. People are free to deny a helping hand. Above all, I learned that I can’t save everyone.