Where’s Hugh?

The world feels new today; young, and hopeful. It is a gorgeous May Day - but it should have happened earlier- it is a perfect Spring Day and we wonder at it like villagers emerging from our hovels after hiding from marauding armies - we wonder that the earth remembers how to heal and grow.  I went to the Island today, and the wildlife there looks at us visitors as interlopers of their land. That we are. It seems like the winter kept its nails dug in for much longer than normal, but nothing about 2020 is normal. Winter lingered- thankfully so - because it gave us a chance to flatten the curve and the dreary days did not inspire social behaviour distanced or otherwise.  But today! Oh what a day! Today is pathetic fallacy reflecting our hopes,  and we bask in it - afraid we will have to go back inside. Let me stay out just a little longer please... I’m relieved winter is done. I turn, like a sunflower, to warmth to heal me and help me grow.  The final stanza of my son’...

It's been over a month since my last post. We've been living Groundhog Day since then. Nothing new to report. We are surviving - not thriving... Or are we? I teach senior English and I am taking my students through a journey of sorts while reading Shakespeare's Hamlet . It is not an easy piece for students, especially in a distanced learning environment where discussion is challenging, and motivation is in short supply. So, it was with great trepidation that I approached the teaching of Act 3.1 and perhaps the most famous speech ever written. It starts like this "To be or not to be, that is the question:" Maybe you've heard of it (hahaha). We read through it, and then I explained that this speech was beyond a simple consideration of suicide. It is about the point/pointlessness of life. Hamlet is questioning the very value of humanity. He is asking Why live, if living is meaningless? if it lacks purpose? grace? authentic being? Kinda deep. And I was nervous to ...