Monthly Archive for May, 2006

I’m not sure where this post is going, but thought there might be some laughs if I just started writing…. here goes.

I started cleaning out my room today. I’ve got a filing cabinet filled to overflowing with old school stuff. I started at the bottom: 9th grade. Fond memories of speech class with my good friend Matt Godfrey and Mrs. Hudson. And freshmen biology with Mr. Glass, one of my favorite teachers (he taught me 3 times, 9th grade bio, 11th grade chemistry, and AP biology). His syllabus began, “This course offers an exciting adventure for the student…” Cheers to Mr. Glass.

Then I passed on to 10th Grade, with Algebra. I didn’t delve into that subject today, but I saw my binder cover said two things about the class. First, it had a stick figure saying, “I’d rather be running.” It also had some nifty clip art of a guy with a stick tied to his back, holding a carrot out in front of him — just out of reach! This pretty much explains my math experience: Always trying but never getting it!

Then I moved on to 11th grade: The Junior Year. Exciting times. I found some of my favorite quotes from back in the day:

“Build a bridge and get over it.” ~attributed to SJ, whoever that is.

“Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you are a mile away and you have their shoes.” ~Gib Pennington, what a guy.

“Memory is like a grammar lesson: we find the present tense and the past perfect!”

“When you begin to feel taxed, make sure you have your money in the right Bank.” ~WW

“Theoretically speaking, if you go to the past in the future, then your future lies in the past and that is a picture of you in the future in the past.” ~I don’t know where I got this, maybe from that movie Kate and Leopold?

“It is difficult to resist the conclusion that 20th century man has decided to abolish himself. Tired of the struggle to be himself, he has created boredom out of his own affluence, impotence out of his own erotomania, vulnerability out of his own strength. He himself blows the trumpet that brings the wall of his own cities crashing down, until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, having drugged and polluted himself into stupefaction, he keels over, a weary, battered old brontosaurus, and becomes extinct.” ~Malcolm Muggeridge, one of my favorite quotes which I got from Ravi Zacharias

Here are two poems I wrote that year.

The Cafeteria
Wide the doors stand flung apart
To greet the starving students’ sprint;
Fast fly the feet on empty gut
To fill our food-trays full and feast.

A death-smell dulls our scarred senses
And serves to spur the wild stampede
Onward through the jumbled food-line
To the doom of all who dare.

Acid-sauce on sordid steak
With burn of freezer blended in—
But a bite of this tangy tooth-sore
Provokes whispers of “nevermore.”

Yet days and weeks fly past us now
While wantonly we warrant it,
To squander our health, to sell our lives
And all for naught save salt-flesh and grease.

‘Tis sad, but true, to see the fate
Of, oh, so many that partook
In gluttony gruesome, in gulpings gross,
Who rival now their ransid meat.

Suppertime

Down we sit—our hands we fold—
To eat this steaming dish;
A word of thanks now rises up
Before we dig right in.

Dear brother Rob, he shows it best,
How rightly to begin:
Just open wide the black, black pit
And shove the fork far down.

Yet stop not here, I beg you, please
The race just now begins;
The starter’s gun—red flame belch forth—
Has shattered silent sounds.

A fork is dropped! heed not it now—
His fingers will fine fare;
Low neck is bent to meet the fist
That flies then forth with food.

A Goop—I cry—is what you are!
Much worse than drooling dog:
For teeth as knives and hands like spoon,
Thy beard of milk molds sour.

What love have I in my small heart?
This dinner tests it full;
But in my mind this thought defrosts:
He is my brother still.

I’m certainly not a poet, but there you have it. I’ve reduced high school to a blog post.

Whoo! I just threw away years of work. It’s a good feeling, cleaning up, trimming down, getting rid of the mess to get on with my life.

Until next time.