We Read To Know We Are Not Alone

I wrote that down today in class. It's a quote from the British novelist C.S. Lewis and it really made think about our cyber community here and the stories we read and write daily for that incessant need to communicate with the world and share our lives and sometimes very intimate thoughts. We do read to know there are others out there and we smile every time someone chimes in with a word or two.

We're not alone. Interesting........

So I'm officially the president of the Professor Marcus University Fan Club and I follow him around every Tuesday and Thursday to Victorian Poetry and Modern Literature. Today was the first day of school and as I drove on to campus I felt that familiar, addictive rush and excitement that I absolutely LOVE. Actually, I got teary-eyed but I didn't want to confess... in the spirit of sharing I might as well: I am sap! There, now you know.

So, why does the novel matter?

Professor Marcus threw that out there very nonchalantly like he was asking to describe our winter vacation or talk about our pets on show-and-tell day. Needless to say it turned into a great discussion about life and love and completeness and the conscious and unconscious and the metaphysical and Jungian and on and on and on...

The novel is the one bright book of life. Books are not life. They are only tremulations of the ether. But the novel as a tremulation can make the whole man tremble." - DH Lawrence

My friend Marcela, who happens to be a wonderful artist and photographer, asked me why I wanted to teach not too long ago. It slipped out rather seamlessly that I just couldn't think of a better way to change the world. That literature was just my excuse to be there and although I loved it, teaching and reaching out to others was my true passion and motivation.

I asked a young classmate today how come she was dropping her pre-med major. She looked at me straight in the eyes and said: "I can live without science, but I can't live without [art]."

Need I say more?

Carpe Diem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(pictures via vi.sualize.us)