Monday, November 29, 2010

The Last Day of November


Tomorrow is the last day of November. December, the final month of the year, is almost here. Where does the time go? How often have we heard that question? It's probably true that time flees more quickly the older one gets. I have heard that statement over and over again, but I wonder if it's as simple as that. As a teacher, I notice that young people are so busy and move so quickly from event to event that they seem to be living at a quick pace. I believe that life that once allowed for introspection and peacefulness is more difficult in our society today. I'm not sure how much we can change. I live in that fast-paced world now too. I have my cell phone, my I-Pod, my movements from home to work, to running errands, to preparing for tomorrow's work and back once again. I try to take the time to enjoy and contemplate, but I'm always preparing a lesson, or grading some papers, or entering grades, or doing something that has to be done. I'm not complaining; I'm grateful that I have that to do. I do, though, enjoy the idea of the peacefulness that comes with winter, the quiet snowy days and peaceful winter nights. In that regard, I look forward to December. I hope that it might bring a snow day or, at the very least, a snowy day that begins when I get home from work and continues throughout the night. I am starting Great Expectations by Charles Dickens with my AP English class. I always think that reading Dickens takes one back to a more introspective time--true a time with many social problems, but one that brings with it that Victorian time frame, that mood-filled immersion into a London of remarkable characters and image-filled pages that transport the reader into a winsome world. It's the little things that make the days memorable, whether they're moving quickly or not.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving


I wish each and everyone of you a Happy Thanksgiving. Did you know that Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a holiday on October 3, 1863? He proclaimed that the holiday, a day of thanksgiving and praise, be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.

President Lincoln said, "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Let us count our blessings and thank all of our servicemen and women who are observing this Thanksgiving Day holiday while protecting our great country.

God Bless Everyone.