school dance and limbo

Yeah, she won. I hurt just looking at this picture.

my friend Heidi

Check out my friend Heidi on Flying Wild Alaska! She was the one I was with when I got stranded out of town at the point. Good times.

Remembering Chris

My heart goes out to the Ahkinga family and to all those on Little Diomede Island. Chris died on a four-wheeler accident in Nome today. He was much loved on the island. He was well-known for his skill at making drums out of walrus stomachs. I most remember him for his commitment to preserving Eskimo dancing and singing, especially the songs of his ancestors on Diomede. He was a role model for my students on Diomede, most of whom were his cousins, nieces, or nephews. Please keep the Ahkinga family and all of the families on Diomede in your prayers.

be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions

When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city?"

"Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"
What will you answer?
"We all dwell together to make money from each other"? 

or "This is a community"?

And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

 

If humility and purity be not in the heart,

they are not in the home:

and if they are not in the home, they are not in the City.

 Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?

She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget.

She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.

She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.

 

O Father we welcome your words,
And we will take heart for the future,

Remembering the past.

Our age is an age of moderate virtue
And of moderate vice

When men will not lay down the Cross
Because they will never assume it.

Yet nothing is impossible, nothing,

To men of faith and conviction.
Let us therefore make perfect our will.

O God, help us.

[from "Choruses from 'The Rock'" by T.S. Eliot]

frostbite black eye

A student came to school with what looked like a black eye. I was in shock as this particular student is very even-tempered and laid-back, and I said in disbelief, "What happened?"

His reply? "Frostbite."

It's -27 degrees with a wind chill of -51, and the kid went snow-machining without covering his face except for his goggles, which explains the ring around his eye. Arghghghhghgh. Common sense, people.

Common. sense.