FLY

"And then Serafina understood something for which the witches had no word: it was the idea of pilgrimage. She understood why these beings would wait for thousands of years and travel vast distances in order to be close to something important, and how they would feel differently for the rest of time, having been briefly in its presence. That was how these creatures looked now, these beautiful pilgrims of rarefied light, standing around the girl with the dirty face and the tartan skirt and the boy with the wounded hand who was frowning in his sleep." -The Amber Spyglass

An Eastern Swallowtail

" 'I'll not punish you for having an imagination.'

Gently, Teacher explained the difference between a lie and a story. A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn't tell it like it was; you told it like you thought it should have been.

As teacher talked, a great trouble left Francie. Lately, she had been given to exaggerating things. She did not report happenings truthfully, but gave them color, excitement and dramatic twists. Katie was annoyed at this tendency and kept warning Francie to tell the plain truth and to stop romancing. But Francie just couldn't tell the plain undecorated truth. She had to put something to it." -A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

My own teacher once cautioned me to use my quotes judiciously. He said, "They don't mean as much to other people as they do to you. I mean, I like them, but...well...anyway..." I think this quote from A Tree will mean as much to other adventurers as it does to me.

Johnathan Livingston Seagull

Sullivan sighed, but he did not argue. "I think I'll miss you, Johnathan," was all he said.

"Sully, for shame!" Johnathan said in reproach, "and don't be foolish. What are we trying to practice everyday? If our friendship depends on things like space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you thing we might see each other once or twice?" -Johnathan Livingston Seagull

This mosaic is made of pieces of the data that I worked on this past year for the Middle Grades Risk Prevention Project. My research partners and I presented this at the end of the year poster session to summarize our findings.

Locus Blokus and a purse of polyominoes

Dear Mlle Blueberry Bagel,

We taste that you have been spending a great deal of time next to a certain Mr. Everything. We have considered moving your basket to the muffin row but we fear an uprising from the sesame seeds. They have been fancying you for quite some time. Without you next door, we know they would lose it and fall right off their own bagels. The last thing we need is the collection of crumbs of a messy separation. This certainly would not do wonders for our image as a "whole grain" type of joint. It is the Upper West Side after all. Provided your invaluable qualities, we would like to caution further engagement in this affair, as such proximity to Mr. Everything is really corrupting your taste. Do not force us into replacing you with chocolate chip. You did not hear it from us, but even the scones are starting to get ideas. Please let us strawberry preserve some order.

Tastefully yours,
Nussbaum & Wu

He was forced to teach grammar when he would fain have written poems

"Mr. Churchill turned his steps homeward. He climbed the hill with the old windmill on its summit, and below him saw the lights of the village; and around him the great landscape sinking deeper and deeper into the sea of darkness. He passed an orchard. The air was filled with the odor of the fallen fruit, which seemed to him as sweet as the fragrance of the blossoms in June." -Kavanagh, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sisyphus: Forever?

Ten times the square root of a flock of geese--

"Here is a prettier one still. One-fifth of a hive of bees flew to the Kadamba flower; one-third flew to the Silandhara; three times the difference of these two numbers flew to an arbor; and one bee continued flying about, attracted on each side by the fragrant Ketaki and the Malati. What was the number of the bees?"

"...and you received return for whatever you brought to it." -EH

And Bonnie makes thee.

"They hadn't much faith in travel nor a great belief in a change of scene as a panacea for spiritual ills; they were simply glad to be going. And Bonnie was glad. Children are always glad of something new, not realizing that there is everything in anything if the thing is complete in itself. Summer and love and beauty are much the same in Cannes or Connecticut. David was older than Alabama; he hadn't really felt glad since his first success." -Save Me the Waltz

He stopped for us to laugh...

An exercise in translation, however inauthentic in its product, is a marvelous exercise to enhance understanding, deepen interest, and perhaps along the way one may encounter a grand moment of inspiration that later leads to a truly authentic production.

A philosopher's mandala

Say an artist hangs a rendering of life above her bed and uses the tools of the carpenter to do so. How many times removed is said bed from the truth?

Surely she is better than twice. But if she takes the title artist, she cannot lie between herself and the craftsman. And to lie between yourself and the truth feels dishonest.

I leave thrice for the writers who overlook the fact that there are two sides to everything.