A Series Of Collisions With The Future

 

 

 

I was cleaning pictures out of my phone this morning -- some I deleted, but the majority I sent to my email account -- and came across this quote which must have been important to me at the time I took the picture last October 12, but I'll be darned what book's frontispiece I took it from! Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be. Not sure quite what Jose Ortega y Gasset means by that, but I don't have to know.

North Dakota wild Prairie Rose
I think you should pose.
Prairie Rose grows so pink.
Prairie Rose you make me wink.
Maybe you should grow by a hose.

Over the last few days Sarah got a certificate from her teacher Mrs. Tillema for memorizing her multiplication tables up to twelve and at home we've also seen the book of Third Grade North Dakota Limericks!!! (PIN 3865830) that her class put together with illustrations commemorating the 125th anniversary of North Dakota as a state. That's Sarah's limerick up above and this was truly a fun read, put together by Studentreasures Publishing.

The weather in North Dakota isn't always nice.
In the winter there isn't a lot of ice.
The states lowest temperature is 60 below zero.
You'd have to be a hero.
If you live in North Dakota you'd have to pay the price.

That's her classmate Alondra's. And the last few days with my reading I've taken a tour through ... perhaps not the United States' own finest hour, as the main unnamed characters are taken during World War II to a prison camp in the southwest simply for being Japanese. Julie Otsuka's debut novel When The Emperor Was Divine (ISBN 0385721811) is terse and to the point, but you don't come away with it with anything profound, I thought. And maybe THAT should worry me.

The western Meadowlark is a bird.
The sweetest sound ever heard.
with, feathers, white flakes, and Black/streaks.
The western Meadowlark has a Beak
Beatiful Bird, call me a bird nerd.

That's her classmate Scottie's. (And I'm keeping their spelling intact, no offense.) Martha and Sarah -- I'm very impressed with this -- are baking now; they did this a few weeks ago with two cakes for our Sunday School Carnival's cake walk and last night they started on chocolate cupcakes for Sarah's birthday party at school tomorrow. Sarah will be frosting them with her aunt Lesa tonight, at least that is the plan!

Lewis and Clark exsplored
North Dakota they adored
Down the Missouri river.
They were the map giver.
Come to North Dakota you will have scored!

That's her classmate Dream's. Sarah and Jeffrey impressed me yesterday before school with their homemade obstacle course where they moved chairs and backpacks and shelves, then saw how fast they could get to the end without touching the ground! And my reading took me to the 23rd century with The Long Night of Centauri Prime by Peter David (ISBN 0345427181), a Babylon 5 novel largely set on Londo Mollari's homeworld, where he's now Emperor with a lot to rebuild.

26th president of the USA.
Cowboy rancher in the Dakota in his day.
In New York through politics door.
He left to expore
Maybe he sat by a bay.

That's her classmate Laney's. And she says she will be coming to Sarah's birthday/slumber party this weekend; it ought to be a lot of fun. And the Star Trek anthology of fan stories I read, Strange New Worlds (ISBN 0671014471) span the late 23rd and 24th centuries filling in a lot of "whatever happened to" details, including Picard's first meeting with Guinan, Cyrano Jones cleaning Station K-7 of tribbles, a story told by the Enterprise-D herself, and a Voyager story told in log entries.

North Dakota is so fine!
Every part of you devine!
Winter snowy, cold as ice!
Blue sunny skies are oh, so nice!
North Dakota: statehood since 1889!

And of course, I had to include Mrs. Tillema's own contribution to the class book!

Gee, when I get back here next week Sarah will be NINE!

David