Monday, January 24, 2011

A Cherokee Tale

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a terrible battle that goes on inside people. He said, " My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Living in Wake County

We moved to Wake County in 1969. Cary was a little town then, where everyone knew each other. We all went to school together, from Tryon Road, to Apex, to Morrisville. There just weren't many schools back then. I think it was ninth grade when desegregation took place. But I think we were already O.K. with it. I personally never had a problem dealing with other races, I had friends across the board. And I think most of the folks I went to school with felt the same way.



Now, I see this huge division when it comes to our children's education. I don't know about your Wake County neighborhood, but mine is quite diverse. We have Indians, Kenyans, Koreans, many Latinos, Southerners, Northerners, African Americans. I'm pretty sure this is the same in most other neighborhoods in Wake County.

I think William Barbour and the N.C. NCAAP is defeating the true purpose of education for all when it spends so much time, effort and money on an ideal with skewed data. If you take each school by economic and racial data, year by year, and how lax the State has been at making sure this data is accurate, you will find the data is wrong.Magnet schools are a good thing. They bring higher education to the Center City. How can anyone complain? And yet, this is still a neighborhood school for those that live in the neighborhood.

I think my main point is, I always want my children to want to learn, and have the desire to learn- throughout their lives. If they are constantly bombarded with folks seemingly against education, such as colleges who are more concerned with the bottom dollar, how are we able to go forward as a country?  Is rote more important than common sense? I had a teacher in 10th grade, Mr. Robinson. He taught Biology. We got him off subject every day, but at the end of the semester, we were right where we needed to be, and we all had the ability to think critically for ourselves.


This is what I wish for my children and grandchildren. The ability to think critically..

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Free To A Good Home

For the last two years, I have lovingly taken care of Herman. I don't know how old he was when I adopted him from my Mother-in-Law. Herman is so giving, but he produces too much offspring for me to handle these days. I just don't have the energy I did when I was younger. I feed him every week, and occasionally he refuses to grow. But he's basically done me good. My family and neighbors gratefully take the offspring home with them.

I'm talking about my Sourdough starter, Herman. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep making bread, especially the 4 loaf weeks. Is there a baker out there willing to adopt my precious Herman? I'll include instructions, which is more than we get with real children.