A Clear Day In Seattle

They are rare...and that's what makes them beautiful! I've heard it said that when the sun comes out in Seattle everyone smiles...I know I do, simply because on a clear day...I can see Mt. Rainier.

I now understand perfectly why Washington state decided to put an image of Mt. Rainier on their license plate. It looms over Seattle with such grace that I could almost describe it as ephemeral, that is if 14,410 ft of solid rock, stone, and lava could ever be described in such terms. But ephemeral it is, with what seems like a volcano with no foundation, Mt. Rainier pops out of nowhere with no foothills to introduce the eye to the climb in elevation. It surprises me every time, like a butterfly flashing it's blue wings, it leaves you with the feeling that if you blink it will be gone leading you to conclude that it was all a mirage caused by the rain and clouds and yet at the same time coated with a residue of something lovely.

Yes, it's true, I've fallen in love with a mountain. I admit it, my heart flutters a little every time I see him. Maybe it's true that absence makes the heart grow fonder but I wouldn't mind seeing him more often. I guess I just have to be satisfied with the fact that he is there even behind the rain and clouds.

I can deal with that...but isn't he lovely?

Especially When We Disagree

“I represent a church that believes in human dignity, in treating others with respect even when we disagree — in fact, especially when we disagree.”

Michael Otterson,
Managing Director of Church Public Affairs for
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

To Form, Not Furnish

The main goal of education should be "to form, not furnish" the minds of students.

Jean Piaget

I want Jesus to Walk With Me

I love this side of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (with Alex Boye) and can't help but second that motion. Amen!

Hmmm.....

"Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants - doing nothing but living and walking about - came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child's way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love."

Maria Montessori

Dance Your Dance

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."

--Angela Monet

Did you know this?

"Alfred Nobel, for whom the Nobel Prizes are named, was the owner of a company that manufactured weapons, which earned him a great fortune, and he was also the inventor of dynamite. He even came up with the name for the dangerous explosive himself; at first he thought of calling it "Nobel's Safety Powder" but in the end settled on "Dynamite," related to the Greek word for strength.

Nobel's enormous legacy — the impetus to leave the prize money now awarded to Nobel laureates — actually stemmed from an event that left him with feelings of great indignation. After his older brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper printed a scathing obituary of Alfred Nobel, who was in fact alive and well. The writer was allegedly confused about who had died, and he used the obituary to write a condemnation of Alfred's life and work. "Le marchand de la mort est mort ('The merchant of death is dead')," the newspaper proclaimed — and also, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday."

Alfred Nobel read the obituary about himself and was so upset that this was to be his legacy that he rewrote his will to establish a set of prizes celebrating humankind's greatest achievements. He wrote this final will about a year before he died and signed it at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris. He left 94 percent of his assets to create and endow five Nobel Prizes: physics, chemistry, physiology or medical works, literature, and peace. The first four were to be chosen by Swedish committees and presented in Stockholm; the peace prize was delegated to a Norwegian committee and is presented in Oslo.

The way Alfred Nobel's instructions were written for the prize in literature are open to (mis)interpretation, and because the instructions were in his will and he was not around to offer clarification about what he meant, there's been a lot of confusion and debate over the years about what sort of literary works are eligible for the Nobel literature prize. The prize, he wrote in Swedish, should be awarded to the most outstanding work in literature "i idealisk riktning." In Swedish, this can mean either in either an "idealistic" direction or in an "ideal" direction."

quoted from "The Writer's Almanac" by Garrison Keillor,
21 Oct 2009

(Even though the last paragraph talks specifically about the literature prize, I kept it on there because maybe that would explain the logic behind the other prizes as well...just a thought...)