Let's Be Honest

Until you train that brain of yours, 

it'll slump toward cliches and vague sentences 

rather than scratch for truth every time. 

Your heart might know what it means, 

but without the perfect words, 

your readers... will... never... know. 

(insert scary haunted house sounds)

Here are a few of the most honest writers I know. 

Today they helped each other become more honest writers. 

Here's to the group effort!

Part I

The Mona Lisa

 

What does "original" really mean? Can we see a camera "snap?"  Ellie and Logan and Jacob, you helped Eleanore find her words! We realized she was being "captured" by a camera, so Logan, you helped us find the verb flare. Ellie, you helped Eleanore veer away from "original" and Jacob and Logan, you helped her find "smooth." 

Her poem is so much better! 

Eleanore likes to write in her bed. 

She wants to write fiction. 

A very interesting book

 Jacob, what amazing characters you unearthed! We are so happy to know them! We discussed that you do a FINE job of creating a sort of destiny through a name! Tony Shuster polishes shoes. Trinette Clark is a clock maker who works in a tree. We wondered though, with such details at your fingertips, why Muriel lives in the basement of just any old "grocery store?" Why not "Safeway" or "Raleys?" 

Jacob likes to write at his kitchen counter. He loves the "name game," but especially when his mom digs up names from her past! Jacob said, "If I ask myself the names I know too much about them already."

Muriel Dickins

Ellie's Maggie is a seriously multi-dimensional girl! Ellie read one excerpt from her story, introducing us to Maggie as she appears in her bathroom counting her rubber ducks. 

We asked her, "Ellie, if you're going to give us this character in her bathroom counting her ducks forward and then backward and then forward again...well, then...tell us MORE!"

Us: Where is Maggie sitting? 

Ellie: On the floor. 

Us: How is she sitting? 

Ellie: Cross-legged. 

Us: Where are her ducks? 

Ellie: On the bathtub ledge. 

Us: Which way are they facing? 

Ellie: Toward the shampoo. 

Us: Are the ducks in any particular order--small to big, big to small, random? 

Ellie: Not sure. might count her rubber ducks but how? 

Don't keep all this amazing information to yourself, Ellie! 

Grace us with it! You know it! 

Your question should be be:

How can my readers learn more about Maggie through her duck counting? 

Remember: a string of bizarre events does not connect readers to characters. You MUST give us breathing room. We must see their quieter moments. Make them HUMAN!

Ellie likes to write on the couch or on her bed. 

She loves her characters!

Austin Powers

Logan zeroed in on a particularly sensitive part of his writing in order to improve it... in order to be more honest. 

Muriel is heading out of the elevator and she is sad. 

Logan, I'm so impressed that you picked this section to work on. It's our chance to see the private side of Muriel. 

We all helped you see what we do when we're sad. 

Eleanore sits on her bed with her knees to her chin; 

Jacob lies flat on his bed & looks at the ceiling; 

Ellie lies on her bedroom floor, arms curled under her, face down; Logan puts his hands on his face. 

When I'm sad, I feel like a puddle, not a furious river or a fuming ocean. 

I feel puddle-ish. 

Slow, low, murky, no momentum. 

What does Muriel feel? Initially, you thought she would destroy her room. Does sad destroy? We decided sad might be quieter. 

Can't wait to see what Muriel does. 

Part II

 

HAUNTED STORIES...

Thanks to published sentences from Stephen King and Stephen Crane, you each had an eery start to your thriller stories...

Each of you blindly picked a line from these masters and added on...trying VERY hard to be honest writers. 

The scary stuff is grounded in real life stuff. 

REMEMBER THAT!

(insert wicked howl)

Here's Jacob, writing from Stephen King's line: 

"There are some huge rats in the walls. From the sound." 

Here's Ellie writing from Stephen Crane's line: 

"None of them knew the color of the sky."

Logan is writing from Stephen King's sentence, 

"No great loss."

Eleanore wrote from Stephen King's line, 

"'You're dead, George. You just don't have the sense to lie down.'"

ASSIGNMENT:

• Write 10 minutes a day.
• Write either your thriller piece or add to your piece from the blog. 
• Ellie, I want both from you. Both your duck paragraph AND your scary story. 
• Same for you, Logan. I want to see how Muriel is sad. 
• Please post by Wednesday. 
• Please read the posts and comment.
• Please come with copies so we can read your refined work.

Two More Characters

Tony Shuster is a shoe polisher who does his job so well that you have to drop your shoes off for three days. He uses those three days polishing just your shoes. He lives in this musty old shack that has fifty pictures of famed shoe polishers on the walls.

Tony's favorite thing to do is to go out to eat with his best friend Bridget Cork who over the years has collected around two million corks, is a professional skier who invented the quadruple cork, and has walked across at least one bridge every day of her life. Her favorite food is a French baguette hot from the oven.

Jacob

Muriel Dickens

Muriel Dickens is a strange hippie. In fact, she is a Russian hippie who lives in the large town of Getersbalb, Montana. She doesn’t have a car so she rides around town on a lawn mower and works at Willie Wonka's Candy Factory. Muriel is married to a odd man by the name if Rory Miracle. Rory is the founder of the successful company Miracle Whip. They have 36.26 children, 30 goldfish, 6 guinea pigs, a crocodile, five tweety birds, and Bugs Bunny. They live in a sky scraper called The Miracle House, "where miracles happen".

Although they live in the Miracle household they have a pretty boring life. The kids sky dive to school everyday with Fabio. Their eldest daughter is the crazy Muriel Dickens the II, their eldest son is the amazingly funny Will Ferrel, and their youngest son is the mini, evil master mind that wants to take over the world, but nobody listens to him...... Stewie (from Family Guy).

One day Muriel rode up the 15 min. elevator and walked into the living room where she saw her son Will watching Looney Tunes on the 455 in. plasma screen. “Oh my goodness! What on earth happened to you mummy? You are covered in chocolate!” Will said in his cute little British accent that Muriel loved. “Is it Bubba again?” (Bubba is the biggest baddest Umpa-Lumpa who has bullied Muriel for years.) Muriel looked away. “Mum you need to tell Mr. Wonka about this. How long has this been going on?” She silently, without a word, walked to the elevator and went to her room.

The next morning Muriel wasn’t feeling too well. Will gave her a strange silver and blue can with a picture of two bulls charging at each other in front of a full moon. She took a couple of cautious sips then violently started drinking the odd liquid; spilling half of it all over her peace sign p.j’s. “MORE! MORE!!!” Muriel demanded. She ran to the refrigerator and grabbed the jumbo Red Bull that said on the back “WARNING!!! Serving per size: 1 sip." Muriel totally forgot about her lawn mower keys soooooo….. she ran to the nearest garage and hot wired (which she had no idea she could do) the nearest car which happened to be her husbands favorite Bugati Veron. She raced to work while plowing through fire hydrants and newspaper stands. Muriel parked inside the lobby of the factory and raged up to the chocolate waterfall, where she knew she would find Bubba. Bubba was shocked at the maddening look in Muriel's eyes. Muriel charged him, picked him up over her head (even though he weighs a metric ton), and threw him down the chocolate waterfall into the raging chocolate river! Just like he had done to her the day before.

To Be Continued……

On Stage at Moody's

It gets hot up on stage. On stage at Moody's, next to the sweaty, original jazz musicians.

  

It gets hot under the blaring red lights that make everything that isn't under their beam look distant and daunting.

It gets hot when people stare at your kid body then nod at your unexpected talent.

It gets hot when you think that you might have played the wrong note, and even hotter when you think people might have heard you.

It gets hot when you see a snap of a flash and know that you are captured in some stranger's camera.  

It gets hot when you high-five Adam or Shaina or Dublin or Brandon. 

It gets hot up on the stage at Moody's. 

LZ 
10.23.11
2:38PM


Three predictions: 


1.  I thought it would have been easy to write for 10min a day. 

2.  I thought that the subject would come right to the front of my head instantly. 

3.  I thought that my writing would be perfect right when it was printed on the paper. 

Ohhhhhh, but no.  

Three realities:

1.  I probably thought about what to write for 30 min and then my pencil scratched for 10 (and most times a little more than 10, but still). 

2.  I would sit and sigh for what seemed like forever until an idea would pop into my clueless head. 

3.  And trust me, I did some editing--not on all my pieces, but definitely on this one. 


This week, I am satisfied and happy that I found the "just right" inspiration each day.


LZ

Muriel Dickens and Trinette Clark

MURIEL DICKENS

Living in the basement of a grocery store, Muriel Dickens is this crazy old lady who runs around the store shopping for the most organic cheeseburgers she can find. She goes home and deep fries them for three and a half hours. And then she eats them with...KETCHUP! After she's finished, she chucks the leftovers out the window into her pet gopher's den so the gopher can chomp them up with its green fangs. Her best friend is Argus Filch, the caretaker of her home.

TRINETTE CLARK

Trinette Clark is a clock maker that always does her work in a tree. She is tall and so skinny that she can fit in a modern day chimney, so whenever she delivers her clocks, she delivers them though the chimney. Whenever customers receive their items, they ask, "What did you do?!?! Come in through the chimney!?" She always replies (proudly), "Yes, Ma-am." or "Yes, Sir."

Jacob

Writers Write

Thank you, Frances Joy, for joining us this week! We loved having you! 

For the first part of our meeting today, we discussed how we might use the quotations we found in The Red Pony to write an expanded paper on the novel. You realized, quite easily, that you not only understand the themes of the book quite deeply but that with just a bit more exploration you could build a powerful paper. We left The Red Pony there and moved onto...

Muriel, we discovered, is very different for every one. 

To Jacob she lives in the bottom of the grocery store, deep fries hamburgers and chucks the leftovers to a rodent out the window.

To Eleanore, she is a long-legged runner who runs in cut-off denim shorts to the grocery store for potatoes.

To Logan, she's a strange hippie who rides around on her lawn mower and lives in a "large town."

To Cody, Muriel she loves punk rock music, is a vegetarian who eats fish and lives in South Africa.

To Ellie, she's a 25-year-old, suffering from some brain issues. She loves to draw on all the papers in the printer and wants goldfish she'll name Steven and Stephen. 

To Frances, she's a young child who wants a baby chihuahua who stays a baby forever. Her Muriel lives in Mississippi, loves eggnog and jolly ranchers.

To Carolyn, Muriel rides in the backseat of her Elder-Car so she can do just about everything (not listed here) she wants. In the backseat, she feels less gray, younger than 63, more married, less lonely, more in charge of her life--ironically. 

We discussed how if we let our brains relax, how if we ignore pressures of grades, time constraints, topics, our brain will deliver us some pretty interesting material. Maybe we don't love ALL our writing, but we love some of it ... love it enough to maybe, just maybe use it again...

Soooo..after reading our Muriel pieces, we went back through and highlighted our favorite spots--just one or two phrases, words or sentences. The "cream" we might want to use again.

Cody, finding his best sentence

Logan, finding his best few lines

Above, Jacob, zeroing in on his

Below, Ellie re-writing hers

Carolyn, circling a few of her favorites

Frances finding her best stuff

Because the name "Muriel" leads some to think "whacky," we talked about dimension in the characters of The Red Pony and in ourselves: is any one of us ONLY funny? ONLY brave? ONLY silly? No. We are many things. We cry AND we're brave. We are funny AND we're serious. If a writer insists upon one-dimensional characters, readers cannot connect. Period. It's just true. Well, for me. :) 

We talked about what each of us wants to write for our next meeting. Some have ideas. Some don't. Some want to revisit old writing. Some want to try something new. In all cases, just like requiring characters like "Muriel" have texture, our writing cannot be one-dimensional either. 42 long beautiful complex sentences require a few short sentences so we readers can take a breath. 42 short sentences require breath also. Exclusively funny characters need some moments of seriousness so we can breathe. Exclusively morbid characters needs moments of levity so we can breathe.

Just like in life, nothing is just one thing. 

As you write this week, give yourselves the best chance possible to find something you like in your writing. Writers who don't write are not writers. You HAVE to write to find a gem or two. 

Soooo...

Assignment:

1.  Write 10 minutes a day. This is harder than you think. 
Remember, writing is the only way you write.The only way you amass writing is by writing. Right? So...look around you. See the scenes around you, notice the simplest things. Write.You do not need a "name." Each 10 minutes does not constitute a STORY. Just writing. Now, that said, you MAY start a story and write it 10 minutes a day, too.

 
2.  Find / highlight in each spurt of writing one or two things you think are GREAT writing. Even if it's just a word or a phrase.

3.  Post to the blog if you want--but because it's "publishing" you must have everything spelled correctly. Ask your mom, your sister, your spell-check.
 

4.  If all your writing is not up to your standards, post a few lines that are!
 

5. Bring writing to next Friday's meeting. If you have a printer, please make copies for everyone. That's 5 copies plus your original. 

The 4 Paragraphs/Sentences

The Gift

“Jody's father moved toward the one box stall. Come here! He ordered. Jody could begin see things now. He looked into the box stall and stepped back quickly. A red pony colt was looking at him out of the stall. Its tense ears were forward and a light of disobedience was in its eyes. Its coat coat was rough and thick as an Airedale's fur and its mane was long and tangled. Jody’s throat collapsed in on itself and cut his breath short." Pg.10

That one paragraph “pushed” me and kind of reminded me of when I got my first actual gun. It was the day after Thanksgiving and I knew that every year my Dad, Uncle Johnny, and my great Uncle Franky go hunting right after thanksgiving day, I was kind of bummed out because I hadn't gotten my gun yet. I was really bored because it was just Cody Otto and Aden at the house (they are all 2-3 years younger than me and really annoying sometimes), and all I would be doing for the rest of the day would be watching tv and drinking root beer. I was sitting in the living room watching tv when I hear my dad yell "Logan, come here!" I walk into the kitchen and I find my Mom, Dad, Uncle Johnny, and Uncle Franky sitting at the table with something wrapped in news paper, I looked at Uncle Franky and gave him the "really?" look, he laughed. I walk to the table and look at my Dad, "Well, hurry up and open it!" I fiercely start to open it, I look at the box "Rossi Firearms" Immediately my eyes bulge out of my head. I open the box and look at the gun bag, a thought goes through my head "Huh, that must be a pistol judging from the size of the bag the I pull out two barrels out of the bag one is a 22. long rifle barrel and one is a 20. guage shotgun barrel, then I pull out the stock! This is the best thanksgiving ever!

The Great Mountains

"In the humming heat of a midsummer afternoon the little boy Jody listlessly looked about the ranch for something to do. He had been to the barn, had thrown rocks at the swallows' nests under the eaves until every one of the little mud houses had broke open and dropped its lining of straw and dirty feathers. Then at the ranch house he baited a mouse trap with stale cheese and set it where Doubletree Mutt, that good big dog, would get his nose snapped." Pg. 37

This paragraph kind of made me sad, first of all because Jody lost his pony (and handling dad issues along with that) and he really has nothing to do on the farm he is back to killing mice, decapitating birds, even setting mouse traps and watching his dogs getting their noses get snapped. I just didn't like the way the story was heading.

The Promise

3."Silent but deadly"Pg.54

That sentence had a true meaning to it, it...... it....... I can't explain it but it just urges me to...........JUST KIDDING!!!! I just had to laugh soooo hard when I read that. Steinbeck doesn't know it but he is pretty dang funny in some parts of the book. This is why I love Steinbecks writing.

The Leader of the People

4. "Jody's mother had finished the beans by now. She stirred up the fire and brushed off the stove top with a turkey wing."

That sentence just straight up creeped me out. Although it would be pretty awesome if my mom would brush off the stove top off with a turkey wing! But it is kind of cool to think way back then they would use a turkey win to dust the house the "dusters" we use now aren't very different, they used turkey wings, we use feathers attached to a stick, they are pretty moch the same thing!

LOGY

Favorite 4

He curried and brushed two saddle horses in the stalls, talking quietly to them all the time.

This reminds me of myself.  I always talk to horses when I'm riding or when I'm brushing them.  I always say "good boy" or "come on, lets go" or " just a little faster", or when I'm brushing them I always say "good boy" or "it's alright."

"Thats supper," Jody cried. "Come up to supper

I feel this is opposite of what I usually do.  In this sentence it sounds like Jody is really excited about supper, when I'm always like "we're still playing", or "just a few more minutes please", or "mom, I'm not hungry yet."

Then Jody turned the horny-toad over, exposing it's pale gold stomach.

  

This reminds me of the  time dove to the bottom of a swimming pool and grabbed a crab that was still alive.  I know what your thinking "Cody, you grabbed a CRAB out of a POOL"?  Yeah I actually grabbed a lot of crab from a lot of different pools, but this was the first that was alive!  When it moved I almost lost it.  I was so freaked out, but for some reason I didn't let go of the crab.  I helled it by it's claws and brought it to the surface so I could let it go on the beach before it died.  I'm sure he was happy and I was to.

There's the ocean to stop you.

This, I totally disagree with.  My family and I sailed from San Francisco to Panama, (and beyond), and I believe the ocean is just the beginning not the end.

MY FAVORITE 4

"He was a broad, bandy-legged little man with a walrus mustache, with square hands, puffed and muscled on the palms."

I really like this part because it explains how he looks so detailed and in just the right words, plus he looks a lot like my grandpa minus the mustache. When he says "He was..." that just sets it up for a good sentence but the rest of it makes billy, billy.

" In the shade of the sagebrush the little birds were working, scratching in leaves, flying restlessly a few feet and scratching again. Jody pulled back the rubbers of the sling and advanced cautiously."

"The rubbers of the sling." I would never think of that! Steinbeck is so clever. The wordiing is very well writin and the S's in the begining "In the shade of the sagebrush." Made me think of Eleanors "Walk" story.

"This assortment scrabbled unhappily against the tin of the lunch bucket."

Before Jody returns from his march of grey tigers and trumpeting he catchs an assortment of reptiles and bugs, and puts them in his lunch bucket then snaps back to reality when he gets to the fork in the road. When he gets home he gives the bucket to his mother, to get to the point I thought that this line was a good transfer line from imaginary to reality.

"Directly below him, a crow congress had convened."

Yet another thought from Jody, how Steinbeck portayed crows and people having a congress meeting was very clever (yet again), and I very much injoyed looking at it from Jodys eyes seeing the Salinas Valley and then below him is a crow congress.

Steinbeck's 4 Highlights

1. "Now when you get up there, just grab tight with your knees and keep your hands away from the saddle, and if you get throwed, don't let that stop you. No matter how good a man is, there's always a horse can pitch him. You just climb up again before he gets to feeling smart about it. Pretty soon, he won't throw you no more, and pretty soon he can't throw you no more. That's the way to do it."

I like how Steinbeck makes Billy Buck so insightful, as if he had faced the challenge of "getting throwed" a million times. And Billy Buck is so confident at how he tells Jody what to do. I have a question. Does Steinbeck know that what what Billy Buck says is true?

2. "Then he lay on his back in the grass and looked up at the dumpling summer clouds. By closing one eye and destroying all perspective, he brought them down within reach so he could put up his fingers and stroke them. He helped the gentle wind down the sky. It seemed to him that they went faster for his help. One fat white cloud he helped to clear the mountain rims and pressed it firmly out of sight."

In this paragraph I find it interesting that Jody wants to help the clouds instead of hurt them like he usually does to animals like mutilating the buzzard, killing the bird with the slingshot, throwing the stone at the cat, and making Doubletree Mutt get this nose snapped in the rat trap. When Steinbeck says, "by closing one eye and destroying all perspective," it made me want to try it. (It works!)

3. "The damp ground chilled his bare feet. At the cypress tree the roosting turkeys chattered a little in alarm, and the two good dogs responded to their duty and came charging out, barking to frighten away the coyotes they thought were prowling under the tree."

I like how the dogs did not just come running out, they came "charging out, barking". I also like how the "roosting turkeys chattered". I can just imagine the scene in the dark. It's easy to put myself in Jody's place and say "the damp ground chilled my bare feet".

4. "He heard the dull rushing sound that space and silence make. He heard one of the dogs, out in the doghouse, scratching a flee and bumping his elbow against the floor with every stroke."

Until reading this, I never realized that space and silence made a sound. I love how Steinbeck describes the dogs "elbow" bumping the floor. I never thought that dogs had elbows.

Jacob

My favorite 4 sections

1.   “The buzzards overlooked nothing. Jody hated them.”

This line, of course, foreshadows the end of the chapter when Gabilan is pecked away at by the buzzards. But also, as we know, Jody is a ranch boy; he kills things all the time: the birds, the mice, the reptiles and amphibians in his lunch box, etc. But when Jody takes care of something—Gabilan for example—to see it die, to see how it dies, is awful. 

2.  “The hills were dry at this season, and the wild grass was golden, but where the spring-pipe filled the tub and the tub spilled over, there lay a stretch of fine green grass, deep and sweet and moist.”

This paragraph just makes me thirsty. Steinbeck’s word choice is perfect. He doesn’t say, “…of thick green grass, deep and wet and sloppy.” No, he uses the words like sweet, moist that make you feel heavenly. The contrast between the dry, golden hills and the stretch of moist green grass makes the grass sound even more lush. When you have one special thing it is more special than having multiple of them because you cherish that one.

3.  “Carl Tiflin and Billy Buck, the ranch-hand, stood against the lower pasture fence. Each man rested one foot on the lowest bar and both elbows on the top bar…. Jody sidled uneasily near. He dragged one foot to give an impression of great innocence and nonchalance. When he arrived beside the men he put one foot on the lowest fence rail, rested his elbows on the second bar and looked out at the pasture too.”

You can totally picture it, right? The scene above is one the best and yet most simple ways to show the continuous theme in The Red Pony: Jody hovering above childhood and adulthood, not resting in either one. Everyone has choice of what kind on adult they want to be. Jody hast these two men in front of him, in the end we discover which one he will be like: Billy Buck. Billy is compassionate, loving and he honors his elders, and Jody. Whenever that theme pops up, I write a big KA (kid and adult) in the margins of my book. If you flipped through my book, you would see a KA on nearly every page.

4.  “Jody ran into the kitchen where his mother was wiping the last of the breakfast dishes. ‘Can I have a lemon to make a lemonade for grandfather?’ 

 His mother mimicked— ‘And another lemon to make a lemonade for you?’

 ‘No, ma’am. I don’t want one.’

 ‘Jody! You’re sick!’ then she stopped suddenly. ‘Take a lemon out of the cooler,’ she said softly. ’Here, I’ll reach the squeezer down to you.’”

I think this is the most satisfying end to a book. All of Jody’s life he has wanted it all for himself, but when his mother “stops suddenly”, she realizes that he is honoring Grandfather. Jody’s mother becomes soft when she sees Jody’s love for something other than himself (example: when Gabilan is sick Mrs. Tiflin is soft and loving; and when Nellie is pregnant). I think Steinbeck chose to finish this way because it shows that Jody is turning out to be a Billy Buck kind of adult.  

Eleanore 

The Leader of the People

Disclaimer: Forgive photos!
They were taken by iphone into the sun!

"The Leader of the People"

In the kitchen around the table, we honored John Steinbeck’s mind and heart by "listening" to the last chapter of words in
The Red Pony.

And we all agree: what a book!

We all guessed how Steinbeck would start this last section. Most of us mentioned that colt of Jody's, but quickly we realized we weren’t going to hear about the colt.

Logan said he just won't ever read another Steinbeck for the loss of the SECOND pony, but I don't believe him. He will. :)

Of course, Steinbeck never SAYS the colt is dead, but we understand Jody so well that when we see him hunting mice, being destructive, not having anything to do, we know.  

In this section, we listened to Grandpa’s stories of westering across the plains to the ocean.
He was the leader of his people in his time.
Now he tells the same stories over and over again to a mostly impatient audience.  

We watched Jody distance himself from his father.

We watched Jody show compassion for his grandfather.

We talked about running out to meet people we love in our own lives. How coming to the doorstep or the end of the driveway or over the hill honors the person coming home!

We talked about grandparents who talk and talk.

Cody said, “I have a grandpa like that. He talks about Indians, hunting, fishing and taking photos of wild animals. He lives near a ranch with about a million acres.”

Logan said, “My grandpa talks a LOT about science. Boats and science. And my grandma always talks about the way it was in Vegas, with the mafia.”

Ellie said, “Mine snorted a lot and my mom tells me about how she helped my grandma pack walnuts and almonds.”

Eleanore said, “My grandpa talks about the restaurant he used to own with his parents. Ham’s Diner. And he talks a lot about his science magazine.

Jacob said, “My grandpa talks and talks about the house he's building by himself.”

We asked ourselves why our grandparents repeat certain stories.
We decided they have pride in what they are doing or have done.
They feel important.
They feel a sense of dignity.
They have a sense of self worth.
And they SHOULD! What they do or have done builds us.


If we don’t honor their stories,
however many times we hear them,
we don’t honor them.

Carl Tiflin dishonors and disrespects Grandfather's stories.
Carl Tiflin INFURIATES you all!

We wrote "D" in the margin when someone "dishonored" Grandfather.
We wrote "H" in the margin of the book when someone "honored" grandfather.

Mostly, Jody and Billy Buck listen to and honor people.
They are "good men."
Carl dishonors and disrespects.
In this way, he is a child.

We talked about leadership and how a person who leads MUST show compassion. Like Billy Buck. Like we know Jody will – and does by bringing lemonade to Grandfather,
by listening to his stories,
by forgiving Billy Buck,
by talking to Gitano.

Jody keeps reaching out.
He senses the insides of people.
He knows what it's like to feel shame
at the hands (and words) of his father.

Carl is not such a good leader.
He inspires revolt;
he makes the insides of people collapse
(remember how Jody sees Grandpa on the ride in
and recognizes his collapsed self). 

We understand that Grandpa has a “westering” spirit.
He thinks no one in this generation feels that need to wester.

We don’t agree: we discussed ways we want to "wester:"
places we want to go, ideas we want to explore, including Cody's lake at the bottom of the ocean!

Even being a young adult is a form of westering! 

Thank you all for reading
such a beautiful book so beautifully together.

Assignment:

To honor Steinbeck, find one passage from each section you like. 
Copy it into the blog with quotation marks and perfect spelling (it’s the honorable thing to do!)

Below each passage, write why you are moved. 
Remember, take your time. 
You honor the words by thinking about them. Go deep.
Respond to your friends' writing, please 

Next week*, we'll start looking at YOUR writing. 

If you have something ready for us to look at, bring it.

If you want to start writing next Friday, we'll do it!

Parents, we should discuss whether we should take a break next Friday. I'm fine either way. 

LOST

The air has and ere tint to it as we all sulked hoping that she would come hobbling out of the bushes. Sitting on the couch resting my eyes and body before I go out and look again, for I have been looking all night. My sister at the table book in hand, my brother playing with his bey blades but sighing every now and then. My mind wandering off into the distants, I snap awake not letting myself fall asleep. To keep it that way I announce that I am going outside again to look again, while outside I notice a familiar car driving up the street toward my house. My phone dings informing me that I have a text message, my mom telling me that Sasha (good friend/previous owner) was coming with her dog Dexi the only dog Reece will follow anywhere to help find our missing puppy. I holler to my brother to help look with Sasha and I while my sister Kelsey finishes her home work. Sasha Keegan and I head into the forest ignoring the, calling and whistling. With disappointed frown and freezing fingers and toes we start back to meet my mom who had just arrived to help look by driving around the neighborhood and asking people if they had seen Reece. Warming up and making posters and delicious hot chocolate and tea, Sasha leaves to go to work but promises that she will be back at 2:30. I continue to go outside for shorter periods of time but nothing just as the 1 million before. Back on the couch I feel like disappointment shot my confidence with a shotgun, Sasha returns with Dexi and her other dog Shady, my mom at work and my brother leaving to go to Reno with my dad were not much use in the search anymore, now only Sasha, Kelsey, and I are looking we Sasha and I head back to the woods and Kelsey heads off to hang up posters. Dexi, Shady and my other dog Alyce helping we venture farther and farther in. Alyce not the keenest on Reece could really careless if she didn't come home, dragging me down I let her of the leash she gives me a "finally!" look and runs home with her tail waving a smirk at me as she trots away. I was just about to head off in the other direction when Sasha yells "ELLIE, I FOUND HER!!!!" so relived I sprint over, untangle her connected leash she darted off with in the first place, (because it was caught on a fallen tree) and rub her shaking body. Heading back, when we were no farther than 15 feet away, we cross paths with a steaming pile of fresh bear poo (ewww) I didn't notice it at first but Sasha whispers, "Ellie, look it's... it's bear !#?$!" knowing that Sasha would not be scared of bear but that she would be worried that the dogs would have gone after it and not come back. So we hurry along trying to find the trail again when we eventually do we are poo free.We slow down but hurry home , I call my mom to tell her the news she breathes a happy relived "YAY!", then I try to contact my sister but she did not answer the phone, I try again no answer, after a couple min I call again NOTHING!!! so I leave a message. When finally we are step upon the driveway I call one more time she picks up the phone,and says "Yeah" I reply with "WE FOUND HER!!!" she says "really!?!" "Oh thank god!" . I make a few more calls, and turn to Sasha and thank her again and again she says "Sure thing honey." in her usual sweet tough voice, "Now let's dry off These wet dirty dogs." . Grabbing the oldest/dedicated dog towel I dry the ecstatic pouches.