Everyman

"For a while he was Everyman, and thus proof (as if one needed it) that no man is ordinary." 

My AP class always reads "Everyman," a medieval morality play. We normally have a discussion about the play, link it to Donne's "Meditation 17" and some other works (a line from Caesar), and then writer our own version of it. It's funny because I don't necessarily love this work or this day, but my kids always seem to connect with it.

This year I decided to spend a little time discussing the play and then take the thread of the "Everyman" archetype from it and dig around in it a while. I made slideshow of images with that theme (advertisements, characters from popular lit, IKEA, etc) and then I read them my very favorite short piece from when I taught sophomores, a piece that isn't even in the new book. It's called "The Man in the Water" by Roger Rosenblatt and it was originally published in Time magazine. As I read that piece aloud, I could feel the swells of the water on that frigid day. I could feel my breath catch as I watched, horrified, along with the rest of the nation. I got goosebumps at the beauty of the writing and the depth of the message. And for just a minute, I forgot that my class was there. It was just me and an incredible piece of writing, and I was basking in the words and the ideas. When I read the last line and looked up,  little startled to see them there in front of me, I couldn't resist the rush of pure euphoria that flowed out of me in the form of totally going English teacher geek on them. This piece DAZZLES me. It INSPIRES me. It REMINDS me that we all have a choice every day about which one of those people living inside us is going to take over our "Everyman".... is the hero here today, or is it the villain? Or is it the apathetic bystander? Because as he points out in this work, we hold the power of life and death in our hands every single day.

After we talked a little about it, I showed them an awesome TED Talk that I'll link here. TED Talks make me feel like I could run through walls. They are like bottling up a Ron Crawford speech and making them all available at the click of a mouse. I've been thinking a lot the last few days about a bucket list and I decided today that delivering a TED Talk is on mine, which is incredible when you think of my absolute terror of public speaking as recently as a few years ago. 

In searching for a TED Talk on what the points I wanted to make, I found a couple of other great ones I'll link as well. They are powerful.

Love Letters to Strangers

The Extraordinary Power of Ordinary People

Today was a day in 1st period that made me dread the day I am no longer in a classroom. Yesterday and Monday were those days in 2nd and 4th period. I don't know how I got so lucky to do this work but I'm so, so thankful I did.