handwritten on September 23, 2019
In poetry club today we talked about the birth of jazz poetry and the art behind improv. And so I played four clips (5 minutes or so each) of great jazzers through the ages, and I asked each of them to create what they felt on paper. When I first demonstrated using pastels on a small piece of white paper, they giggled nervously. They looked around at eachother and then me and said, "Mrs. Amoscato I thought you were a good artist." I said, "You don't like my painting?" with a smile. "it's just messy" one of my other students said. "That's not art."
We got into this whole 6 minute discussion of what makes art...art. And I explained to them that some of the greatest jazz songs ever invented...
handwritten on September 22, 2019
There were two important lessons I learned from today. The first one was sitting to a pretty excellent sermon in church today about the outlook of challenges and the importance of realizing that moments where you feel hopeless are just realizations that you are living a life full of love. Because to lose hope means you have to care first. Hopelessness is not the absence of love but in the state of finding and wanting to climb the mountain towards greater goodness.
I think sometimes as humans, we fall into tiny puddles of hopelessness because life does happen and so realizing these are actually moments of care creates such a new and inspirint perspective. With the start of October coming...
handwritten on September 21, 2019
Sometimes it's the tiniest of crunches that create the biggest whimsies. Tonight was my mother-in-law's birthday and we decided upon a wonderful tai place with umbrellas hanging outside and the most peaceful green garden undercoving to celebrate a birthday. We were placed beside a waterfall with a trickling that left your insides feeling rather serene.
The coined word of the night was "crunch." She loved the beef because it had a "crunch" and the tofu because it had a "crunch." We had a sampling of miniature french desserts from a bakery near where we live and her favorite dessert was a chocolate mound with a little "crunch" on the outside and a little "crunch" on the bottom. She must have...
handwritten on September 20, 2019
I think I realized the exact opposite definition of whimsy today and it is "catch up." But the phrase itself "catch up" is often seen as someone or something being ahead of where you are supposed to be. And that very definition is what causes life and your soul to become a race that constantly feels defeated because the very truth of the matter is: You will never be "caught up" in work, in life, in your relationships, in your heart, in the coffee that you drink, in the music that you sing, in the tune that you hear...
And I think as soon as we realize this fact: we spend less time "catching up" and more time "catching up" or the second definition "meeting another." But to me, that second...
handwritten on September 19, 2019
We all have outfits that exemplify the whimsy inside of us. For me, I have told my students time and time again "these are my happy pants." Happy pants for me are pants that give me flexibility even though I'm completely unflexible. They are pants that have design and material so flimsy you think when you are running, you have no pants on at all. They are pants that do not hug tight but fly free.
I think some have inquired through the years why it is that I tend to wear oversized clothing. Do you not like tight clothing? Why do you get a medium when you could wear a small? Why do you like big t-shirts? Don't you want a sweatshirt that fits closer?
I think for me, I don't like to feel...
