Collective Noun for Humans in the Wild

Parkland

After Sandyhook (Dec 14, 2012) , I kept the kids home for the next week, because I couldn't bear to drop them off at school. Then Christmas break happened, and it was the new year, and they had to go back, and I remember I kept lingering in the kindergarten hallway having random kids excitedly come up to tell me about their Christmas presents--I didn't know all of them, I just happened to be taller than them... and there. Kids are... my heart.

Anyway--the Parkland, FL shooting was yesterday and today I dropped Nu off at school as always with a quick hug and kiss and I love you... and that was that.

Even I have gotten inured to this nonsense.

And today I look at this reel of the victims, and it hits all over again.


_

First Cake

 It's chocolate and raspberry--or as she put it,

"Two iconic valentine's day flavors."

First taste of cake. I want to eat those arms and fingers too. 

(Pic courtesy Cousin N on FB)

_

Mixed Intentions

Big A: "I thought it was cute that Huckie made her own bed out of pillows. Then I realized she was probably just hoarding them to spite Scoutie."

_

Winter's Fangs

_

Michigan Mardi Gras

The bird float is made of Meijer's plastic bags:

State pride and earth love :) 

_

Junk Food and Socio-economic Class

I may be crying a little after reading how junk food has different values and meanings dependent on families' socio-economic status.

"For parents raising their kids in poverty, having to say "no" was a part of daily life. Their financial circumstances forced them to deny their children's requests — for a new pair of Nikes, say, or a trip to Disneyland — all the time. This wasn't tough for the kids alone; it also left the poor parents feeling guilty and inadequate. 

Next to all the things poor parents truly couldn't afford, junk food was something they could often say "yes" to. Poor parents told me they could almost always scrounge up a dollar to buy their kids a can of soda or a bag of chips. So when poor parents could afford to oblige such requests, they did."

In the Valley

The valley is empty
but threaded with ice

our lives have opened
like wave upon wave

I pretend I am a mother
duck, swanning placid

kids, cubs, pups, chicks
follow me automatically

through the feathered clefts
of childish hunger and snow

_

Intimacy and Teens

I already ruined advertisements for my students with Jean Kilbourne's Killing Us Softly, and now I want everyone to read this story of porn educators and how they're attempting to unpack and expose the sad, porn-inspired performativity of  teenage sex. It's awful enough that we have no good sex ed, but worse that there's seemingly universal and facile access to bad porn:

"It’s not surprising, then, that some adolescents use porn as a how-to guide. In a study that Rothman carried out in 2016 of 72 high schoolers ages 16 and 17, teenagers reported that porn was their primary source for information about sex — more than friends, siblings, schools or parents."

_ 

Nerd and Proud

The literature nerd in me sees the literature nerd in you.

Type in an author's name, and you can keep on finding others to follow. 

This must be what a rabbit hole feels like.

http://www.literature-map.com/ 

_

#HamiltonNerds