Temple Grandin

I just finished watching Temple Grandin's talk when she came to Mount Holyoke this past week. I highly recommend you watch it. It's absolutely fascinating. She talked about autism, animals and the need to fight overly abstract thinking because often enough it doesn't relate at all to the field of study in practical terms. I kept thinking about Waldorf Education and how it really gives a strong foundation in all types of different fields. Temple Grandin supports hands-on learning and is really concerned about the  decrease of these classrooms in schools.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Almost the End

With all the Harry Potter hype surrounding me this Thanksgiving, it's impossible not to write a post talking about how Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 1 is amazing. I thought it was the best movie of the series excluding the first two movies. I absolutely adored it. It was smart, funny, quick-paced, sad, and scary and left you, unlike other of the films, satisfied that the director and the film team had accomplished their goal of telling a story. I didn't leave wishing this line had been added or that scene added. The film was concise, poignant and a brilliant finish to a wonderful Harry Potter era. I cannot wait to see the final installment in July. David Yates outshone himself and the way the characters were represented really illustrated their complexity.

Let it Go

Enough
by Jeffrey Harrison

It's a gift, this cloudless November morning
warm enough for you to walk without a jacket
along your favorite path. The rhythmic shushing
of your feet through fallen leaves should be 
enough to quiet the mind, so it surprises you 
when you catch yourself telling off your boss
for a decade of accumulated injustices,
all the things you've never said circling inside you.

It's the rising wind that pulls you out of it,
and you look up to see a cloud of leaves
swirling in sunlight, flickering against the blue
and rising above the treetops, as if the whole day
were sighing, Let it go, let it go,
for this moment at least, let it all go.

MHC Archives

The Mount Holyoke Archives are pretty amazing and fascinating, even though haven't visited them yet. It's on my to do list--I wish the college would do more classes that involved archival research on Mt. Holyoke because right now there is an exhibit in the library atrium that chronicles the use of food at MHC. Upon clicking the pictures I find that we have a growing digital collections of images. Here is a picture of a senior dance in 1941 and Chapin is packed to the brim.