Peace by Piece

Right at this very moment I am most thankful that I have finished my paper for the class "Building a Culture of Peace.  It last clocked in at 40 pages.  It took me most of one week to write.  Literally, MOST of one week.  Each morning I parked myself at our kitchen counter with my coffee cup and computer and could be found there until evening.  My roommate Jen commented this morning that it's like groundhog day, I'm always there when she wakes up!  While writing this paper I felt like it sucked.  Some of my words and sections seemed amazingly brilliant yet made no sense while others just made no sense.  Somehow, today, it all came together.  Here is a piece of my intro: Creating a culture of peace is creating a sustainable future for generations to come.   It supports empathy, compassion, and good communication with all people regardless of race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, gender, ability and sexual preference.   I...

There is one thing that I look forward to each week with anticipation and joy.  It's not quite like Christmas morning because it happens every week.  Like Christmas, I never tire of the ritual even if it requires me to get out of bed earlier than I would prefer.  Unlike Christmas, it happens every Saturday.  It turns this sacred day, or should I say morning, that comes after every college student's well deserved Friday night, from untroubled, uninterrupted sleep into another kind of ritual.   I haven't considered Saturday to be a perfect day for sleeping in quite some time. I was usually planning some adventurous hike up a mountain that may or may not have included beautiful powder turns on the way down.  It is still not a perfect day for sleeping since Saturday brings with it the much anticipated, weekly, colorful and vibrant market.  Yes!  This Colorado mountain girl is in love with Costa Rican produce.  Will I ever tire of drinking fresh c...

As I mentioned in my last post, after the screening of Hello Herman, there was a question and answer session.  This session was led by Oscar Torres, who is also working on the movie.  Oscar Torres wrote and directed Voces Inocentes , a biographical account of his experience growing up during the civil war in El Salvador.  I have used this movie in my classroom many times.  It is visually and emotionally powerful which helps the kids to begin to understand and feel the impossible, unfair situations faced by many.  I am a big fan.  And Oscar Torres was standing right there, five feet from me and all I could do was cry.  As I mentioned earlier, I was crying for the world so it was no small thing.  I so wanted to ask some questions and give my impressions of this new movie but I just couldn't pull myself together. I cried all the way home on the bus.  I thought about it some more.  It's nice to put a positive spin on things and say "That's...

It's been a while.  Times have been busy and full of amazing experiences, hard work, and beautiful people. Most recently, a new featured film titled Hello Herman  was screened at school.  Students were invited to come watch and give constructive feedback.  The film is still in the editing process so this was an amazing opportunity for both students and producers. Hello Herman is about a boy.  It's about a boy who commits a mass shooting at his school but it is his story and how he arrived at the conclusion to take these drastic and unimaginable measures to get the attention of the world.  This movie decidedly takes a one sided point of view, but it is so powerful.  There are stereotypes used, but what are stereotypes if not a generalization of some form of truth? At the end of this movie, I cried.  I cried and I cried uncontrollably.  I could not pull myself together.  The question and answer session resumed around me and I listened,...