Who Is Your Favorite Magical Character?

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I am beginning a new series for this blog today about favorite characters.  I will begin with magical/mystical characters, but the one requirement for these choices is that they are from books or poetry or drama–some kind of writing.

When I ask who is your favorite magical/mystical character, I mean specifically any character who can perform magic, not simply someone who appears in a magical world.

For me, this is very difficult, because I have so many from which I can choose; among them are Merlin from Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory, Prospero from The Tempest by Shakespeare, Harry Potter and Dumbledore from The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, and Gandalf from The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. I am sure I am forgetting some, but I will make a choice, and my favorite magical character is Gandalf!

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So,  I ask all of you: who is your favorite magical/mystical character?

What Is One Of Your Favorite Holiday Movies?

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I have been writing a few blogposts about favorite Christmas movies, and I have been wondering about what films the rest of you like.  There are so many to choose from, but please let me know what you look forward to seeing the most.

So, I ask: what is one of your favorite holiday movies?

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Happy Thanksgiving — 2019 — For What Are You Grateful?

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Please remember to recognize the positives and the blessings in your lives.

Enjoy your feasts, your gatherings, and your traditions. And please remember to give thanks to those who help us in many ways. So many are away from home, friends, and family, and we should all give them a moment of thanks.

Please try to remember those who are less fortunate, and try to find some kindness and to continue to spread it throughout the year.

To my friends, including my many blogging friends, and family, –thank you!

I would also like to ask all of you:  For what are you thankful?

Happy Thanksgiving!

With What Do You Write?

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I have written posts in the past asking questions such as — where do you write and when do you write?  I thought it was time to ask another such writing question.

With what do you write?  What is your favorite instrument? Is it a computer, a pen, or even a phone?

When I create a first draft, I use a pen and legal pad, because I find it allows my mind and imagination to engage in ways that does not happen at the keyboard. I am not saying this is the best way, only that it is my way. I realize that I may be old-fashioned, indeed, a dinosaur with this approach.

When I revise, however, I use the computer. Revision is a different writing task from drafting, and I need to then take my legal pads and transfer that information in draft 2 to a Word doc.

So, I am curious: with what do you write?

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Quotations on Questions

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“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important  thing is not to stop questioning.”

                                                          Albert Einstein

 

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“. . . re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

                                                              Walt Whitman

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

                              Socrates

 

“The purpose of education should not be the accumulation of facts but the gaining of the ability to question everything.”

                                                            Charles F. French

 

Who Are Your Favorite Latin American Poets?

As I continue this series on favorite writers, I am going to try to continue to hone in more specifically on regions as well as eras, although not always in the same post! For today’s question, I would like to learn who are some of your favorite Latin American poets. Unfortunately for me, I do not speak Spanish, so I can only address the writings of the following artists as their work appeared in translation. I am hoping, however, that the translations are accurate.

Here are a few of my most admired Latin American poets:

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Pablo Neruda

Neruda’s work might be among the best known poetry of any time or place in the world. I find his work to be astounding in its depth and breadth of subject. He was a well known political activist as well as a writer of some of the most beautiful love poetry. Neruda, from Chile, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1971.

 

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Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral, of Chile, also won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1945), and has produced an enormous body of poetic work. Her work often encompasses a wide range of themes: among them: love, sorrow, bitterness, hope for the world, family, motherhood and the issue of Latin American identity.

 

(https://en.wikipedia.org–Photograph by Jonn Leffman)

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz completes this triumvirate of winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1990). Paz is one of the most well known Mexican poets, and his work was widely varied and dealt with many themes. A few are love, death, passion, natural beauty, as well as the Modern world and surrealism.

 

So I ask all of you–who are some of your favorite Latin American poets?

The Wisdom of Walt Whitman–to Question Everything

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I have taught Walt Whitman in several classes both at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA and at the Wescoe School of Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, in traditional and adult classes.

This excerpt is from his introduction to the 1855 First Edition of Leaves of Grass.

(http://www.whitmanarchive.org)

Whitman was one of the greatest American poets and has been called the Bard of Democracy. He challenged the existing views of normalcy in the United States across a wide range of topics. We live in a time, perhaps even more than in the 1800s, when great pressure exists to conform to what society defines normalcy to be. I believe it is crucial for individuals to find out who they are, for what they have passions, and what they believe. With this thought in mind, I want to share this small excerpt:

“re-examine all you have been told at church or school or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem”

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Whitman shattered the conventions of his time, and his admonition to us to question everything is as important today as it was in the mid-1800s.

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Please, keep Whitman’s idea in mind, and question everything.