The buzz...

I just returned from a great movie, Akeelah and the Bee. I think part of the draw to this movie for me is the literature lover in me. Literature is words, eloquently placed on paper in a way that is both challenging and enticing to a reader and so the spelling bees become a literature lover's playground. I would also say I enjoyed Akeelah because she represents my students and what some of them have achieved and most of them have the potential to achieve, but haven't. There is a great scene in the movie where Laurence Fishburne's character Dr. Larabie tells Akeelah that her "ghetto trash talk" isn't allowed in his backyard. That backyard is my classroom and Laurence Fishburne is me! This movie was not necessarily overwhelmingly profound, but was humorous and, if you are a lover of words like myself, you will find yourself spelling the words as Akeelah does (well, some of them) and tapping your hand right along with her. Maybe not a MUST see at the movies, but definitely a must see sometime.

A quote I have heard part of many times, but not ever heard completely is this one. I love it and loved the part it played in Akeelah and the Bee.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992 (commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela, 1994 inauguration speech)

I also really like this quote I found while searching for the previous one.

"Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there." ~Henry Miller, Sexus