Thank you for linking to the essay honoring Dawn and Mary. My brain immediately linked two parts of your essay - Butte and school shootings. Butte experienced one of the early school shootings when 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock was killed in 1994. How many students, teachers and staff have been gunned down since then? I know those words sound brutal; but that is the reality. How many education conferences have addressed this horrific topic in the past 27 years? And yet, the horror continues. How many more will die while our politicians send thoughts and prayers? Our hearts break each time we hear the now familiar news of another shooting.
"If we ever forget that all children are our children, then we are fools who have allowed memory to be murdered too, and what good are we then?"
I fear memory is being murdered by our sense of inevitability and helplessness. Dawn and Mary's families remember. Bill and Robin Bullock continue to advocate for school safety in Jeremy's memory.
When we become discouraged we must rededicate ourselves by straining our ears to hear the empty void left behind," he said.
“Listen for the voice of 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock,” Steve Bullock said. “Listen for the voices of those who have been silenced. For the pain in remembering is little compared to the pain in realizing that others may one day forget.”
Governor Steve Bullock's comments at Safe Schools Summit named for his nephew Jeremy Bullock
What a great layout. Proud of you! Dawn and Mary was beautifully crafted. We won't forget. Your one-sentence journal reminds me of the idea of lumens--see below. I wrote a thing like Lexington House a while back, made of lumens.
Lumens*
The bone-pot simmers, the lemon blossom fades.
The last leaf falls.
Regardez, beside the line of roses braving the November air,
just beyond the sage-green shutters to where
a would-be novelist blackens white pages in her chill room.
See you all when winter’s come.
*The lumen is a measure of the total amount of visible light. Also: A very short poem or line of poetry -- idea named by poet Olga Broumas.
Thanks, again and as always, for your words. Honest and heartening.
I'm sitting in a hidden alcove in a satellite campus of Southern Oregon University (Ashland) in Medford, where I am about to host a final (I prefer host to proctor, as my finals are celebratory affairs.) in classroom management for student teachers. I was a young English teacher on the Western Slope of Colorado when disaster struck at Columbine, one of my former students present there and unharmed. I recall exactly where I was and what students were with me, even as we sat on the other side of the Continental Divide from Columbine.
I read "Dawn and Mary" just now and will close my class with a reading of it. In this course, I address school shootings with law enforcement in a practical way, - what can we do to reasonably prepare - so that students (near- and present teachers) can ask the questions they all have about this dark topic. For me, it is an intense cognitive dissonance to prepare my students for the intellectual life of teaching and then segue into unthinkable disaster threat response. But it has to be done. Today, though, Brian gets the last word. Thanks for that, Chris. I appreciate it. I'm excited to read the Doyle collection you pointed out.
Nigel, I appreciate the work you do preparing your students to be teachers and shepherds of their own young students in an increasingly frightening world. I just realized this morning that current realities are causing me a crazy level of cognitive dissonance every day. Thank you for persisting in your work.
My husband and I recently visited friends who live in Newtown. They had just finished telling us how their kids who were in grade school at the time of Sandy Hook, never discuss what happened. Right then at dinner, our friends got a text that their daughter who works at a mall in Newtown, was on lockdown because there was a reported shooter in the mall. Store staff were told to shelter in place, close their gates and keep the shoppers calm. What an unfair, broken mess. And thank you for sharing that essay.
I have known Edie Clark for many years. She was and is a very special human being. In fact, when I was in my twenties(I am now on the verge of 70!), Edie gifted me with some iris bulbs from her garden when I moved into the house in the country(Surry,NH) that my then husband and I had built.
Regrettably I have lost touch with Edie. My fault. I have been through a series of situational changes during the last 20 years that have proved to be quite a distraction(divorce, caring for my elderly Mom, falling in love, etc.). I will definitely try to look Edie up. Thank you so very much for your comment.
That is such a lovely story. I took a class from Edie in grad school and she was kind and supportive to me ever since. I haven't talked with her in over a year, my fault -- similar list of family obligations and trials.
Edie became very ill from Lyme disease, which started shortly before I first met her nearly 20 years ago. She moved into Jaffrey Rehab in New Hampshire 2-3 years ago and sadly had to sell her home on Mary's Farm. Her sister was maintaining a Caring Bridge site for her because Edie's eyesight is mostly gone, but it hasn't been updated in over a year so I'm not sure if her sister's health has been poor, too. But here is the site, which has a phone number if she's still there: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/edieclark
And I don't know if you've kept up with her writing, but it's still accessible on her website, and a regional university now has all of her literary archives! https://www.edieclark.com
I'm sure she would love to hear from an old friend 💕
I contacted Yankee Publishing this morning and left a message. The editor, Mel Allen called me back with Edie’s contact information. I called Edie and we had a wonderful conversation. I mentioned your name and she asked me to send you her love. Her sense of humor is thoroughly intact. I told her about some of my past misadventures and the two of us had a pretty good laugh. It felt delicious. I asked her if there was anything I could send her and she said, in true Edie Style, “Yes, a cake with a file in it”. She is a CHAMP. I will keep in touch with her and attention to keep her amused with my various stories of navigating life under the shadow of Monadnock.
I'm so glad! You've prompted me to get back on track, too, and call her soon. Sounds like you had a wonderful conversation and like Edie is as wonderful as ever!
I've been sitting with a stone in my stomach each day I've dropped my son off at high school. I can't believe we have people growing up having to experience such trauma. The idea of a 'lock down' drill is just galling to me as it is, let alone that we live in a country that allows this to be normalized. My god. Thank you for sharing the essay--a beautiful, strong call to memory. Always feel better after reading your posts--it's what we need so much of in our world.
Thank you, Freya. What struck me during that first day was this: in a county ravaged with Covid, essentially no one at the school was wearing masks. Not teachers, not students. And I realized the same people putting others at risk via anti-mask rhetoric (let alone anti-vax rhetoric) are the same people who won't budge on gun legislation. It's like they WANT people, including children, to die. And they are the "PRO-LIFE!" nitwits too. It makes no sense to me.
Good stuff does happen! Just look at the poetry you have written and presented to us! What a gift!
Thank you for making available events and for sharing your experience in Butte. Elevation 6,000ft. Wow! Our regional landmark out this way is Mt. Monadnock. It towers above us at approx. 3,165 ft. I’ll have to look up the elevation of Keene to put all of this into perspective.
With regard to the school shootings, indeed, what will it take? May God Bless those brave women. We all hope that we would be courageous enough to sacrifice the ultimate in defense of the innocent. I think that most of us would.
Thanks again Chris for sharing the beauty of your creation with all of us.
Chris, could you consider sharing your personal email address with me? I do not have a current address for you. If you decline, it is OK. I respect your privacy. There are just times when I feel compelled to share a photo or a thought.
When I was in Crested Butte, Colorado, for the month of May, Melissa, the elevation there is 9000'! It took some getting used to, believe me. As for my email, I'm pretty open with it. I may be reached via chris [at] chrislatray [dot] com. The only caveat is I get a lot of messages these days and have a busy schedule so I'm often not able to respond as quickly as I'd like. But I do appreciate the correspondence!
I will never forget the first day dropping my eldest off at first grade and then finding a private place to sob. Not because he was growing up so fast but because school shootings were top of my mind every moment. It's been several years since then and it's still top of my mind every single damn morning.
I am so heartened to hear you're teaching again, though. That is One Very Good Thing.
My spouse it going to start traveling for work again starting in January, so my ability to go to retreats and things is disappearing, but I am sending the Silence information to anyone I can think of!
Thank you for linking to the essay honoring Dawn and Mary. My brain immediately linked two parts of your essay - Butte and school shootings. Butte experienced one of the early school shootings when 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock was killed in 1994. How many students, teachers and staff have been gunned down since then? I know those words sound brutal; but that is the reality. How many education conferences have addressed this horrific topic in the past 27 years? And yet, the horror continues. How many more will die while our politicians send thoughts and prayers? Our hearts break each time we hear the now familiar news of another shooting.
"If we ever forget that all children are our children, then we are fools who have allowed memory to be murdered too, and what good are we then?"
I fear memory is being murdered by our sense of inevitability and helplessness. Dawn and Mary's families remember. Bill and Robin Bullock continue to advocate for school safety in Jeremy's memory.
https://www.mtpr.org/montana-news/2019-08-21/25-years-later-parents-of-butte-school-shooting-victim-speak-out
May we never become desensitized to this horror. May we never look away.
Never.
When we become discouraged we must rededicate ourselves by straining our ears to hear the empty void left behind," he said.
“Listen for the voice of 11-year-old Jeremy Bullock,” Steve Bullock said. “Listen for the voices of those who have been silenced. For the pain in remembering is little compared to the pain in realizing that others may one day forget.”
Governor Steve Bullock's comments at Safe Schools Summit named for his nephew Jeremy Bullock
What a great layout. Proud of you! Dawn and Mary was beautifully crafted. We won't forget. Your one-sentence journal reminds me of the idea of lumens--see below. I wrote a thing like Lexington House a while back, made of lumens.
Lumens*
The bone-pot simmers, the lemon blossom fades.
The last leaf falls.
Regardez, beside the line of roses braving the November air,
just beyond the sage-green shutters to where
a would-be novelist blackens white pages in her chill room.
See you all when winter’s come.
*The lumen is a measure of the total amount of visible light. Also: A very short poem or line of poetry -- idea named by poet Olga Broumas.
Wonderful. Thank you, Julia!
Another beauty and filled with poetry
Thank you, Diane.
Thanks, again and as always, for your words. Honest and heartening.
I'm sitting in a hidden alcove in a satellite campus of Southern Oregon University (Ashland) in Medford, where I am about to host a final (I prefer host to proctor, as my finals are celebratory affairs.) in classroom management for student teachers. I was a young English teacher on the Western Slope of Colorado when disaster struck at Columbine, one of my former students present there and unharmed. I recall exactly where I was and what students were with me, even as we sat on the other side of the Continental Divide from Columbine.
I read "Dawn and Mary" just now and will close my class with a reading of it. In this course, I address school shootings with law enforcement in a practical way, - what can we do to reasonably prepare - so that students (near- and present teachers) can ask the questions they all have about this dark topic. For me, it is an intense cognitive dissonance to prepare my students for the intellectual life of teaching and then segue into unthinkable disaster threat response. But it has to be done. Today, though, Brian gets the last word. Thanks for that, Chris. I appreciate it. I'm excited to read the Doyle collection you pointed out.
Take care,
-Nigel Waterton
I think Brian Doyle would appreciate that. Thanks, Nigel.
Nigel, I appreciate the work you do preparing your students to be teachers and shepherds of their own young students in an increasingly frightening world. I just realized this morning that current realities are causing me a crazy level of cognitive dissonance every day. Thank you for persisting in your work.
My husband and I recently visited friends who live in Newtown. They had just finished telling us how their kids who were in grade school at the time of Sandy Hook, never discuss what happened. Right then at dinner, our friends got a text that their daughter who works at a mall in Newtown, was on lockdown because there was a reported shooter in the mall. Store staff were told to shelter in place, close their gates and keep the shoppers calm. What an unfair, broken mess. And thank you for sharing that essay.
It is an unfair, broken mess.
Antonia,
I have known Edie Clark for many years. She was and is a very special human being. In fact, when I was in my twenties(I am now on the verge of 70!), Edie gifted me with some iris bulbs from her garden when I moved into the house in the country(Surry,NH) that my then husband and I had built.
Regrettably I have lost touch with Edie. My fault. I have been through a series of situational changes during the last 20 years that have proved to be quite a distraction(divorce, caring for my elderly Mom, falling in love, etc.). I will definitely try to look Edie up. Thank you so very much for your comment.
Sincerely,
Melissa
That is such a lovely story. I took a class from Edie in grad school and she was kind and supportive to me ever since. I haven't talked with her in over a year, my fault -- similar list of family obligations and trials.
Edie became very ill from Lyme disease, which started shortly before I first met her nearly 20 years ago. She moved into Jaffrey Rehab in New Hampshire 2-3 years ago and sadly had to sell her home on Mary's Farm. Her sister was maintaining a Caring Bridge site for her because Edie's eyesight is mostly gone, but it hasn't been updated in over a year so I'm not sure if her sister's health has been poor, too. But here is the site, which has a phone number if she's still there: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/edieclark
And I don't know if you've kept up with her writing, but it's still accessible on her website, and a regional university now has all of her literary archives! https://www.edieclark.com
I'm sure she would love to hear from an old friend 💕
Antonia, thank you!
I contacted Yankee Publishing this morning and left a message. The editor, Mel Allen called me back with Edie’s contact information. I called Edie and we had a wonderful conversation. I mentioned your name and she asked me to send you her love. Her sense of humor is thoroughly intact. I told her about some of my past misadventures and the two of us had a pretty good laugh. It felt delicious. I asked her if there was anything I could send her and she said, in true Edie Style, “Yes, a cake with a file in it”. She is a CHAMP. I will keep in touch with her and attention to keep her amused with my various stories of navigating life under the shadow of Monadnock.
Thank you Antonia. You have given me a gift.
Sincerely,
Melissa
I'm so glad! You've prompted me to get back on track, too, and call her soon. Sounds like you had a wonderful conversation and like Edie is as wonderful as ever!
Antonia, I meant “intend”. Should have done some proofreading!
Thank you Chris! And by the way, the elevation of Keene, NH is 486’!
I've been sitting with a stone in my stomach each day I've dropped my son off at high school. I can't believe we have people growing up having to experience such trauma. The idea of a 'lock down' drill is just galling to me as it is, let alone that we live in a country that allows this to be normalized. My god. Thank you for sharing the essay--a beautiful, strong call to memory. Always feel better after reading your posts--it's what we need so much of in our world.
Thank you, Freya. What struck me during that first day was this: in a county ravaged with Covid, essentially no one at the school was wearing masks. Not teachers, not students. And I realized the same people putting others at risk via anti-mask rhetoric (let alone anti-vax rhetoric) are the same people who won't budge on gun legislation. It's like they WANT people, including children, to die. And they are the "PRO-LIFE!" nitwits too. It makes no sense to me.
Good stuff does happen! Just look at the poetry you have written and presented to us! What a gift!
Thank you for making available events and for sharing your experience in Butte. Elevation 6,000ft. Wow! Our regional landmark out this way is Mt. Monadnock. It towers above us at approx. 3,165 ft. I’ll have to look up the elevation of Keene to put all of this into perspective.
With regard to the school shootings, indeed, what will it take? May God Bless those brave women. We all hope that we would be courageous enough to sacrifice the ultimate in defense of the innocent. I think that most of us would.
Thanks again Chris for sharing the beauty of your creation with all of us.
Chris, could you consider sharing your personal email address with me? I do not have a current address for you. If you decline, it is OK. I respect your privacy. There are just times when I feel compelled to share a photo or a thought.
Sincerely,
Melissa
When I was in Crested Butte, Colorado, for the month of May, Melissa, the elevation there is 9000'! It took some getting used to, believe me. As for my email, I'm pretty open with it. I may be reached via chris [at] chrislatray [dot] com. The only caveat is I get a lot of messages these days and have a busy schedule so I'm often not able to respond as quickly as I'd like. But I do appreciate the correspondence!
Oh! One of my early mentors and teachers, Edie Clark, used to write about Mt Monadnock. It always made me want to visit.
Dawn and Mary was beautiful. My mother was an elementary principal for 20 years and she would have run toward the bullets to save her kids.
Gratitude for your mother....
Thanks for sharing the Butte article! I hadn’t seen it and loved the poems.
Thanks, Maddie!
Dawn and Mary. Damn. I was just in Keene, NH in October. Beautiful area.
It IS beautiful up there.
I will never forget the first day dropping my eldest off at first grade and then finding a private place to sob. Not because he was growing up so fast but because school shootings were top of my mind every moment. It's been several years since then and it's still top of my mind every single damn morning.
I am so heartened to hear you're teaching again, though. That is One Very Good Thing.
My spouse it going to start traveling for work again starting in January, so my ability to go to retreats and things is disappearing, but I am sending the Silence information to anyone I can think of!
This is me putting my foot in the door to keep our discussed get-together redux from being shut out!
Absolutely! I am having visions of a Bison Range walk ... or maybe just Missoula, since I do need to get down there for some things at some point!
Either! Both!
Antonia, I am so glad!
Could you consider giving me your email address? Mine is melissamagaletta@icloud.com.
Have a wonderful day!