Candles and Renewal

[pbnesbit at msn.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Ebony AKA AngieJ" <ebonyink at h...> wrote:
> In honor of the release of the Comic Relief HP textbooks today, I 
> wanted to post a poem and a story that always get me all weepy.  
Both 
> are by Sharon Draper, 1997 U.S. Department of Education Teacher of 
> the Year.  Ms. Draper is also an award-winning YA novelist.  (Yes, 
> she's my role model.)
> 
> Every person who works with children and teens should purchase Ms. 
> Draper's book "Teaching From The Heart".  It's awesome--just the 
sort 
> of thing you want to read for a little pick-me-up on those Jonah 
days.
> 
> The poem, "Candles", always reminds me of all children everywhere.
> 
> Candles
> --by Sharon Draper
> 
> This candle is Donna who is hurting and thin.
> This candle is Tina who tries
> but can never figure out the factor of ten.
> This candle is Lisa who lies.
> 
> This candle is Robert who lives on a farm
> and Leon who lives all alone.
> It's Mona and Alex and Buddy and Kim
> whose gang friends have turned them to stone.
> 
> This candle is Aswad and Chengli and Raul
> And Kelly and Kathy and Jean
> who share the same classroom and same childhood fears
> of monsters or hunger or dreams.
> 
> This candle is teachers, who stay late at night
> grading papers or coaching a game,
> who never get glory or thank-yous or chalk
> but always live up to their name.
> 
> If the glow from one candle can brighten a room
> the glow from three million can blind!
> And when one student smiles and says, "Hey, now I get it!"
> That candle makes all of us shine!
> 
> ===
> Ms. Draper always tells stories when she speaks, and this next one 
is 
> my favorite.  It reminds me of the poem, "The House By the Side of 
> the Road"... can't remember the poet right now.  In "Renewal", 
Misty 
> is the archetypal child.
> 
> Renewal
> --by Sharon Draper
> 
> On the outskirts of the town in which a tiny girl named Misty 
lived, 
> an old man, the oldest in town, labored alone near a large chasm.  
> His back was bent with age, and his movements were slow and 
sometimes 
> painful.  But every day he could be seen, cane in one hand, hammer 
or 
> saw in the other, trudging slowly to the spot near the wide valley.
> 
> He cleared bushes, chopped trees, and sawed them into planks.  
Every 
> day he worked silently in the hot sun or the cold rain, oblivious 
of 
> travelers or distracters.  Gradually it became clear what he was 
> doing.  He was building a bridge across the chasm.
> 
> Little Misty rode her bicycle to that place one day.  She watched 
the 
> old man work, then asked him, "What are you doing, sir?"
> 
> The old man stopped his hammering and smiled.  "You are the first 
one 
> to ask me what I'm doing," he declared.
> 
> "So tell me," Misty repeated.  "What are you building?"
> 
> "I'm building a bridge," the old man said proudly.
> 
> "Why?" Misty asked bluntly.
> 
> "To build a path to the other side," the old man replied with just 
as 
> much bluntness.
> 
> "But you're *old*," Misty continued with the honesty of a 
> child.  "You won't have much chance to go on to the forest on the 
> other side of the chasm."
> 
> "You're right," the old man agreed.  He was smiling.  "I'll have 
very 
> little need and very little reason to ever go across this bridge."
> 
> "So why are you building it?" Misty asked.  "Isn't that just a 
waste 
> of time?"
> 
> "No, my child," the old man replied, ever so gently.  "I'm building 
> this bridge for you."
> -------------
> 
> Thanks to Joanne Rowling, who is a world-famous author with a 
> teacher's heart inside.  It thrilled me to no end to read in the 
chat 
> transcript that if she wasn't famous, she'd be teaching French in 
> Edinburgh.  :-)
> 
> And continued grace and peace to all those the world over who have 
a 
> heart for children.
> 
> --Ebony AKA AngieJ
> 
> "Dear Lord, be good to me...
> The sea is so wide and my boat is so small."
> --Motto, Children's Defense Fund, Washington, D.C.


Oh, gosh, Eb, you did it to me *again*.  This is just beautiful.  
Thanks from the bottom of my heart.  

Peace & Plenty, 

Parker