sol25 March 18 Secret Lives

 

Recently, I found out a friend was a survivor of both World Trade Center bombings. It really got me thinking of how little we know of the people we interact with in our lives. As I lay in bed that night, I was thinking about my secrets: 

1) I love to wake up at the beach and head for a walk with the orange sun on the horizon; yet, my first trip to the beach (ever) involved camping in an old, hot Army tent (sleeping on the ground on top of disgusting sleeping bags that had seen better days) when I was in my 20's. 

2) I collect old basal readers. I started with a few from my grandmother, but my collection is much larger now! Amazingly, the trends in reading instruction have stood the same over the last 150 years. We have moved from whole word to phonics to mean-based approaches again and again and again.  The old basal readers even bashed the "old" to them approaches. 

3) I have 2 children(who are not really secrets but who have grown up to be amazing adults). I have 3 college degrees (including a PhD spread over 30 years). I have 4 dental implants (and my dentist has had several Mercedes).  

4) There are 19 people who call me "Aunt" or "Auntie" and 19 people who call me a "Great-Auntie."  I adore them all and am grateful for the opportunities to watch them learn and grow. 

5) I moved from New York to Selma, Alabama shortly before the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I was a tween at the time and was not a "happy camper." Yet, I learned about families living in abject poverty as well as overt discrimination.  These lessons about diverse viewpoints have shaped my own life's work and thinking.  I am grateful, now, for that move.  

6) I had many students who came from the estate of Sun Myung Moon. At the request of a student and his parents, I attended a "Moonie" equivalent of a christening for a child.  It was a strange-to-me experience but gave me great insight into a very different lifestyle.