Of Rules and Obedience

“Can’t she see what’s going to happen?” Calvin asked.

“Oh, not in this kind of thing.” Mrs. Whatsit sounded surprised at his question. “If we knew ahead of time what was going to happen we’d be—we’d be like the people on Camazotz, with no lives of our own, with everything all planned and done for us. How can I explain it to you? Oh, I know. In your language you have a form of poetry called a sonnet.”

“Yes, yes,” Calvin said impatiently. “What’s that got to do with the Happy Medium?”

“Kindly pay me the courtesy of listening to me.” Mrs. Watsit’s voice was stern, and for a moment Calvin stopped pawing the ground like a nervous colt. “It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not?”

“Yes.”

“There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That’s a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?”

“Yes.” Calvin nodded.

“And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?”

“No.”

“But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, doesn’t he?”

“Yes.” Calvin nodded again.

“So,” Mrs. Whatsit said.

“So what?”

“Oh do not be stupid, boy!” Mrs. Whatsit scolded. “You know perfectly well what I am driving at!”

“You mean you’re comparing our lives to a sonnet? A strict form, but freedom within it?”

“Yes.” Mrs. Watsit said. “You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” What you say is completely up to you.”


Excerpt from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Girl Power

Top: Jennifer, Windy, Emily, Genni
Bottom: Miranda, Sophie, Ranie

I stumbled across some old pictures tonight, they are from my freshman year at Ricks College. I lived with some of the craziest girls I've ever met. Each of them was a blast. However they were definitely not the typical lot of girls I would normally hang out with. They were girly girls. Those 4 months were a lot of fun, and an eye opener to a lot of new things for me.

I look at this picture and can hardly believe that is me!

Rainy Day Music

There's a local Seattle artist I've been a fan of for a couple of years who has the perfect music to listen to on a soft rainy afternoon. Like this afternoon is. Perhaps you can enjoy a little of it with me.

Murphy’s Law or Count Your Many Blessings

Murphy’s Law has been officially dubbed “Windy’s Law”. It all started two weeks ago when everything was going right. Then

• I woke up with a cough that later turned into Bronchitis and has lasted 2+ weeks
• I took the worst midterm of my life
• I canceled 3 fun events I’d been looking forward to for weeks due to being sick
• My neck pain from the car accident (3 years ago) has returned since I’ve spent an extra amount of time in bed being sick
• While driving my car it began to do a crazy lurching motion in second gear
• I got my grade back on my midterm, lowest math grade of my life
• After spending months inquiring about a large event I’m finally given my list of responsibilities with 2 weeks to prepare
• The hard drive on my computer completely fried, it’s gone for good
• I fell far behind in school because I had no computer for several days
• Then to top things off a lamp in my bedroom that was connected to the ceiling spontaneously snapped and came crashing down

For your own safety I recommend avoiding any near proximity to me. I fully expect my blackberry to explode in the next couple of days. Consider yourself warned.

I don’t mean to complain. Really it’s all laughable at this point. When I stop to think about all of it I realize how blessed I actually am. No really, I mean it.

• It was a bad midterm grade, but I actually passed and I received above the class average (which failed)
• I took my car to the shop to find out the problem was very inexpensive to fix
• Also if I’d waited another week to take my car in it would have been extremely expensive to fix, I caught the problem just in time
• My Chiropractor could tell I was having more pain than usual and got me in for an extra visit this week and I’m doing much better now
• All my data on the hard drive turned out to be recoverable (for a small fee)
• My dad knows computers well enough to get mine back up and running rather quickly considering what happened
• When the lamp came crashing down it only bumped into my guitar and no damage was done, although it scared the heebeegeebee’s out of me
• I did my taxes and will be receiving a nice chunk of my money back to pay for my expensive bad luck

I guess life has a way of evening itself out. Although I’m fresh out of extra tax returns to pay for a new phone (do you hear me blackberry? no exploding!).

How has your week been? It must have been better than the Last Guy.