Comments for Changing Lives, Changing Minds: A Changing Lives Through Literature Blog

Comment on Down there on a Visit Part II by Lori B

Lori B — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:17:49 +0000

I really enjoyed this post. It is a great story of a journey – leaving the comfortable for the unknown, and possibly unknowable, and coming back changed from the experience. Also, the idea of bearing witness openly and evenly – not judging on the basis of rules and aversions we are taught; beauty vs. ugly, good vs. evil, usefulness vs. uselessness, etc. – has so many possibilities for storytelling and for experiencing life. And I empathize with that feeling after a taking journey, the relief of returning to work, work being home in that it is our life’s energy applied to a tangible outcome – the story we invent for ourselves really…

Comment on Down there on a Visit Part II by Beth

Beth — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:42:48 +0000

I think Bert makes a great point about “home” being something/someone/somewhere to return to. A book could certainly be that something or someone. Maybe part of being homeless is losing that connection to relatives, friends, or just people we relate to. Bert talks about feeling homesick for a place he can’t get back to, but knows he still has a place in the world.

That desire to hold on to things that we can’t hold on to (or were never there to begin with, maybe) reminds me of Faulkner’s “backward looking ghosts” in Absalom, Absalom! When we search too much for the past, Faulkner suggests, we lose our connection to the present.

Comment on Down there on a Visit Part II by Bob

Bob — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:27:38 +0000

Thanks again Bert for this poetic rendering of this journey. You seem to capture an important truth here. Is it the Buddha consciousness? I often think now that “home” is best found in the texts we read. I wonder what others think.

Comment on Down There on a Visit Part I by Down there for a Visit Part II « Changing Lives, Changing Minds: A Changing Lives Through Literature Blog

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:08:32 +0000

[...] This is part 2 of 3 in “Down there for a Visit.” Read part 1 [...]

Comment on Down There on a Visit Part I by Jerry Waxler

Jerry Waxler — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:45:29 +0000

I’ve just started reading Mark Salzman’s book “True Notebooks” about teaching at InsideOut, a juvenile detention center writing program in LA. The program’s website is at http://www.insideoutwriters.org/

So now I know of three writing programs: Freedom Writers, InsideOut Writers, and CLTL. Except they are all different and spread all over the place. So who coordinates all these things so they can build national momentum?

Forgive the questions unrelated to a post. Please let me know where would be a better place to post them. I’m in southeast Pennsylvania.

Jerry Waxler

Comment on Down There on a Visit Part I by Allan McDougall

Allan McDougall — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:40:13 +0000

Very provoking post, Bert. I can attest first hand to your generosity of spirit

Comment on Down There on a Visit Part I by David Sarles

David Sarles — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:32:10 +0000

For a number of months, the author Colum McCann lived among the tunnel people in New York, researching his book, This Side of Brightness. His ‘openness’ to their lives and needs came from his sacrifices in living as they lived day after day. Both toughness and tenderness were shared. McCann gained the same understanding shared by CLTL participants. We can see their experiences better through his writing and through yours, Bert.

Comment on Down There on a Visit Part I by Bob

Bob — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:19:38 +0000

Wonderful, Bert! Moving. I look forward to the rest of it. And the ending here: “…the woman who gave the dollar never looked at her.” Isn’t that the shame of it? We cannot look at ourselves all the way through. We don’t dare. Courageous work, Bert. Keep it up.

Comment on Rescue, Redemption, and the Heroic Journey by Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:24:20 +0000

I guess I see many heroic stories as anti-heroic – or that the only heros are anti-heroes who becomes heroic by staying with the struggle. I certainly agree that life is a “series of interactions with a vast spectrum of anti-heroes.” Jane Eyre was an anti-hero by fate – being an orphan meant designation as a second-class citizen in Victorian literature. The anti-hero by default either struggles to rise beyond expectations or becomes mired in bitterness. I guess the most effective stories for me are anti-heroes who struggle to become somehow heroic – although not always in ways that meet societies expectations. Most troubled people I know are anti-heroes because of circumstances and sometimes struggle to free their psyche from that role – usually only with support of a caring person or group – like CLTL!

Comment on Rescue, Redemption, and the Heroic Journey by Beth

Beth — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:53:24 +0000

I agree. I think there is an anti-hero in all of us, which makes our struggle that much harder but also very human. Reading a tragic or sad story can be cathartic, like the way listening to a very sad song can make me feel good. As Lori says, part of the journey is about “connection.”