 "In Maurice Sendak's Pierre, a child responds to all parental inquiries by saying, 'I don't care.' When he encounters a lion who offers to eat him, and responds with his habitual 'I don't care,' the lion pounces and devours him. The book is the perfect exposition of acedia; happily, when the lion is shaken upside down, Pierre emerges, laughing because he is not dead, and because life is worth living." Kathleen Norris
“The question is not, -- how much does the youth know when he has finished his education -- but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” Charlotte Mason And that's a wrap on this year's One Hundred Days, but I hope it's just the beginning of our keeping and caring.
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 photo Laurie Bestvater "...whose chief business in life is the navigation of an unknown craft." ~ Charlotte Mason
Have these days of keeping made us clearer about our work?  Guardian reports:
"Not having cellphone allowed US boy to save runaway bus from crashing" (He was the only one paying attention.) "It’s a very powerful lesson, said his father, " maybe a change-the-world kind of lesson.” "Not so long ago we were never checking anything in our hands, scrolling down, pecking with a finger, obsessively tuning in. My entire childhood did not involve a single deletion. These are relatively new acts on earth.
In those archaic but still vivid days, there might be a meandering walk into trees, an all-day bike ride, a backyard conversation with pines, a dig in the dirt, to find our messages. When we got home, there was nothing to check or catch up on - no one speaking to us in our absence. " Naomi Shihab Nye I really want to know, where are you finding your "messages?" Are you a Keeper yet?  "It is difficult to find a name which covers what we are and what we may become, but let us call it philosophy; for to know ourselves is wisdom. We all like to get what we call knowledge of ourselves from phrenologists, readers of handwriting, and the like, and from the polite sayings of our acquaintances. But this is the knowledge that puffeth up, because it is usually flattering and, therefore, false. We may deserve praise for the thing we are praised for; but flattery fills us with the notion that we are made up of this or the other charming quality, and that those of our friends who see another side are unkind and unjust." ~ Charlotte Mason, Vol. IV
Keeping is like a tea party with oneself, don't you think?  Keeping true education - "desire will do its devoir."
"Habit is Ten Natures."
Have you noticed anything changing as a result of a simple keeping practice? Magical math: One habit is more than the sum of its parts?  design by Abigail Gray Swartz "The truth is, we are in the throes of an educational revolution; we are emerging from chaos rather than about to plunge into it; we are beginning to recognise that education is the applied science of life, and that we really have existing material in the philosophy of the ages and the science of the day to formulate an educational code whereby we may order the lives of our children and regulate our own." Charlotte Mason Day 50! Halfway through the Hundred Days of Keeping and celebrating the season of Eastertide and Mason's efforts in this "Redeemed World." Do you feel a revolution coming? What kinds of things are you seeing through your keeping? It's never too late to join....  "I never thought of them as a collection or even something valuable but when I see them all together in a box I feel I need to take care of my little babies." Jose Naranja
Do you have a little love for your notebook? We're in good company!  Fortitude Sandro Botticelli (Florence 1445 -1510) "I have had to fight every inch of the way we have come and I sit like Botticelli's 'Fortitude,' sword in hand, dreading unspeakably a possible affray."
The Story of Charlotte Mason via Anne White Among other things, this keeping is an exercise of Will. We're one third in! |
"Thus, I propose that the middle of February remind CM admirers
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