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9.19 Just Words

Just finished previewing the film of The Miracle Worker for class tomorrow. It has been quite a while since I'd seen it last. I'll have to trim it a little to fit into two class periods, but I think it will be worth seeing because so much of its heart occurs beyond the dialogue. Patty Duke's work in it is timeless, very few false steps. Bancroft is pretty awesome too.

She's got one speech that kind of announces itself as a Big Thematic Moment. It comes, as these things will, right at the low point when Annie realizes that she hasn't succeeded.

I wanted to teach you­oh, everything the earth is full of, Helen, everything on it that's ours for a wink and it's gone, and what we are on it, the­light we bring to it and leave behind in­words, why, you can see five thousand years back in a light of words, everything we feel, think, know­and share, in words, so not a soul is in darkness, or done with, even in the grave. And I know, I know, one word and I can­put the world in your hand­and whatever it is to me, I won't take less!

This kind of stuff gets an English teacher's blood pumping. Sure, it's pretty didactic, heavy-handed even, but it's one of those moments that helps us remember the nobility and necessity of our calling. Language is the key, and we're out here every day persisting in the struggle to open more doors, bring more light and in-sight. Because life is too short to have eyes closed, ears plugged­and mind dark.

Enough preaching for now.

Or not. I read a piece in the Perspective section of the Trib this morning that rings very true. Elizabeth Austin is reflecting on the horrors of high school social groups, the insiders and the outsiders, the popular crowd and the losers. She speaks of how justified the outsiders (including herself) feel in their vengeful animosity toward the golden boys and girls who seem to have it all. One of her conclusions is worth replaying.

"Absent access to automatic weapons, there isn't much difference between an alienated boy in a long black trenchcoat and a sharp-tongued girl in an embroidered peasant blouse. I now understand that taking shots -real or verbal - at easy targets is always morally wrong. And I can't quite comprehend why we adults are so willing to condone high school nastiness as normal adolescent behavior."

I'll leave it at that.

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