Keep Me in Your Heart

I just finished reading a book called "Keep Me in Your Heart", by Lurlene McDaniel. This book was composed of three very wonderful short stories about the values of love and life/death situations.

The first short story was called "Saving Jessica". In this short story, Jessica finds out she has kidney failure and has to live the rest of her life on a machine unless someone can donate a kidney. Her boyfriend, Jeremy, helps her all along the way. After finding out none of her family members have a kidney that matches, Jeremy wants to donate his (which just happens to be a perfect match). But since he is 16, he can't do it with out his parents permission. In the end, he goes to court against his parents to fill a suit saying he should have control over his own body. He wins and they save Jessica. This book shows me that their love is strong. More than that though, they care about each other a lot and will do anything to help the other person, even if it's against their parents wills.

The second short story was called "Telling Christina Goodbye". In this short story, Trisha and her perfect best friend (Christina) both have boyfriends. The difference is, Trisha's boyfriend Cody actually treats her with the respect that she deserves. While Christina has a lousy boyfriend (Tucker) who takes control over her all the time. Even though on the outside it might look like he doesn't like her, if you look deeper you realize he just has a hard time showing it. After a car accident (with Tucker driving), Christina dies and Cody gets extremely hurt. People can't help but blame Tucker for the death but really it wasn't his fault at all. In the end, Tucker realizes he should have not only treated Christina better but the whole world. At the end you also see how great Trisha and Cody's relationship is because Cody wakes up not remembering anything. Though, Trisha could just walk away from him she doesn't because of their love for each other.

The third short story was called "Letting Go of Lisa". In this short story, Nathan finally gets to go to public school, senior year of high school. He meets this girl named Lisa who is popular because she is herself. She is independent and always does things her way. Though she's popular, she doesn't let anyone get close to her. Nathan starts to wonder why. He starts to study her and follow her places trying to understand or help and one night he finds out she has brain tumor. She never wanted anyone to know because she didn't want "special treatment". While she dies, Nathan is always by her side no matter what. "Lisa took flight 3:09 this morning".

All in all, these stories are all different but they all have the same message. You should love who you love and treat them special because one day they won't be there. Tucker didn't do that and now he lives his life in regrets of what he should have done. But the thing is, you can never go back. The idea of life/death also comes in to play in a lot of these stories. Life is a valuable thing and you have to treasure it forever. Keep the ones you love close and always remind them that they are special. I enjoyed reading this book a lot because it taught me how I should live.

Game of Kings

I am currently reading the book, "Game of Kings" by Michael Weinreb. This book isn't like any other book I've read. It is about "The odd balls and geniuses who make up America's top high school chess team". One of those teams is in Edward R. Murrow High School. 

Mr. Weiss, the chess teacher, was not always a teacher at Murrow. So many times he came close to becoming a math teacher at the school but the Board of Education brought him down. But he never gave up and kept trying until in August 1981 (his third try) he finally got accepted. All through the process though he managed to play chess and make a living teaching at other schools. 

Murrow is known for its chess team. The students come from all different ethnic groups and levels. They have won many awards and have a strong traveling chess team. One of their struggles though was the ability to have enough money to actually go to different states and complete nationally. Mr. Weiss tried everything he could for team because he believed in them. From something as small as selling water bottles to setting up TV and newspaper interviews. Once he did this though, the media soon kept an eye on them and saw that they kept on beating every team they played. The sponsorship money soon came rolling in and they could go to many more tournaments.

At Murrow, students have the freedoms to do what they want, when they want. If they skip class, teachers won't crack down on them. Now why is that? It's because they have the freedoms of a college students. Students can abuse the time they have and fool around (having okay grades) or they can take the time and use it wisely to study and succeed at Murrow. Many of them are independent, self motivators and hard working-that's why they got chosen to go to Murrow. This also applies to the chess students. All of them are good students but some didn't keep up with their schoolwork. It wasn't because they were lazy or didn't want to do their work though, it was because of their love and desire to play chess. "Thirteen percent of my life is spent of the ICC (the internet chess club)" says Alex Lenderman. 

Only on page 65, I learned that Mr. Weiss never gave up. He was determined to have a chess team and to teach at Murrow and he did. He followed his dreams and pursued them. He developed an amazing chess team that still plays today. His students not only get the motivation to learn chess but they also get valuable life lessons from him.

"National Guard soldiers in camouflage fatigues stood at the door with their machine guns pointed straight up in the air. They looked us over like we had crossed the border from another country without any papers. I locked eyes with one of them who had a thick square jaw, and his grip on the gun got tighter."

In the book Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi; Miles and his Pop are stuck in the Super Dome during Hurricane Katrina. When they finally jumped over the barriers/fences and escaped the Super Dome, they were living on the street with nothing more than their hungry stomachs and dirty bodies. There was a lot of other people living on the street too, survivors from the hurricane. All the survivors were dirty and poor and many stole from nearby shops to survive. Poverty affects many people in different ways. It can make a person feel unwanted, overpowered or helpless. It can also empower you to know right from wrong and stick up for what you love. The survivors that lived on the street, except for Miles and Pop were willing to risk their own lives for objects that they stole. The objects were worth less than a thousand dollars. Miles and Pop didn’t believe in stealing, so it was harder for them to survive.

One example is when a woman risked her life for a television because she wanted money. Another homeless man saw her with the television and beat her up because he wanted it badly. The soul patrol, a gang who helped people living on the street, broke up their fight by pulling the man away from the woman. They made a wall between the man and the woman to protect her. When the soul patrol helped the woman back to her feet the man ran away with the television set. The woman exploded with anger. She said that she would rather get hurt than to get the television taken away from her. If I was that woman, I would have appreciated what they did for me with a thank-you or a reward. It’s not fair that she would get mad when the soul patrol risked their lives to help her when they didn’t even know each other. It is awful what poverty can do to a persons’ life: it can make people desperate and do things that wouldn’t normally do.

Another example is when two men tried to steal an old piano from Santa’s (store? museum? cafe? music hall?). Pop was furious because many great jazz musicians played on that same piano for decades and it meant a lot to him. Pop and Miles wrestled the thieves to save the piano. But soon, their fight got dangerous. The guys tried to drown Miles and Pop in the polluted water.  I know the piano is worth a lot of money but it is worth much more than that, it brought back many memories to the great musicians who played on it and the people who listened to them play. I know this is a hard time for everybody, not only them. But that doesn’t mean they have to steal. Are they good guys? Have they gone through a lot? Got shaken from the Hurricane? Have they lost family or friends? Are they stealing as a way to survive? Is this their only option?

All in all, this was a strong book filled with many powerful moments, especially with Pop and Miles. It shows how horrible life was in the Super Dome given the lack of help from the government.  Poverty affects people throughout the world. This book focused on a city, New Orleans, in the United States that was devastated by a hurricane. The conditions were unbearable which caused some people to steal and risk their lives for objects, except for Miles and Pop. It made me question why some people are greedy and why others are more appreciative for what they have.

Inspiration

The thing that actually made me want to write a poem about the unfortunate lifestyles of some people, is what we are learning in social studies. I read many books about immigration recently and found them fascinating. Even though this is not exactly about immigration, that definitely tied into my idea of writing a poem along with many articles and books I've read this week.

I wrote a poem as my blog post...

During the past week, I read many books about unfair life styles. I decided to combine all the themes I got from each book and write a poem as my blog post on a general topic that could have happened in real life. Many people, today, don't get running hot water. Whether it's it's a shower or just an outdoor hose.

As warm water showered down above me,
hitting my face and body
the feeling of crust and dirt rinsed off me.
The caked layers of grime dripped at my toes,
and the feeling of pleasure and happiness arose
from gigantic feet.
My arms,
my legs,
my face
nearly cleaned like never before.
Singing while bathing,
never thought this would happen
under the hot water.
The water almost burned me,
leaving my body hot and red
but I didn’t care,
I was cold without a jacket
to bundle me,
to survive me though the winter.
As the water sprayed me,
I thought of how lucky I was
to even get clean water once a month.
I looked up at the clouds
and saw them smiling at me
and I smiled back.
They made a elephant,
and I laughed;
the sound rustling through the wind.
Joy, delight and happiness
beamed inside and out.
I was almost sure if some one came,
they would see me glowing
and
shinning,
my grin stretching miles and miles long.

Then,
putrid screaming
awakened me from dreaming.
“You wasted enough water, did you hear?”
“Yes mother!” I said.
But I didn’t want it to end.
It was so great,
I sighed and closed my eyes.
I pictured it never ending,
the hotness still running down my body,
the happiness and joy I only got every month.
Then more yelling followed,
then some one grabbed the wonderful sensation from me
and smacked me hard.
Her voice
started to drown over my water being wasted
by my siblings fighting over the hose.
Quiet now.
Silent now.
Gone now.

“Apology”

By “Emily Woods” or Ginger Rue

Here is the part where I insist,
it is not only me.
We have all taken part-
sorting souls like a deck of cards,
creating categories of emblems and colors
with identical faces.

But this insistence changes nothing.
I cannot sweep my splintered glass
into a crystalline pattern,
making something lovely from the wreckage I caused.
I cannot pretend I never took into my eager hands
the treasure of the human spirt,
breaking it into pieces,
casting it among old wrappers and empty plastic.

And so I stand here,
muttering frustrated, failing syllables,
searching for a gesture that does not exist:
A quick fix to undo the damage.

I find instead
only low, wordless tones.
Finally,
my mouth forms one request:
Forgive me.

"How can you know what's popular before it's popular?"

In the book Brand-New Emily by Ginger Rue, Emily is not popular. She wants to be part of the coolest clique “The Daisies” but instead becomes a target for them. “The Daises” are made up of Alexa, Meredith and Heatherly--the leader and the meanest of the group--who love embarrassing and teasing Emily. When Emily gets an interview with Colby Summers, the 17 year old pop teen sensation for her school newspaper, she knows that the days that she has spent getting embarrassed and teased will be over. After her interview with Colby, she walks out slowly and overhears that Colby is a 28 year old guy, has a wife, a child, a name that is not his own and is totally fake. Getting an opportunity of a lifetime, Emily goes to New York’s most powerful public relations firm; the company that Colby’s publicist works at, and threatens to tell his secret if they can’t give her what she wants: popularity. She gets Colby’s publicist named Brynn, who teaches her how to become a teen sensation just like Colby. While going through different sessions with Brynn about how to dress, act and talk; Emily learns that being popular is hard but staying true to yourself is harder.

Popularity is an issue everybody knows. This book doesn’t only speak about popularity, it explores what it means to be truthful to yourself. In the beginning of the book Emily is a sweet, nice and caring person. But by the middle of the book, she becomes mean and selfish to everyone who is not popular. Instead of setting a good example to others, she turns into a “Heatherly”. This book made me think differently about popularity because unlike in other books, Emily realizes what she is doing is wrong when she is doing it but doesn’t stop. The reason why she keeps on doing it, confused me as I became more engrossed in her story. Does she only care about being popular? Does she not care about hurting others? Does it make her feel good to have other people under her control? These questions pulled me into the book.

In many other books, popularity is a central issue. Most of the time there is a “popular crowd” and a main character who wants to be popular. This is also seen in movies, such as Mean Girls. But in every book or movie, the main character realizes that being popular isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. Initially the thought of being popular would bring them more friends, boyfriends, power and the ability to do what you want when you want it. But in this book Emily is so hungry for the popularity, that she just can’t stop-it’s like eating a tub of ice cream even though you feel sick.  

This book made me think about the idea of forgiving and forgetting. Emily knew she made a huge mistake and regretted being mean and taking advantage of people. She wanted everyone to know that she was sorry for being unkind, disrespectful and dishonest. She wrote a poem to share with her grade in the hope that the friends that she made while she was popular would forgive her and see who she really is. Are they really her friends though? If they are, would they forgive her? Would they take the time to try to understand? Would they accept the fact that she hurt many people and be willing to move on and forget that? Would they even accept the real Emily? I wondered if the people Emily hurt and manipulated cared enough to forgive her and would try to understand and relate to what she went through.

I believe you shouldn’t change who you are to get people to like you. Popularity can be a good thing if you’re not changing who you are, being mean or taking advantage of people. You can learn how to use popularity in a good way too. You can stop rumors and gossip, stick up for people, make changes to your school and inspire fellow students to do the right things. This book is very different from any other popularity book I’ve read because the main character spoke about her mistakes to her school. Emily and I both learned a lot from the choices and actions that she made in her story. Sometimes, I wish that I was more popular but then I think about how lucky I am to have friends and family that love me, good grades, a home and food; I discern that’s all I need. Getting what you want in life can make you simply want more. Be happy with what you have and reach farther.