The Spanish Zebro

Today I learned about the Zebro, an early horse that some believe still lives in Spain, in the wild Sorraia Mustangs. Cave drawings in Altamira, dating from 30,000 BC, show horses that share features with the modern Sorraia.

I am researching horse evolution for our Spanish cultural study program next month, a process that takes me exploring in many directions.

As I explore, I encounter fascinating people who devote their lives to trying to prove intriguing theories. One quote that pops up again and again is this:

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

Paleontologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, and creationists all seem to espouse this notion as they seek to prove their points about evolution. Absence of evidence is just reason to keep looking for evidence!

And so I wear my painted wooden zebra earrings, purchased long ago at Neptune Beach in Florida just because they were so fun--and ridiculously inexpensive, as I recall. I've worn them before during African culture studies and when Z was the letter of the week in my kindergarten classroom.

Long live the zebro!

Eqypt's Sun, Reborn



This morning I awoke to the news that Egypt was continuing to celebrate freedom in this new day. I heard an interview with one of the great heroes of this liberation movement, Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped organize the peaceful protests online--on his anonymous Facebook page, named We Are All Khaled Said in remembrance of a man who was killed while protesting in June. 



I found this photo of Ghonim's January 27th arrest in today's Huffington Post. He didn't emerge from prison--where he was blindfolded and kept in solitary confinement--until Monday, Feb. 7. What a joy it must have been to discover that his peaceful revolution was still alive.

Today I wore the second pair of scarab earrings that I made on January 28th when this protest movement was still so fragile. I thought about saving them for Egypt's election day, but decided to have faith that this freedom movement will continue to grow.

Tonight on the news I watched crowds of people cleaning Cairo's Tahrir Square, and thought again of the amazing metaphor of the scarab, the dung beetle that patiently rolls balls of waste into its burrow, then lays eggs in the dung. The larvae hatch, feed on the dung, and young beetles emerge, as if magic. The ancient Egyptians saw the rising of the sun each day as part of this same magical cycle, and said that Khepera the scarab god, was rolling the sun across the heavens.

I think that this pair looks like newly emerged beetles, still sandy from life under the desert floor.

They have much work to do before their shells will shine in the sunlight.

But how much they accomplished while hidden underground, working quietly to prepare for this moment when they would emerge to undertake their real work.

Perhaps on election day, I will remake these brighter beads into a new pair.

I hope that Egypt has many Wael Ghonims who are ready to help Egypt's sun to rise each day.

Like Leaves in the Wind

Today I wore triangles, and never got around to that geometry lesson. My class had a long discussion about the first grader who died yesterday, about cancer and sadness and loss. We talked about how hard it must be for Hugh's brother and his mom and dad. And then all of the children made cards for the family with messages like, "Remember how Hugh liked to laugh."

How lucky we are to live in a time and place where the death of a child is rare, unlike our not-so-distant ancestors and the residents of developing countries for whom childhood illnesses remain deadly threats.

These earrings were a gift from my mother-in-law who bought them to support the work of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania. They were made by hand of gourds and homemade beads. All day the tiny metal leaves dangling at the bottom jingled faintly as if moved by a gentle wind. Remember. 

When Heaven Opens

As I drove to school this morning listening to songs that my daughter Phoebe burned on a CD, I blurted, "Triangles!"

I had grabbed these earrings after thinking about my non-eventful, 92nd day of school: field trip cancelled due to cold; get to school early to tear out worksheets for the geometry unit; make sure we had enough straws for making triangles; prepare for nominating Best Series for the Academy Awards of Books; have materials for pop-up cards since Valentine's Day is on Monday; spelling activity; Thursday newsletter ideas... 

"Why didn't I wear triangle earrings?" I muttered to myself. Driving alone to school and back seems to make me more prone to talk to myself aloud. "Oh, well. Some other day."

It wasn't until I took out my earrings to photograph them this evening that I thought about them again. I bought them long ago from the Pennsylvania artist who makes her own Fimo clay beads. I thought the purple center looked like a protostar surrounded by stars: The birth of a new star from a giant molecular cloud.

This afternoon a member of our first grade class died after battling cancer for almost two years. Throughout, Hugh was surrounded by the love of his family and friends.   

I think that now these earrings will always make me think of Hugh and of the Inuit proverb, "Perhaps they are not the stars, but rather openings in Heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy."

Sometimes, when I am alone in the car on a starry night, I talk to some of my lost ones, and bask in the shine of their love.

Winter Comforts

This week in Social Studies, I set up some exotic islands and sent my students sailing the high seas, island hopping and recording what they found on graph paper maps and in naturalist journals. They learned to use map coordinates by following the ceiling tile grids on their travels. Today, the ships returned to their home port, and I hired the crews to create illustrated maps and guidebooks that we could use to encourage other people to travel to those islands. I paid my staff in hot chocolate.

We Virginians expect some cold spells. But we also expect some stretches of temperatures in the 40's. Not this winter. So today I pulled out these earrings that my friend Linda gave me years ago. And I served hot chocolate during Social Studies. When another teacher asked my student Grace what had gotten into me today, serving hot chocolate during class, Grace replied, "I guess she was just feeling all cold on the outside and warm and fuzzy on the inside!"

I photographed my earrings on top of the woodstove that warms my outside each evening. The comforts of winter are not lost on Folly who dozes next to the stove.

Ice Queens

Today's weather forecast was bleak. Cold and getting colder and windier through the day. I chose my warm gray sweater and my iciest looking earrings. I worried that I might look a bit like the Ice Queen, so I tried to lighten my mood with a bit of blue--my pottery shard necklace from the now defunct Red Door in Upperville.

My best student comment of the day: "Wow! I was just reading a biography of Queen Elizabeth and she was wearing those same earrings in a picture!"

Queen Elizabeth I has always been a hero of mine, a strong woman who survived and thrived against all odds. Who knew that we shared a taste for similar jewelry? If so, she would have loved shopping at the Sawmill Center in Cook Forest, PA.

Of Storks and Slings and Paper Chains

I chose my pin first this morning. It was a gift I received when my daughter Phoebe was born and I've always loved it as a memento of her arrival in Savannah. I wore it as a birth announcement for my colleague Cate whose baby Niamh Ellen was born on February 5th. Cate was a student of mine when she was in 8th grade, and has now returned to our school as a first grade teacher. She and her husband Michael plan to return to Ireland where they met and where this Gaelic name will be right at home. What a lucky baby!

I thought these earrings matched the pin--not just because they are also tarnished silver. They remind me of a baby sling in which to carry a baby close to your heart. I made such a sling for Cate out of soft flannel.

The background is folded paper, ready to make a few more valentines. At this time of year I make and decorate paper chains of animals to give as valentines. I've strayed from traditional pinks and reds, trying to make for each of my students a chain in a color I know they love. Blue foxes, fuschia monkeys, green ponies. All cut out and ready to decorate! Valentines Day is a week away!