Television / Video
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Outside Links
Article from Chicago Parent, on supporting children's desire to collect things.
Monday, February 13, 2006 I don't know how many of you had the opportunity to catch Nature last night on PBS, but it was all about Martin Nicholas, a wonkish water treatment engineer from the U.K. who is also, in his spare time, a respected amateur arachnologist — someone who studies spiders. But he doesn't just study them. He loves them. The man is geeked on spiders. And I can't tell you how much I enjoyed watching him, on this program, as he traveled to the New World to hunt for spiders. He exuded visible, nearly palpable joy every time he found a different species in the wild. He made me love spiders, just seeing him. Have you ever known someone with a magnificent obsession like this? I have. I used to know someone who loved to quilt as much as Martin Nicholas loves to find spiders. A late uncle of mine was fascinated by Native Americans, and spent many hours on his farm looking for arrowheads; he was fairly well read on the Native Americans who lived in our area, and I think if he'd lived long enough to get connected to the Internet he'd probably be on it all day doing research. A college friend of mine was a train buff who used to work on restoring old locomotive engines and had an encyclopedic knowledge of every train line that ever ran through the state. I work with someone who loves flowers, especially heirloom perennials, and travels around the countryside cutting slips from old rambler roses growing on old farmsteads and in cemeteries. Every once in awhile I experience a brief magnificent obsession: English ivies, bread baking, embroidery, tomatoes, Civil War history...you name it. And even though most of these are short-lived, I've not regretted any of them. Like close but transient friendships, these fleeting spurts of concentrated attention have all helped me become who I am; they've added color and texture to my life. They've all been worth it. Eric Liddell, the famous English runner of Chariots of Fire fame, said, "God made me fast for a reason. When I run, I can feel God's pleasure.” I suspect that God feels pleasure when we take the same delight in the diversity and complexity and beauty of the world, or in the pursuit of a creative pastime, as God takes in God's creative, redeeming and sustaining work. Love what you love with all your might. Because I think that's what God does. posted by LutheranChik | 8:18 PMSandra Dodd said... Someone living in Okinawa put a link to this to a large discussion list of unschooling parents (special kind of homeschooling), and it's an excellent thing for us to read, to be reminded that one's world can be richer with a special focus than if it is (as they say) more "balanced." Balance too often means "nothing special, nothing extraordinary." Thank you for writing that! It has been passed on from Okinawa to the U.S., Canada, NZ, Australia, U.K., and France, at least.
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When someone really understands one war, he can easily understand another, because he will have all the framework and questions in his mind. When he understands how countries are born, invaded, and how a government can die out, he understands truths about all nations and civilizations.
The two paragraphs above are from Disposable Checklists, which is one of the essays in the book Moving a Puddle, by Sandra Dodd.
Gilligan's Island, momentary obsession, or a lifetime of science (read more of both of these at the link above):
".... I wondered if the professor was a physics professor or engineering, or what, and whether he would lose his job at the university. I wondered about that Mr. Magoo voice on Thurston Howell. I wondered about Amelia Earhart. I wondered about the soundtrack music. Did they just have little themes they pushed a button on during final edit, or was each show done separately? I wondered if the fruit was real or props. I wondered about cameras--where were they? Did they have to sweep the dirt between takes? I wondered if the guy who played the lost WWII pilot was really Japanese. I could think more during an episode of Gilligan's Island than most other people I knew could think in a whole week. I didn't bother to ask my parents any of the questions. They would have thought it was stupid to be thinking them." —Sandra Dodd"How did I wind up as scientist? By all logic, I should start with Gilligan's Island, a sitcom that entranced me when I was an eight-year-old growing up in Brooklyn...." —Robert M. Sapolsky, professor of biological sciences at Sanford and of neurology at Stanford's School of Medicine
Jayne Coburn at the Barbie Convention
Jayn spent much of the time we were there exclaiming enthusiastically about the different dolls that she has only seen in pictures, pointing out the particularly rare, and noticing the varying condition of the really vintage dolls. She noticed the repaints and was able to tell me what the original character had been that had been done over. ... more, and a link to the Romeo and Juliet done by Jayn with Barbies and Ken... You just need to see that.
[Coming at some point: Kirby and Ninja Turtles
Roxana and musicals ]
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