tell me what you read, and I will tell you what you are

I'm thinking of a possible new topic for a seminar in literature next fall. I'd call it "Bethel Favorites" and have a dozen different faculty, staff, and recent alumni pick a favorite literary work. The seminar members would read and discuss the work, but the faculty, staff, or alumni would come and present a guest lecture on how and why they "love" the piece of literature, how it speaks to them, how it has enchanted or mentored them over the years.

The implicit thesis of a course like this would be that our favorite works say something about what we are. "Tell me what you read, and I will tell you what you are."

violence on the sledding hill

The kind of sleddding/tubing--ours are neither sleds nor tubes but more like the things you see in the picture--that produces the most ecstatic laughter in my four year old daughter involves great crashes at the bottom of the hill. Sydney lies on her inflated "Rudolph the Reindeer" sled and I plow into her full bore, sending her and Rudolph hurtling, powdery snow showering us both.

Her riotous laughter, contagious.

wow... watch the whole thing closely