“Tragedy and the Common Man.”
An essay in which Arthur Miller argues that greatness is not a requisite of the tragic figure.
Sentence Diagramming
Here’s a Youtube of the diagramming of the simple sentence.
A touch on the slow side, but it covers everything.
Reading comprehension, simplified
Proof this one for me. Have I missed anything?
I’m going to teach you a simplified version of how you can teach reading comprehension. An overlooked obstacle to comprehension is a weak understanding of punctuation. First, let’s see what you understand.
You know that a sentence is a complete thought, and that the completed thought ends with either a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark, right? Excellent! You are with me so far. A thought might be cut off by an interruption – you do know that, yes? Or it can be purposefully left incomplete by the author with the three-dot ellipsis, such as “If at first you don’t succeed…” (May I point out to you that the interruption is indicated by the long dash – as I use here – and not the single hyphen that I used in the compound adjective “three-dot.”)
Additionally, there is the sort-of-period punctuation of the colon, which tells you that the author is going to present some specific information, and the semi colon, which joins two sentences together. The best way to explain the semi colon is to give an example:
He dropped his ceramic cup, which shattered; consequently, he couldn’t get his coffee.
The why of the sentence “he couldn’t get his coffee” is explained in the first sentence “he dropped his cup”; the construction is sort of a two-sentences-in-one deal. If I said to you only “He couldn’t get his coffee,” you’d not know why; the thought would not be complete.
You know that a sentence has four forms, or purposes: the declarative form asserts, states that something exists; the interrogative form, also called a question, asks; the imperative form commands or requests; finally, the optative form expresses a mood of wish, such as “May you succeed in understanding this writing.”
Did you notice that the last paragraph was one long sentence that was made up of five shorter sentences? Did you notice that by using the colon that I informed you that I was going to tell you the four forms? I did so to explain that when my shorter supporting sentences use commas such as in “the interrogative form, also called a question, asks” I need to divide the sentence series with a semicolon.
You will notice I’ve used all the forms and punctuations in this lesson. So now let me ask you: is my meaning clear to you so far?
Congratulations: you are comprehending, and you are comprehending some complex structures.
Comprehension is simply understanding the first sentence of a piece of writing. Then the second, and third. With each successive sentence we modify the meaning of the first, we find the topic, we consider how the preceding sentences inform the topic. We consider what we still need to know. We anticipate what will be revealed. But the foundation is in understanding the sentence, its forms, how it ends, and how it is left unended.
Wisdom
Those who wish to know the whole truth take joy in doing the work and service that comes to them. Having completed it, they take joy in cleansing and feeding themselves. Having cared for others and for themselves, they then turn to the master for instruction. This simple path leads to peace, virtue, and abundance.
Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and took out at the stars. This practice should answer the question. The superior person settles her mind as the universe settles the stars in the sky. By connecting her mind with the subtle origin, she calms it. Once calmed, it naturally expands, and ultimately her mind becomes as vast and immeasurable as the night sky.
from the one of the “wisest” books I’ve read, the Brian Walker translation of Lao Tse’s Hua Hu Ching.
I don’t know about “as vast an immeasurable as the night sky” — that seems pretty damn big to me.
But there’s much to this.
The Journey
The Journey
Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice—
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world
determined to do
the only thing you could do—
determined to save
the only life you could save.
Kingsley Andersen 