Comments for Broadly Speaking

Comment on Homie by broadlyspeaking

broadlyspeaking — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:37:01 +0000

Thanks!~

Comment on Homie by Amy

Amy — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:16:24 +0000

Hi. I stumbled across this because we share the same name. Just thought I’d say hi. I like your writing style.
Amy Beckett

Comment on Known Associates by Laura

Laura — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:37:59 +0000

Hi Amy,
This is great stuff. I should be working, but I’m reading about your fascinating memories. I recall Mom commenting on Bill Clinton, “Watch him. He will go places.” Anyway, now that Chicago has moved to DC, I bet you have a lot more juicy stuff to post. I will check other categories!

Love,
Laura

Comment on Strosnider’s to the Rescue by mmb

mmb — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:52:42 +0000

love those old hardware stores – always- a treasure tucked away -keep on puddin!!!

Comment on Early Education by Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:00:58 +0000

I, too, was greatly influenced by the numerous dinner table conversations that were the routine in my family growing up on the Southwest Side of Chicago. These are one of the truly stand-out memories from my childhood. They were as much fun as they were instructional for us 3 kids. My parents encouraged us to express ourselves and cared about what we thought, so the conversations were really dialogues more than instruction – when we talked about politics and other heavier topics and weren’t trying to make one of our siblings laugh so hard they had to run to the bathroom (!). As I grew older, I can remember sitting around the table for a long time after dinner was over and not wanting to leave because the conversation was so enjoyable.

I tried to repeat the pattern with my husband and children in later years, but it did not happen very often. More hectic schedules, more extracurriculars during the dinner hour, and probably I didn’t have the same knack my parents did to make it happen. Nevertheless, I remember having many meaningful conversations with my daughter, but most often in the car traveling between various activities than around the dinner table! Is that the modern venue for family togetherness?

Comment on Early Education by Robert Beckett

Robert Beckett — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:41:27 +0000

I would have been disappointed if you had the anticipated response. The dinner table seminar has value in shaping habits of thought, analysis, and expression, but one should never under-estimate the impact of schooling, reading, and peer inter-action on the shaping of a mature adults skills, values, and poise.

Comment on Early Education by Simian

Simian — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:56:05 +0000

It’s a great insight. I think he like to say these kinds of things because its in our nature to tell stories about ourselves to make sense of the world.

Comment on Buggy Whips by Robert Beckett

Robert Beckett — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:10:53 +0000

Your interest is obsolescent only in terms of contemporary taste, not in terms of the culture of the West. You are (temporarily, I believe) out of step with the zeitgeist, but eventually people will recognize that criticism is never obsolete. That is, the effort to analyze, understand, and judge the value of aesthetic endeavor to individual human beings and their culture is never passe. It may not be fashionable, but it is inherently useful. Do what you believe in. Do it as well as you can. Know why you do it, and know who has done it well, and –most important — know HOW you know they have done it well, and you will be engaged is significant worthwhile activity. As in “Broadly Speaking.”

Comment on Buggy Whips by Gail Siegel

Gail Siegel — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:54:48 +0000

How depressing. I, for one, am now reading — for the first time — The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron. I know it was controversial at the time, but the writing is so much better than most of the more contemporary fiction I’ve read lately (and some might consider Confessions contemporary) that I keep shaking my head as I read.

So, does this mean you’ve been accepted into the emminent, dying program?

Comment on Criticism by cyd

cyd — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:42:08 +0000

Endless writers have explored the returning adult education experience, but there is nothing equal to the experience of being able to seek knowledge intensely, hopefully from the best, without the ego anxiety of the first time around. If I could communicate to my children the absolute joy of learning without fear of judgement, I would. But then, they wouldn’t have teen memories, eh?