Jayson Blair

Quotations are the last refuge of the intellectually lazy -- but they beat trying to think of something pithy of your own -- and this one is one of those classic quotes that I share with my high school and college students who are struggling with becoming more mature. Clichés have resonance because they reflect underlying truth, and when it comes to the fulfilling, fraught, fun-filled, fertile, formative and fluctuating, world of growing up you can't say it much better. "Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and B acon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books." Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote this in an essay I have on my shelf at home, where he eviscerates those who would become bookworms, instead of using and abusing books, as they learn and in life, and as an ode to the power of creation and its link to action. In the last thre...

Someone sent me this video and it made me think of how helpful it is is for people who have been depressed -- I mean everything from a touch of a sad mood to I mean Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -depressed -- to use art to heal. Dancing, painting, writing, drawing, composing, playing, choreographing, videographing, filming, shooting and acting your feelings is an immensely powerful tool. We get so used to words -- using what comes out of our mouths to express ourselves when we are depressed or sad -- that we sometimes miss the power of our other gifts. This YouTube video includes pictures and other images to the Blue October song "Black Orchird" - an effort that probably helped the artist, and hundreds of thousands more.