So UU

I had a wonderful time at RE class (Unitarian Universalist Sunday school) this weekend, where we discussed the story of Joseph.  And it was so funny how UU the kids were, because

• they all knew Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; 
• they were more interested in the fact that the story we read lists all of Joseph's brothers' names and then leaves the sister unnamed, which really got the kids riled up (it's Dinah, actually.)

Bud and the Olympians

Bud tore through the Percy Jackson series of books about the children of Greek gods in modern New York. I think he read all five in a week or two; Sis has started the first one.  And then Saturday at the library, he picked up the DVD of the first movie.  We spent the rest of the day watching the movie, which we all enjoyed, and talking about Greek mythology--the Minotaur, Medusa, the Hydra, Scylla and Charybdis, the 12 Olympians, and the labors of Hercules.  Which is what prompted Bud's question, "Mom, is Hercules in the Bible?"

The Bible happens to be the focus of all the Religious Education (RE) classes at our UU church this year so that our kids are versed in and can learn from the stories that are shared by their Jewish, Christian, and Muslim peers.  In Sis and Bud's class, they're doing the Bible Heroes.  And in my little Pre-K/K/1 class (combined because of lack of enrollment, with four co-teachers), we're doing "Picture Book Bible Tales," namely Biblical stories told in big, colorful, more liberal/less literal storybooks.  Yep, I'm teaching the Bible.  Which means I'll learn a lot, too, 'cos if it's not in a Charlton Heston movie or in the major Italian Renaissance paintings, I don't know it.

But thanks to my classical studies degree, I did already know that Hercules was not in the Bible.  

Poetry Jam: Recommendations

Corresponding with our minister today, I got a recommendation to peruse Garrison Keillor's Good Poems, which apparently contains numerous poems by a variety of poets, including some of her favorites.  Two of these--Jane Hirshfeld and W.S. Merwin--were also included in PBS's documentary, "Buddha."  I look forward to reading through the book.  


She also suggested some Billy Collins for the kids and sent along this from 18th-century poet/author Christopher Smart, on his cat Jeoffry:

For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships inhis way.For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegantquickness.For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.  For he is of the tribe of Tiger.For he purrs in thankfulness when God tells him he's a good Cat.For he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon.For every house is incomplete without him, and a blessing is lacking inthe spirit.For he is the cleanest in the use of his forepaws of any quadruped.For he is the quickest to his mark of any creature.For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest.  For there is nothing brisker than his life when in motion.For by stroking of him I have found out electricity.

Lines from "Jubilate Agno, Fragment B [For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry]" by Christopher Smart.  (See whole 74 lines on his cat  here.)

We also emailed about the Bible, which I have never really read.  The kids, specifically Sis, have been asking about Moses, Joseph, and Jesus and I know what I've seen in Cecil B. Demille, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and medieval and renaissance art.  I think it might be time for me to read through some of it.  And since it's poetry month, I think I'll start with the Pslams.  Or since Passover just took place, and it is the custom of Ashkenazi Jews to read the Song of Solomon (text) in the middle of Passover, perhaps I'll read that (Sephardic Jews apparently read it every Friday.)