"In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint "No Admittance" on my gate."
--from Walden or Life in the Woods, by Henry David Thoreau
I studied English in college, which may seem like a super weird choice for a dyslexic, but trust me reading is way easier when there is a story to follow. In college I discovered that you could get credit in class for talking; this was called "class discussion." Luckily for me it was a cornerstone of my liberal arts education.
In celebration of learning with your ears, you might notice that my website is now speech enabled. I owe this good fortune to ReadSpeaker and Mattias, who answered my telephone call to ReadSpeaker Support in Uppsala, Sweden, 9:45 pm local time (they shut at 10:00 pm) two days ago. Mattias emailed me code that I injected into my website to make the magic button appear. I rather like the ReadSpeaker voice; he sounds like a dapper fellow.
Back to Thoreau. This line has always struck me, even more so since becoming a teacher:
"You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint "No Admittance" on my gate."
I hope you all have a very happy weekend.