Caribbean Sojourn: Mayday! Mayday! Mayday, Frida!

Belly up to the table, Friends! On this episode, Mr. B shares his travel experiences to the Caribbean along with his new experiences with author Frida McFadden, the tumult of May term teaching, analysis of Step 5 for overeaters, and a run-down review of films a la Princess Cruises and more--- including a new feature song. Stay til the end for dessert - you'll be glad you did and share with your friends!

Transcript

SPEAKER_09 0:02

It's for dinner. Ding ding ding ding ding ding. From the creative mind of Scott Bertelson, after four decades of teaching our impressionable youth, the dinner belt, you are invited to enjoy conversational morsels for the mind at Mr. B's dinner party.

SPEAKER_02 0:20

Yeah, dinner! Hello! Who's that knocking at the door? Well, you know who it is! That's right, my happy podcast friends. It's Mr.

SPEAKER_03 0:31

B and welcome. Mr. B's got a table so wide. Pull up a chair, let your worries slide. School days, tales, and a movie or two. He's serving up wisdom with a side of stew. Belly up to the table, my friend. The feast of will never end. From travels far to a spiritual climb. Morsels of music served in rhyme.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Oh my happy friends. I've been away for a couple weeks. I went to uh the wonderful Caribbean with my brother on a cruise and I didn't fall off the ship. Uh I guess that's a plus, or is it? I'm not sure. I'm going to give you a rundown of my trip because I normally do that when I go somewhere. Not that you're interested, but this is just all for me. So let's just jump right in, barely up to the table, and welcome to Mr. B's dinner party. It was a seven-day trip, and I went to Belize and I went to Cazamel and Roatan. And uh very enjoyable. It was a great way to get out of this winter savage weather. And so my brother and I decided we would maybe go again because we love cruising. We love getting on a ship. We love somebody cooking for us. We love somebody taking care of our rooms. We love all of that. We love being pampered. So we uh left uh the very last part of April, and we flew to uh Orlando, Florida, and there we uh got on our Princess Caribbean ship, or known as the Caribbean Princess. And that's the cruise line that I've been on for quite some time. I really enjoy it. I love the hospitality, everybody's so friendly. Uh it's just a great, great way to relax. And yes, there's a lot of water, and I've talked to a lot of people who say, Oh, I couldn't go on a cruise because I don't want to be surrounded by water and I can't see land. Okay, I get that, but that doesn't bother me. So uh my my life is in God's hands, so when it's my time, he'll take care of me, whether I'm on land or whether I'm on water. So, anyway, we got on the ship, and the first day was a Tuesday, and we got to our rooms and we met our steward, and then of course we ate. That's a very vital thing, but I was abstinent the whole trip. Yay! Yay! I ate all my appropriate foods, I did not eat anything that wasn't part of my program, and I didn't feel deprived, and I felt very, very happy. Happy, happy, happy. But there was such a variety of food. Then um we had the bon voyage, and they were dancing and having fun, and then um I believe we had oh, the next day uh we went to a little island, and I don't know the name of it because I'm 67, and uh it was it was just a stop where you could get off the ship and go to a beach. There wasn't any really sightseeing. It was one of the islands that was the cruise lines owned that you can go to uh just for relaxation to get some sun, uh, to get into the ocean, to drink, to eat, la-di-da, la-di-da. So got off the ship, uh tendered to the shore, and uh my brother didn't want to go, he's not at all interested in that. Uh my brother and I are very, very different, but yet we're very much alike. But the great joy of traveling with my brother is that he's very independent. We don't have to be uh connected at the hip, and he can do what he wants to do, and I do what I want to do. So anyway, I went on to the island and I waded in the water and got a little sun. I do mean little because I I burn like a French fry that's been kept in the oil too long. And uh what kind of analogy was that? But anyway, I um then it was tendered back to the ship. So anyway, then then uh then we had a sea day, and then we arrived at the first of our uh places, and that was Aruba. Maybe you've heard of Aruba. Aruba is in the Southern Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela. It's 69 square miles, it has about 110 residents. The language is largely English and Spanish. The climate is hot. Was it hot when we were there the whole two weeks? Yes, it was hot. Was it humid? Yes, it was humid. Was it still enjoyable? Yes, absolutely. Um thing about Aruba, uh, if you're going to this island to see lush, lush, lush greenery, you won't see it. Uh the standing joke for me was a lot of bare land and cactus. Very dry, very, very dry. Uh, we took an excursion, we went to a church. Uh we did some other uh excurs sightseeing things on the island. The tour took about three hours, I guess. Uh it's the land is largely flat with some hills. Um, but the beaches, all the beaches, have white sand and blue, blue, blue water. Oh my goodness. Just like sitting in a hammock in heaven on the beach with the white sand and the blue water. Oh, it was just amazing. Uh it largely s uh survives on tourism and normally the temperature is about 82 degrees every day. Uh, we were just getting into the hot season. Uh we we went on on our cruise uh largely at the end of the tour season. Um people normally go in the winter months to go there, but we decided to go when we did. So that was our first stop. Then on our Caribbean adventure, we went to uh Carrasio, C-U-R-A-C-A-O, which is also another island. It's a part of the ABC Islands. Aruba, Carocio, and Bonaire. And uh Carraso is a Dutch Caribbean island known for its beautiful, wonderful beaches and its coral reefs. So if you like to snorkel, swim, uh, go out on the water, it's a great place to go. So is Aruba. Aruba is well known for its um great, massive uh hotels, which I saw. Uh people like to come there to sit on the beach and go snorkeling, swimming, that type of thing. Um the capital of Williamstead, the official language is Dutch and English. Uh it's part of South America, and it was a great place to go. Uh, we went on a tour and we saw the beaches, uh, we saw the crystal clear, beautiful waters, and um saw some um other sights while we were there. One thing you have to remember when you go on a cruise, that you only allotted so much time. So we normally docked, this one we could dock right at the island, as with Aruba, and uh you could walk off the ship. And um you're normally given, depending on the venue, maybe up to eight hours for you to go uh do your excursions, eat, spend gobs of money, which they want you to do. This is what they largely uh base their uh fortune on on these in these islands, is tourism. So it's very important. Um it is 37 miles north of the coast of Venezuela. Uh it was first visited by Europeans in 1499 and was settled by the Spanish and later by the Dutch, who established it as a major center of trade for the Dutch West India Company. Uh so the island provided a special advantage for the Dutch. Uh as one of the finest natural harbors in the West Indies. And it has remained in Dutch hands since 1816. So you saw a lot of uh Dutch architecture there, whatever that would be, very colorful, very ornate buildings. Uh it was a great place to go. Then the next day, to complete our ABC adventure, uh, we didn't go in order, we went to Bonaire, B-O-N-A-I-R-E, which is a Caribbean diving and tourist destination. And it is a municipality, as the other two islands, of the Netherlands. Once again, like Aruba and Curacio, it is known for its vibrant coral reefs and many places for diving and of course the wonderful beaches. It is outside the main hurricane uh belt. And when you are in Bonaire, if you love to, as I said before, snorkel, swim, sit on the beach, this is the place to go. Um nature lovers and adventure seekers. Um now do I snorkel? No. Do I go into the water? Yes. Do the waves knock me down? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes. But I don't spend excessive time there. Um they have lots of mangrove trees, and mangroves is really fun to eat. I've had it before. Um you can do land sailing while you're there. You can charter a fishing trip if you want to. Uh they have a national park. Lots of fun things. So the basic theme here is water, water, water. Relax, relax, relax. Get hot and sweat. Then for our Caribbean adventure, we went to Saint Martin, which is separated into two separate countries. You have the French side called Saint S-I-I-N-T Martin, and the southern Dutch side, which is Sint Martin, S-I-N-T. It has, of course, and all these islands have this resorts, private resorts, beaches, secluded coves, vibrant nightlife, lots of shopping. It's uh 34 square miles. Uh the predominant language spoken is French and Dutch with some Indian, Latino, Chinese. Uh, it is a great place to go. And we had a wonderful tour guide, and he took us to some beaches, and we got to see um uh some wonderful sights on the island, and it was much greener, much, much greener than the ABC Islands. And uh so that made it so much more, in my estimation, enjoyable. So uh of all the islands up to that point, that was the one that I enjoyed the most. Um and so you could go on a tour while you're there, you can snorkle, lots of sea turtles there that you can see. Uh there's distilleries you can go to. You can uh do so many wonderful things while you're here. Uh go on a catamaran. So anyway, love Saint Martin. Oh, we weren't done then yet, my happy Caribbean friends. Then we went to San Juan, which is Puerto Rico's capital and largest city, and it sits on the island's Atlantic coast. It's um you had the opportunity there to go to old San Juan, which is um cobblestones, colorful Spanish colonial buildings. I went there. Uh, we didn't have a lot of time in San Juan. We I think we had to be on the ship by one or two in the afternoon. I'm not sure why. Um we went to a massive fortress that uh in the past was used to uh see if anybody was coming to invade Puerto Rico. Um it was named after John the Baptist, and it is um a part of the United States. Uh the major language that's spoken there, of course, is Spanish. Uh they do have their own government. Uh they do not um vote here uh for the president and uh for the senators and uh representatives. They have their own flag and they have that right to govern as they want to. Uh what I really enjoyed about it is that we took a bus trip into the rainforest. Took about 45 minutes to get there. Very intense uh foliage. Um rains all the time. We got rain down for about 10 minutes and then it stopped. Just superb uh waterfalls to look at. It was just gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. And then, like I said, I had mentioned earlier, uh, then we went to a fort that was built hundreds of years ago, and uh could see the whole uh outlay of the city from its high uh vantage point. And it was a hot day that day. Holy moly, it was really good to get back onto that air conditioned bus, but highly enjoyable, really enjoyed it. Hope to maybe in the future go again to San Juan.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Oh, but no, we're not done yet, friends. Oh no, we're not.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Then finally we went to Amber Cove, which is a cruise port on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, and this was near the city Porto Plata, and I took a tour bus uh trip on this island, my brother didn't go. Uh it has so many wonderful beaches. Uh, when we got there, they took us downtown to Porto Plata. Uh, we went to a place that they made jewelry, we went to a uh coffee house where they had some of the most delicious coffee, and of course I had to buy some. Uh haven't uh dove into that yet. And then um we had on this excursion, we had about two hours at a private beach, and uh I walked on the beach, I had a canopy, uh, we had waiters, I had a uh non-liquor pina colada, which was so delicious, one of the best drinks I've ever, ever had, and uh really enjoyed the the ocean. And so that was a great way to end our land excursions on this trip. Now, what about the crews? Oh, we had such great entertainment, they have a huge theater on the ship. We heard singers, uh we saw jugglers, we saw acrobats, we saw uh pianists play, we saw production shows with dancers and singers and special effects. Then there are many lounges around the ship where you can hear pianists, uh people playing in a combo, uh viol violinists. You you run the gamut. And uh also the beauty of a cruise is that when you are in your room, you have a uh chance to watch a number of films that they have that you can choose from, TV shows. Uh you can watch some live television, uh some uh news channels on the ship. And the steward comes in the morning and uh makes your bed and cleans the room and gets everything ready and then comes back again at night. So you really, really, really get pampered. Now, people say to me, Do you rock back and forth on a ship? There was very, very, very, very little of that on this ship. The waters were very calm. Uh I noticed one night while sleeping that I rocked a little bit, but otherwise didn't notice it at all. And um, there's lots of other activities on this ship. They have lots of uh uh game shows you can participate in, trivia, uh bingo, karaoke, um lots of activities. Uh you can watch movies uh under the stars on their big, big screen at the top of the ship. Uh lots of things to do. So never a boring moment. Now, I'm ready though, my smart ones and my friends who like to travel to go other places now. I will be going to Europe in mid-June, maybe by the time this is on, I'll be in Europe. Uh also I'm going to Long Island at the end of July to see my really good friend. And and I don't know when I'll get on a cruise ship again. Uh when the when I'm ready to be bitten by the bug, then I'll inquire and then I'll look into it. Um there was a um oh, I must say, finally, that there was a great, great spiritual group on the ship called Friends of Billy. Bill W. Bill W. was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. And uh in this group, I met people from all over the country and the world with the same addiction uh or the same problem with an addiction. Largely their addiction was alcohol, whereas mine is food. And we got together every day for an hour and uh talked about uh our strengths, our character defects, our reliance on a higher power. It really, really, really enhanced my trip. So I'm so grateful for that. So there's so much more I could tell you about the trip, but those are the highlights. The islands, what we did, what it was like on the ship. And there's lots of cruise lines that you can check out. And if you've never cruised before, I suggest it. I mean, it's like a motel on water, uh, except that you get um much better service. Uh, I think this ship had about 2,600 people on it, and um, the support staff comes from, I think they said 72 different countries. It's just amazing. It's a great cultural experience uh with um the wait staff and the passengers from all over the world. Uh the majority of the people were from the United States, but there were also a great number of people from other countries, including Canada. Oh, we also had uh comedians on the ship. I listened to, I believe, three comedians, and um that's all I'll say about that. So not every trip is perfect. So, anyway, I guess uh humor is in the eye of the beholder. Okay, so anyway, thank you for listening and think about it. Go to a cruise site, check it out, talk to a travel agent, or talk to me. I've done a number of cruises. And uh next time I would like to cruise somewhere in Europe. So we'll see where the winds take me.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

And I am also in love with your new theme music. I sing and dance while I'm getting ready. Keep up the good work.

SPEAKER_06 25:00

Favorite riders, favorite line. Made them feel like friends. Forty years of showing up, making young hearts bend. One more pet.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

One more spark. You could find a dog in the dock.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

And I saw it again on this ship. And I don't know if I've really talked about the housemaids. If I have, I apologize because I surely don't want to repeat the same information. But since I have the the uh brain span of a gnat, I may have talked about it. But anyway, I would like to introduce my uh critics' corner when it comes to authors, uh fiction writers. And I would like to highlight Frida McFadden, F-R-E-I-D-A, M C F A D D E N. Uh I have really become I've really become, excuse me, excited about her fiction. Uh it's fast reading. I read two of her novels on the ship. I could have read more. I've got two more that I ordered. She's written way more than that. Uh she is the one who wrote uh The Housemaid, that movie that was quite popular with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Fried Siegfried, uh which is just an absolutely crazy, crazy story, and very um funny, very sad, uh just very out there. And I found from the two novels that I've read that her stories are out there a little bit. Uh, I've read a story about a woman who uh has amnesia, and every day she wakes up and she doesn't know who she is, she doesn't recognize her husband, uh, she doesn't recognize her friends, she doesn't rem remember anything from the day before. The book is called Do You Remember? And on the cover it says, Who do you believe when you've forgotten your life? And of course, there's way more to the story than that, but I'm not going to tell you. I don't want to give it away. But you can read this in I would say three, four hours. Uh the chapters are short, uh move very, very quickly. It's highly digestible. Is it out there? Absolutely. Uh is it entertaining? Yes, it is. So, I'm I'm going to do much more talking about that. Then there was a book that I read. Called. Oh, I can't find it right now. But here are some of the other books that she has written. Do you remember, Do Not Disturb, The Locked Door? And I'm hoping to read all of these books. Either my public library or I'm going to order them online. Want to know a secret? One by one, The Wife Upstairs, The Perfect Son, The X, Baby City, Brain Damage, Suicide Med, The Devil Wear Scrubs, and The Devil You Know. And of course, The Housemaid. Uh, The Housemaid uh is a story of twists and turns. What I like about her as a writer is that she always gives a cliffhanger sentence, so to speak, at the end of each chapter that makes you want to keep reading on. You don't want to put the book down. You want to know what's happening next. And great surprises at the end of the story. If you think you've got it figured out, you don't. And I give her a lot of credit. I think recently she just um, so to speak, came out and uh let everybody know that I think Frida McFadden is a surgeon and she writes books on the side. So I think this woman's doing quite well financially. So I would suggest if you're looking for something light, great summer reading, really works well for sitting on the beach or sitting on your deck with a cool drink in your hand, I would suggest Frida McFadden. And um you could order her books online. You can maybe borrow them from somebody or go to a bookstore and get immersed in her could I say twisted quirky world. Uh I love the paths that these books take off the beaten track. Frida McFadden.

SPEAKER_07 30:42

And this much I believe. A good one leaves a shelf of life.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

For the rest of us turning up, let's have a seat round the proverbial table.

SPEAKER_09 31:38

Would you like to say Grace? With a nod to our higher power and Mr. B's spiritual journey.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Okay, my spiritual friends. We have been going through the 12 steps. We have finished with step four, which is filling out your inventory. Something that's very related to that is step five, which is admitted to God, to ourselves, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. And this is how the reading goes. Throughout our lives, many of us have felt isolated from other people. We felt that we were outsiders, and we acted this feeling in many ways. Some of us by being shy, others by being arrogant or belligerent, others by playing the clown. No matter how we acted, however, deep down we felt alone and apart. Now looking at the fifth step, we see something we can do, a positive action which we can take to end our isolation. By the time we reach this point, many of us have already feeling less alone. We've learned to accept the loving welcome we found and to be part of a food addicts fellowship. We've talked with others over the phone, discussed our lives in depth with our sponsors. We've begun to make true friends, friends with whom we can speak honestly. Perhaps it's become easy to share about how we too acted while we were eating compulsively. On a deeper level, however, we probably realize that there is still much of ourselves we haven't shared. This is natural. Few of us have ever done a moral inventory before we joined, and our four step inventory brought us new insights and understandings. By the time we've completed the fourth step, most of us feel ready to move ahead quickly with step five. We want to be free of the resentments, guilt, and shame rooted in the past. And we realize that sharing the depths of our past with another human being is an important step toward freedom. Freedom. Once we've taken this step, we will no longer have anything to hide. This is the beginning of the end of our isolation. Step five begins with our higher power. Most of us find that without the help of a power greater than ourselves, we are incapable of complete honesty about the mistakes we have made. It is human nature to cling to the illusion that we have done no wrong, and through years of compulsive eating, we have become experts at rationalization. Now with God's help, we leave rationalization behind and begin to practice integrity. We face the reality of our mistakes. We see the part we ourselves have played in creating our own misfortunes, and we realize the futility of continuing to blame others for our compulsive eating and our unmanageable lives. In step five, we are learning a new way of life. From now on, we will readily acknowledge our wrongs instead of seeking to hide them from others. A humble admission of our mistakes to God is our first step in this direction. We willingly open our hearts so that a life-changing power can come in and heal us. We go back over our four-step inventory, acknowledging each truth about our past behavior, no matter how painful or embarrassing. In acknowledging these wrongs to God, we begin at last to acknowledge them to ourselves too. We admit to ourselves who we are and what we have done. As we do this, we gain new hope. We start to feel that we can be forgiven and begin life anew with a clean slate. Once we have made the admission to God and to ourselves, we may feel we have fully dealt with our past. What need is there we may ask to air our dirty laundry in front of another person? Won't this self-revelation simply humiliate us and further lower our already low self-esteem? In practice, step five has the step five has the opposite effect. When we actually do our fifth step with another human being, we found that we are humbled without being humiliated. Many of us have always felt that we had to be better than anyone else or we were no good at all. Through the fifth step process, we begin to see reality. All our striving to get ahead has been useless. We are neither above nor below the rest of the human race. We are part of it, shaped by the same needs and desires as all our fellows. Those of us who have belittled ourselves or felt we are worse than others also gain a new perspective. In talking honestly with another person about ourselves, we begin to feel a sense of relief. Someone knows all about us and still accepts us unconditionally. We begin to forgive ourselves and see ourselves as capable, strong, and honest. And so we are in taking step five, we prove to ourselves capable of accomplishing a difficult task and strong enough to be completely honest with another human being. And I will do part two next time for step five. I would share with you when I did my step five with my sponsor, it was over a number of days. Uh, I was very frightened to do it because I admitted some things uh verbally to him that I was ashamed of. Um that I was not really wanting to tell anybody because people would think that I was uh not a good person. And I know that I am, I know I'm a child of God, we all are. But what I found miraculous, as I just shared in the reading, is when I shared with my sponsor, there was absolutely no judgment. None. I simply voiced it and I could feel the shame lifting. It was a miracle. And so when I was in my group on the ship, I shared some things there that would I share uh with friends at a dinner party or at lunch or something. No, I would not. I only trust largely the fellowship uh people in this program in a room. These people never judge, these people listen, these people understand, and they are vital to me in keeping my sobriety, my abstinence from food, from dangerous foods. And here I am, I think it was the second day I was with the group, and I was telling them things about some items that I shared with my sponsor when I went through the um fourth step and fifth step that I have never told other people. And I had not even really met these people. Is that risk taking? Absolutely. Did I feel safe in doing it? I most assuredly did. But it's crucially important that you voice it to somebody. I have a sponsee right now that he's working through his fourth step, and when he gets that done, then we're going to sit down and he's going to share what he has learned about himself. Secrets, things that he's ashamed about, that he needs to let go of, because nobody but nobody is perfect. And so do I have a right to judge him? Absolutely not. But by him voicing it to me or some other person, and you could choose anybody you want, anybody you trust, you are releasing all those desires in you that make you want to overeat or drink or gamble or whatever the addiction would be. It's all based in spirituality. You give it all over to a higher power and you say I'm rid of it. I'm done with it. I'm not going to harbor it. I'm not going to use it as an excuse to bench. So step five is vital. You have to do it. Absolutely have to do it. Uh when I did my step five, I called my ex-wife. Was I nervous? Was I scared? Absolutely. Did I have to do it? Yes, I did, because I had to make amends for my wrongs in the marriage. And believe me, I was wrong in many situations. And when you do it, you don't necessarily have to expect any kind of response for somebody to say, Oh, you're forgiven, that's okay. That's not why you do it. You do it to clean up your side of the street. However, that person might respond, you never know. It might be positive, it may be negative. And if you feel it's going to cause more harm, then don't do it. But I felt compelled to do this, and I'm so glad I did. Does that mean that we've become best friends since then? No, not at all. But I think that we respect each other. Did she make amends? No. That's not part of it. She did not apologize for anything. That's her business. I did what I was supposed to do. So step five, my great spiritual friends, is a cornerstone of turning the corner. Does that phrase make sense? Anyway, to achieving lifelong uh abstinence 24 hours at a time.

SPEAKER_09 42:49

One day at a time. Hello, friends and neighbors. Welcome to the Sunny Side of Life Bible in a year experience. Join me each day as I read the Bible from start to finish. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. These are the instructions for the guilt offering. If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? Now, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices beside me. You who have understanding, everyone knows that God doesn't sin. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. He tore his clothes and put on burlap and went to the temple of the Lord. This is what the sovereign Lord says to Israel. How long, O Lord, must I call for help? The word was with God, and the word was God. But by Jesus Christ Himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead, he who is the faithful witness to all these things says, Yes, I am coming soon. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord. Jesus be with God's holy people. Its own podcast, January 1st through December 31st every year. The Sunny Side of Life Bible in a year experience. For free from Sunnyside Farm Studios. I pray this daily reading will bless you as much as it does me. So let's get started. And now, school days with Mr. B.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Fellow friends, I was a public school educator for 39 years. I've been uh in retirement for six years, and I've been doing a lot of subbing during that time. And I find that um I have many times ample opportunity to sub all I want in May. Now this changes from year to year. Uh this year I took a two-week hiatus and went on vacation, uh, and I've done that before. Uh but I find many times that teachers in May use their personal days or they have other venues, or maybe they need mental health days. Oh well, yes. Mental health days. Uh May, I remember as a public teacher, was crazy, crazy. The end of the semester, graduations, concerts, special events, grading, banging your head against the wall. The kids have checked out, many of them have checked out probably the second week of October, and uh it just gets worse. And then the weather gets nice, and that makes it even harder. So if you are telling yourself that teachers don't count the days to get out, I think you're fooling yourself. I think they do. I know I did, even though I love teaching. Um, I did find an article written by a high school English teacher about what it's like to teach in May. And I would just like to read some of the highlights of it because it really represents what I've went through as an English teacher. And it starts this way. With apologies to those teachers in year-round schools or whose traditional school calendars still extend into June, I think May is the cruelest month for teachers. Elliot's opening line for The Wasteland makes a strong impression because it undercuts our positive associations with April and Springtime and Lilac. How could they be cruel? And what's wrong with memory and desire? Teachers understand the cruelty of springtime. It's just too much, especially May. May is the month of looking back. Year-end projects give our students opportunity to show what they've learned, to celebrate growth, portfolios are assembled, we take stock of the students' progress, reflecting on the year that's about to end. As we begin cleaning up, each bulletin board and folder and box reminds us of the work we've done. Yearbooks arrive, final assessments, final exams, graduations, celebrating retired colleagues, so many different things. But May is also the month of looking ahead. We have next year's class list, teaching assignments, subject to change, classroom ships, staffing developments, modifying lesson and unit plans for next year, summer plans, personal and professional, need to be finalized. We need to look at new curriculum and review it. New hires are already identified in some cases. And May is the month, which I personally believe, of holding on. We're holding on to students and classes for whom we've developed such an affection. We're holding on to ambitions that we still might get through this final unit to complete that final project. We're holding on to whatever rules and routines help maintain order when everyone is feeling anxious. We're grabbing at the loose ends, hoping to tie up a coherent conclusion. We're holding on to our sense of humor and hopefully our sanity. May is also the month of letting go. Students are about to move on to the next grade, the next phase of life. We look down the rosters name by name, let them go with a sense of pride and satisfaction what we've accomplished together. But in some cases, letting go has a bitter and disappointing feel. Maybe we realize we haven't met our goals with every student. Also, May is the month of chaos. Days are getting longer, hotter. Schools are taking standardized tests. Stress built up among students, parents, and teachers, all mindful of how few days remain, few opportunities for students to complete work and raise their grade. Lack of time for teachers to assess and return work. Each day seemed to bring a final something. Final chances of makeup work, final performance, final game, final publication, final exam, last day to return library books, retrieve items in the lost and phone. Maybe you have an AP exam. Maybe you have prom in May. Maybe you have the senior ditch day. I've experienced that. Field trips, class picnics, coffees, luncheons, I think, teachers and volunteers. So many different things. May is a cruelest month. Full of dread and delight. And exhausting. Well, thank you, David McCohen, for that article because that really represents how I feel about May. It's a whole conglomeration of different things. But the ultimate is the excitement of students having learned in your classroom and moving on to the next level. Sometimes it's very hard to let go when you have developed such great um relationships with your students. But you also need the summertime to relax, to refill the well, to regather that energy that you had at the start of the year, and now your well is dry. So May is exhausting for an educator and also energizing.

SPEAKER_09 51:27

For the next course, come one, come all. Nothing spoiled here, from comfort classics to what's hot now, film reviews from Mr. B's Rewatchables.

SPEAKER_01 51:37

My friends, I spent some time in my room on my wonderful relaxing cruise, reading and watching television. And they had quite the here we go plethorah, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, of movies to choose from. Lots of categories. Very much my own Tubi or Netflix right on the ship. Uh so I'm going to talk about three different movies today that I saw, and just give you a very capsule comment about whether I recommend it or not. But you've got to be the one to decide for yourself. The first one that I saw, not necessarily in any order, is Die Darling. And that has Jennifer Lawrence in it. It came out, I believe, at the start of this um last year. And Robert Pattinson, who was in the Twilight series. And it's a story about a young lady and her husband who live in the city. I'll just give you some of the highlights. And then uh decide to move into the country to a very um isolated home uh in the country. And she becomes pregnant and has a child. Unfortunately, uh she starts to suffer from postpartum depression. And it simply escalates and escalates and escalates. And this is not one of those films that is a really what we call feel-good, happy movie. Um you start to experience her bizarre world of her behavior, um how she treats her husband, uh uh find out what kind of childhood she had. All these things. And it's very dark and depressing. And the ending is very dark and rather ambiguous. My brother and I both watched it. Um I'm not going to tell you what the ending is, you find out for yourself, but it could be interpreted in many different ways. But I do believe that Jennifer Lawrence is one of our greatest actresses today. She was in the Hunger Games uh in many other films. And I think she's absolutely superb in this movie. And so is Robert Pattinson. So if you like something that's dark, I mean dark, I recommend Die Darling. Then I was in a whimsical mood and I wanted to watch uh Strangers Part Three. Now I'm a huge fan of the original Strangers movie, which came out a number of years ago with Liv Tyler in it, about a couple in an isolated home who get a knock at the door in the middle of the night asking if Rachel is here or something, and then they are um terrorized by three strangers with masks throughout the evening. It is really, really scary and absolutely not a story that has a reason why they're attacking them. They're just there, and that's what they do. Well, they decided uh a couple years ago to make it into the three-part uh story. And uh I just wasted about an hour and a half watching this. Uh, it was terrible. Uh I've seen uh some of the Strangers Part One, I've not seen any of Strangers Part Two, and I suffered through Strangers Part Three, uh, which supposedly brought a finality to it, and the the original killers were killed themselves uh by this um woman. Uh uh dull, predictable, boring. Don't watch it. Strangers part three. I would not recommend it. Um my third one I'm going to comment on is a f a great film with Rose Byrne in it. She was nominated for an Academy Award this year for it. It's a small film, it's an indie film. And it's called I'd Kick You If I Had If I Had Legs. What a title. I'd kick you if I had legs. And it's about a woman played by Rose Byrne who has uh a daughter um who needs constant medical help and how her life is going down the toilet, so to speak. Uh lives in an apartment building, uh, broken water line, uh, destroys her apartment, they have to live in a motel. Uh she's a psychiatrist or a psychologist, and um trying to help people who uh leave babies with her and and other crazy things, and she her husband's not around, and it just seems like it's one calamity after another. You found out Mr. Bertelson's death trip. Um we found out about the so-called happy ending. She doesn't come to grips and she does being on with other people for her spiritual journey, give into the world of the city. I talked about and not let it get to her, so to speak. Uh but uh Rose Byrne is so great in this film. Uh I can't really tell you other movies that she's been in. I know I've seen her, but she's very, very good. So I would suggest I'd kick you if I had legs. And we will look at some more of those movies that I chose. I'm not gonna comment about every film that I saw, but some that I think you might want to think about, or maybe some you don't want to think about. The next time we get together. So there you have it, my friends. You found out about Mr. Bertelson's Caribbean trip. We found out about the journey of being honest with other people for our spiritual journey. I talked about what it's like to teach in May. I talked about one of my favorite authors right now, Frida McFadden. And I got to spend time with you. And I look forward to being here again at Mr. B's dinner party, where the fun never ends. I hope you agree. I hope you agree because I love talking with you and I love sharing things with you. So keep me in mind. I'll be back.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Bye bye for now. Television dramas and comedic reviews, pet peeves buzzing like honeydew blues, poetry sprinkled like salt on a dish, every word served with a twist and a swish belly up to the table, my friend. The feast of thought will never end. From travels far to a spiritual climb. Morsels of music served in a rhyme.

SPEAKER_09 59:08

Mr. B's dinner party is hosted by Scott Bertelson, edited and produced by Troy Thompson, recorded and distributed at Sunnyside Farm Studios, and platformed by Buscrap.

SPEAKER_03 59:19

Conversations flowing like fine red wine. World journeys mapped with tales divine. He's hosting a dinner for your hungry mind. A banquet of life where you can unwind Belly up to the table, my friend. The feast of never end from travels far to a spiritual climb. Morsels of music served in rhyme.

SPEAKER_09 59:58

Subscribe so you never miss an episode and share with your friends. Listen and enjoy every other Wednesday. Conversational morsels for the mind on Mr. B's dinner party.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:15

Reading with Mr. Blue Pen in the margin, dog eared pages on the desk, and the whole room leaning in. Favorite writers, favorite lines. He made them feel like friends. Forty years of showing up, making young hearts bend. One more page, one more spark.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:54

He could find a dog in the dock.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:36

When a way for us to try. One more sparky good fine dog in the dog.