That’s right, I believe in signs. I’m speaking in the written sense, mostly: Whether they’re manifested messages from some divine authority or inidicators of universal synchronicity a la Jung or just psychological revelations based on a personal symbology, I enjoy finding coincidental meaning in seemingly mundane events. In my novel, the narrator spends much ofContinue reading “A good omen”
Author Archives: Samuel Snoek-Brown
My new grading policy
This was my “Buddhism quote” on my iGoogle homepage today: “Wise men don’t judge: they seek to understand.” Pretty much sums up the ways I grade and the reasons I don’t like assigning grades. As a writer who insists on treating students like fellow writers, I don’t want to “judge” their work–I want to understandContinue reading “My new grading policy”
Novel-writing
My sister has this life-long friend who grew up on a farm. Raised cows, learned to drive a tractor at age 6, showed pigs at the county fair–the whole bit. She once described to us the process of delivering piglets, an ordeal my sister got to participate in. Third-grade arms deep inside the pig, littleContinue reading “Novel-writing”
Labels
I’ve been contemplating my role in the classroom, and I decided — not as definition but as meditation — to explore the origins of all these labels we apply to ourselves. While I acknowledge that most of these etymologies have evolved to have entirely different connotations, I enjoy examining the beginnings of words as aContinue reading “Labels”
Writing vs. Writing
A friend of mine, a brilliant poet named Bri Pike, was writing in her blog about the distinction between writing as hobby and writing as serious craft, and I found her comments so interesting I felt compelled to respond. So did another writer-friend of mine, the essayist and memoirist Crystal Elerson. Our resulting three-way conversation,Continue reading “Writing vs. Writing”
More metta to Maynmar
I’m sorry to say things have gotten worse in Burma (Myanmar). UPDATE: Things have gone from worse to deadly. Reportedly, even monks have been killed. For more information, please visit the Democratic Voice of Burma. Even more than before, I still fervently hope the Burmese people and the governments of the world can find aContinue reading “More metta to Maynmar”
Metta to Myanmar
Thynn Thynn, the woman I consider my first formal teacher in Buddhism, is from Burma (technically, Myanmar, but she refers to herself as Burmese). I’ve since shifted my focus to Mahayana practices (and some studies in Vajrayana), but I continually return to Thynn Thynn’s teachings on mindfulness when I feel a need to sit, toContinue reading “Metta to Myanmar”
Freewriting
The other day, I introduced my students to freewriting and its more structured cousin, looping. As I always do when making my students write in class, I brought my own notebook (a smooth black thing with a red-ribbon bookmark and a folding magnetic flap embossed with a Japanese kanji for “joy”), and I wrote withContinue reading “Freewriting”
No one writing
On my Google homepage, I subscribe to a series of quotes that change day to day. One is a daily Thoreau quote, one is a general literary quote, one is a daily Jon Stewart quote, and so on. I also receive daily quotes from Buddhism (the service applies the term a bit liberally, often ascribingContinue reading “No one writing”
Audience analysis
I’m listening to an audio recording of teachings on the Garland of Views that HH the Dalai Lama gave in Miami in 2004. About 45 minutes into the second recording, His Holiness talks about how to explain the diversity of teachings in Buddhism: If we were to ask what is exactly the Buddha’s own finalContinue reading “Audience analysis”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 