You are special. There is no one like you. I wish you the best in your ever changing present.

This summer, I will be in Indonesia and will be sharing my experiences in my global blog and website for TGC Fulbright.  Please visit it this summer.  I'd love to hear from you.  The opening blog is directed to you.  Here is the link:

Mr. P. Goes Global

https://ericdpellerin.wixsite.com/globalclassrooms

To my dear G block class,

We have spent an entire school year together exploring literature through the eyes of various authors. I am not sure if you noticed, but most of the pieces dealt with human relationships. It is important to me that you understand why books matter.

For me, I realized that I am not alone in a world that seems so crazy to me. When I was your age, I often felt like Mrs. Alving or Clarissa Dalloway; my whole being telling me that the world is closing in on me, that I desperately need to put pen to paper or I will go mad. How can we be free?

Like Lightman's fictional Einstein, I discovered that everything is connected, we are a single consciousness experiencing itself in a world from unaccustomed Earth, as Lahiri (and Hawthorne) put it. Time is visceral. Temporary truly is the saddest word of all.

Nora and Meursault questioned existence, and I too needed to find a new way.  Later becoming a father taught me that we could not gloss over the truth, but need to find purpose (not be a Hamlet) and stand up for what is right. But what do I believe in? What does right mean?  What authors from the past could show me the way?

For one, this thoughtful Frenchman wrote this really, really, really big book. He taught me to relax. He saw some humor in it all. He wrote that it is okay to be a philosopher and believe in something larger than ourselves. The nihilist has nowhere to go and nothing to live for. A church and feelings of spirituality and science and reason may co-exist.

There are people with empathy in the world. The bishop.

There are angels that look broken.  The world has not been kind to them, yet they instinctively give. Valjean. 

You can and must revere the philosophers AND the idea of a beyond (and beyond can have several meanings). There is no shame in both. Both are a necessity. There are no good guys and bad guys. Not really. Even the suicide of Javert should summon up empathy and sadness over what might have been.

We are all in this together, trying to figure this whole world out for ourselves. There is no manual, some might say.

I say there is.

The library, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble have thousands. Victor Hugo also reminded me that there is no reason why you have to pick a side. Create a new side, where the truth lies in a complicated place right or left of the center. Please understand that I am not saying that I am right. I am saying I finally understood what is right for me. I also understood that even this truth will change, with time. I will not be able to control it. It will be okay.

Camus, Lahiri, Austen, Ibsen, Wilde, Cunningham, Woolf and other authors taught me that there is one thing that is essential:   Love.

This is my truth. At least for now…

What will yours be?

You are on a journey, which is connected to “what you are going to be when you grow up?” The real question is: What do you need out of life?

Just remember...

Everything you need to know you learned in A.P. English

- Life is unfair.

- Life is "this" thing, followed by "that" thing, and so on, until you die. True connoisseurs understand it is how we get there that counts. In other words, to be present is to be perfect.

- If you want a perfect life, by the way, choose story A...but B is much more exciting...and inevitable.

- There are Charlie Parkers and Louis Armstrongs. The Bird is exciting, but Louis was a great husband and father...and changed the face of Jazz music in order for Bird to exist, just saying.

- Could you please, please, please, please, please, please, stop tweeting and LISTEN.

- We all came out of Gogol's overcoat...one day you will understand.

- I know you'd prefer not to...but sometimes you have to do it yourself.

-  Your loved ones may not like your choice of life partner.  Do NOT be persuaded.

- But make sure you choose a partner who respects you, one who is your most trusted friend.

- You will never truly be body and soul free...but live like a goddess of victory.

- Decluttering your closets (and secret wall spaces) can help shed light on what is important in your life.

- Find food that satisfies you...and by the way: any idiot can sit around and binge watch panthers. True art nourishes.

- All art is quite useless.

- Dad was swimming as fast as he could...and so are you.

- There is always an opportunity to recapture your first hour, when you were most yourself. Start now.

- Beware of ghosts; they are as thick as grains of sand and we are all so afraid of the light.

- It is vitally important to be earnest.

- It doesn't hurt to get insurance.

-  Our families will see the world through different eyes - It is hell-heaven, the difference...

-  However, they survive train wrecks to make our lives better.  Making every day a gift.

- Life is unfair.

- It is okay to not love your mother or cry at her funeral...

- ...but understand that she was a daughter once...and you may be a mother or father someday...

- There is the political right and the political left. The truth is in the middle somewhere.

-  Do not snuff out candles with your fingers...you might get burned.

- Going to the right college, getting a big house, et al does not ensure the joy of life.

- Something IS rotten in the Denmark. Plan accordingly.

- Real courage comes from standing up for those who cannot fight for themselves.

- Life is unfair.

- Finding the right translation is everything.

- Big things happen during the slow parts. There is always more going on than a plotline.

- Beware of editors.

-  It is your name, and you only get one in your life.  Attach your own meaning carefully.

-  Wear sunglasses to the beach.  Bad things happen when the sun gets in your eyes.

- Everything has a symbolic quality.

- Remember battles for freedom were fought on the same ground where a Starbucks now stands.

- Context is everything.

- When you die, may you be surrounded by people who love you.

-  Remember that things we believe "could not happen in real life" always ends up happening in real life eventually.  Take action. 

- Being loved in this life for the right reasons is much better than having your name in lights.

- Life is unfair.

- Remember empathy.

- Our lives tend to be long, miserable novels. At least you can write your own happy ending.

-  Happy endings are NOT giddy.

- There is no them, only us.  Be a citizen of the world.  Think of all the people you met in these books.  They are real.

-  Sometimes there will be no picture.  You will have to remember it always.  There will be times when you come to place and there will be nowhere left to go.  You must find a new way.

- Being kind to yourself in all the above…

- …is the most wonderful thing of all.

I wish you all the best of luck in your endeavors,

Mr. Pellerin