Welcome to the Front Porch…more cold weather….but it is Winter what can I say? Thanking the Lord for the recent rains. Our pond is almost full again…5 happy ducks
swimming in a row…so thank you Lord for the rain.
Let’s just get to the point this morning….
Today the word I would like to
discuss is dramatize. This word means: to put into a form suitable for acting on a stage. Also,
to express or represent vividly, emotionally and with exaggeration. Dramatize…
Someone
may come to mind when you hear this word: dramatize. Could be ‘a Drama Queen or Drama King’…..referring
to someone who reacts to an event or situation with ‘vivid, exaggeration emotions’…bring
attention to themselves…thus drama. If we admit it, most of us at sometime like to
be the center of attention…Dramatize
Drama surrounds us, fills our lives,
entertains us, informs us…helps us step into other worlds; it helps us to learn
how others think, feel, how they overcome.
This can be done through movies,
plays, parades, readers’ theaters, puppet shows, dance. Dramatize…
In an educational setting, we
encourage young children to ‘dramatize’ by acting out what they have learned, how they are feeling, maybe
something that happened to them or something they want to be in the future. We have centers such as
kitchen, farm, community, career, etc. for children to put on hats, clothing
and pretend they are someone else, somewhere else dramatizing. Some people are so good at this it becomes a
career.
Today’s visit will be a little different. Going to take a trip down ‘Memory Lane’; that
pleasant place, sometimes…sometimes not so pleasant. You can only go so far down Memory Lane. Then you come upon a gulf that separates the
past from the present. There are no
bridges, no stepping stones, no walking on the water to get there. A few stolen moments here and there,
reminiscing about the ‘good ‘ole’ days that may or may not have been so good…
So sit a spell and let’s talk about
dramatizing
and me. This should be a nice little break from the discussions, a little
lighter…a little insight into who I am and why.
If it is TMI…just exit and maybe you can drop by another day. Ready??
Let’s begin!
Dramatize….remember your first play, part in a parade or perhaps in a home
movie, a little video clip? I remember
my first part in a play…3rd grade…I even had a speaking part! Hmmm…don’t laugh…but I was a witch…yep a
witch. It was a pretty big part…Somehow
my mom came up with a costume, a witch’s long black skirt, black shirt and a
long cone hat. I was a witch. I cannot
imagine for the life of me why I was chosen.
I was not pretty, I did nothing to stand
out, I was not a social butterfly….at all.
I was shy…had one maybe two friends…never very close to anyone…..perhaps
more on that another time. I more or less stayed in my little world and let
others stay in theirs.
Anyway…my big
moment came. I was shaking and
quaking…but with all that was within me I said my little line, something about
a witch’s brew or stew or something, took a long handle thing and stirred that
stuff and then had to do the witch’s laugh……hehehehhehe and stirring my brewing pot… looking out to the audience. Dramatize….I loved it! (not the being a witch…but the acting J)
Thus, I began to dramatize: I pretended to
take dance classes: I was a ballerina. Where I got this idea I do not
recall. Must have overheard someone
talking about it and decided in my pretend world I too could dance and be a
ballerina. I pretended I was someone else; lived somewhere else; belonged to
someone else. I wanted to be anyone but
who I was; I wanted to live anywhere but in the 4 room shack with ‘a path’; I
wanted to belong to anyone than the abusive alcoholic. I wanted a functional family vs disfunctional.
Dramatizing, for me, was a way to
escape, to deal with the confusion and get through the uncertainty, the shame,
the embarrassment, the lack in my life.
It was a way to step out of my world into another place and time. Dramatize…
I love
horses…cannot explain this love, this fascination. No one in my immediate family had
horses. My first encounter with horses was
through a neighbor. Let me give you a little background here: my
parents were from the ‘hills’ of Kentucky…married, moved to Cincinnati. Even though my father only had a fourth grade
education, somehow he got a job at General Electric. I was born in Cincinnati...a few years later they
moved back to Kentucky, just over the Ohio River to a little area,
Alexandria. We were in the country: 4
rooms and a path…no inside plumbing and a coal stove for heat. I lived there
until I got married.
Across the road and
up a hill lived a neighbor who had about 10 horses and ponies; a variety of
colors and sizes. I would sit in front of
our little shack and look at those horses for hours. Most days they would be grazing
on the hill and I could see them…some days they would be in another pasture and
I could not see them. I longed to see those horses. I
loved them. I dreamed I could ride them, walk them, brush them, love them.
I continued to dramatize as I got older. I no
longer pretended to be a dancer or a princess or someone else’s girl: I pretended I was a horse. I would run, jump, whiney, neigh and folic
like a horse. When I wasn’t pretending I
was a horse, I was reading about them, drawing them and singing about
them. Horses, Horses, Horses. I remember riding the school bus home one
afternoon and seeing some beautiful horses.
I began singing a little tune I made up about horses...how much I loved
them and how I would take care of mine forever and ever. I must have gotten carried away for some
kids around me began making fun of me.
I would walk around the little yard singing about horses. Dramatize…
I noticed that one of my grandsons, Kaden, Tim’s son, is a
singer and crossing over into a little
drama…when they were visiting over Thanksgiving we set aside time to walk
around the farm, down into the pasture, explore the pond and visit with the
animals. Kaden would go off by himself
and I could hear him singing, making up little songs…finally he would say “I need
some private time”. That meant me and
Karson, his little brother, were to continue on with our little walk…Kaden
would continue to sing, walk around and dramatize. He would continue to sing and go
into his little world...might be the chicken coop, up on one of the hall rolls. He began singing and
dancing….dramatize..funny…Kaden is a talented, gifted little guy…if I must say
so myself. He already writes his own
songs and has recorded some of his songs with the help of his Dad, Tim, my
youngest son. Interesting…his drama is
not to escape like mine…but it is evident he
does like to explore his talents, try out his songs and even dramatize them, I
think we will be hearing more from this young man in the future!
Dramatize…Dramatic Play… as we in the
education field call it…it is a learning tool for children…it makes a story
come alive and creates memories. It can
spark an interest in the arts and start a young child on the path to pursue a
career in dramatizing books, stories, events.
I
guess if there would be any words of wisdom today…and you work with children,
have children, or grandchildren…encourage them
to dramatize.
So
as we close out today…no words of wit or wisdom about dramatizing. still
dramatizing…perhaps that is why this word jumped out at me. Since I am a librarian for a Pre-school, I
make it a point to dramatize books; to get the
children to come along with me and join me in another time and place. It is no longer a way to escape and pretend I
am someone else because I am unhappy.
Instead, it is to open up doors for children so they can explore
characters, settings, events, another time.
This
week we will be dramatizing
the book The Three Kings, by
Karen Kingsbury. It is a book about a
princess who must decide between 3 knights. One is only interested in her
money, another wants the fame, while the third really loves her and vows to love
and cherish her. We dress up as knights,
princesses and march through the library to the ‘castle’ celebrating the
Kingdom of Reading. One of my favorite
lessons I share with the children.
It
is going to be a busy week… I can already hear the giggles, the ooooohs,
ahhhhhs, as the girls select their little dresses, put on the jewelry, tiaras;
the little guys slip on their knight’s armor and carry the pretend swords on
our journey to the castle….dramatize
Speaking
of dramatize, where does the time go…need to get up and get moving on to school
and finish setting up the Kingdom of Reading…so stop by again tomorrow…let’s memorialize…
No comments:
Post a Comment