Yesterday, I saw a stack of blank maps of Africa in my classroom. If you teach English in this culturally illiterate age, you learn that you have to teach other subjects (across the curriculum is the jargon) also in order for the students to truly grasp the literature. So, I make use of history and maps constantly. The blank ones I use for various assignments, usually for the gifted students to map out colonial Africa. Anyway, when I saw these maps, I thought of two books: Heart of Darkness and Out of Africa. I thought some more on this and realized that books become points of reference. I still remember my first reading of both of these books, so they’ve become part of my mind calendar. Books and movies: the two greatest influences on my mind these days. I also remember seeing the 1985 movie version of Out of Africa. That made me think of this quotation, which I so identify with these days.

Movie Quote of the Day: I’ve got this little thing that I’ve learned to do lately. When it gets so bad…and I think I can’t go on…I try to make it worse. –from Out of Africa

There are many other memorable quotes in this movie. You can find the script for Out of Africa here: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/o/out-of-africa-script-transcript.html