My Feelings about Fur

Since the entrance of Skip into my life I've been interested in the idea of fur. Skip's fur floats like little grey tumble weeds in my house all the time. Given that I am potentially diagnosable for OCD with regard to my house cleaning, you would think these fluffy fur balls would annoy me. On the contrary, I find Skip fur everywhere and it makes me happy... I don't even want to vacuum sometimes. Skip fur ends up on my clothes too and I don't even look for a lint roller... I feel proud of rabbit fur.

Why? Well, I've discovered 2 reasons (and I'm working on more):
1. I love Skip. When we love something, we tend to love everything that reminds us of them. Those of you who love something and have similar experiences can help deny or confirm this if need be.

2. I believe in fur. ... Let me explain. Rabbit fur is maybe the softest and most delightful thing I can imagine (ok... maybe exaggerating.) I propose that humans would benefit greatly if we naturally grew rabbit fur. (I want to make clear, I would NEVER suggest wearing rabbit pelts! We are not barbarians.)

Why rabbit fur would be great for humans:
a. We would be cuter creatures. Without fur, rabbits would not be nearly as cute and (believe me) naked rabbits at birth are pretty scary looking. In Out of the Silent Planet, the hrossa on Mars have fur and Ransom realizes in the course of his dealings with them that he must look really ugly to them because he lacks fur... my sentiments exactly.
b. Warmth. I feel cold most of the time so I would love rabbit fur. Those of you who are not cold-natured can refer to "a." and just deal with being ugly.
c. We would be cozier. For this idea I credit Where the Wild Things Are (or really the movie). All the creature things liked sleeping in a pile. This can only be fun because they had fur. Can you imagine what it might be like to be hugged by a human sized rabbit?

Photo courtesy of Chris, pet photographer.

Peculiar evidence of higher intelligence in the lagomorpha

While talking with my roommate in Skip's room the other day, my beloved rabbit began behaving oddly. He's usually a bit odd but this time I noticed that he was actually trying to use higher reasoning skills. Skip repeated this behavior so frequently that I was able to catch it on video. So, here you have it.



If you notice, the lagopmorpha uses tools (straws of hay) to attempt an escape from human captivity. Also take note of the vigorous head movement indicating determination and trial-error strategy processing. The lagomorpha recognizes the opening to the entrapment and imitates human movement towards the latch. After a genuine attempt is made, the lagomorpha becomes distracted by the deliciousness of this "hay" tool and begins eating the former tool. Remarkable new discovery.

UPDATE: My Pavlovian experiment with Skip is WORKING! The other day I jingled the bells and he ran straight into his cage without the appearance of food. Smart Bunny. Successful Rabbit Owner. I might make a ribbon and put it on his cage, even if he's not show quality.

Hope Boosters

Several years ago I decided to place a banner spelling "HOPE" in my classroom. I did this because I needed a tangible reminder that "my kids" will receive some sort of benefit from being stuck in my room for 45 minutes a day. When you work with 12-17 year old human beings you are guaranteed:
1. to get pretty discouraged when they make poor decisions
2. to become disillusioned when you wonder if there is a point to communicating (with as much enthusiasm as one can muster) on substitutionary atonement, Moses in Egypt, the Sermon on the Mount, or Eastern Pantheistic Monism
3. to grow weary of questions that lack any apparent use of independent reasoning skills
4. to evaluate whether you should be paid more for picking up used snot rags off the floor
5. to try one more time to address the issue of pets in heaven without the 12 year olds crying
6. to pull your hair out when the middle school girls are fighting again and burst into my planning period with a nonsensical story about how intolerable the other one has become

No one teaches in order to receive immediate gratification. When you really think of it, the whole profession requires a bit of madness in order to persevere. Often I reorient myself around the truth that "my kids" are works in progress at the messiest time of life and that digging my heels in is honorable even if there is no evidence of fruit. This kind of thing requires faith... lots and lots of it. I don't have much of that, even though I teach it.

I've been thinking a lot recently about the relationship between faith and hope. It seems like they are so tied together that they are almost synonymous. My friend, Rachel, described faith recently as "not the clinging to an idea but the clinging." I completely agree. It doesn't take much faith to believe when we are out of the clouds of cynicism and entering the clearing of beauty and goodness. No, faith is when the clouds are thick and I choose to set my life on something that seems ridiculous. The kind of faith that shows itself in the "clinging" creates its own beauty and I think that is where hope likes to appear. Hope is not the hap-hazard throwing up of the hands that perhaps things will fall the way we want. It must be in the profound longing we have in a Good we haven't seen and even feel silly believing. It takes courage to exhibit faith and hope because it requires that we actually face the disappointment of the present condition of ourselves, others, and the world. We cannot stay in the dreamworld of what seems presently real and this is uncomfortable.

Anyway, all of this was floating through my mind when I arrived at school this week and discovered the class of 2010's senior prank. On my chalkboard was written the following.

Dear Miss Vann,

“If we offend, it is with good will. That you should think, we come not to offend, but with good will!” Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

To our Christian Theology and Doctrine teacher, Miss Vann; we wish to express our deepest thanks and love for teaching us God’s word. Like many teachers here at Veritas, you know how to help us look on the BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE when (sometimes) we just can’t see the truth, the light and the goodness of the Lord, or when our spiritual lives might be stuck in the mud or when we are scared to walk forward because we can’t see through the THICKEST fog before our eyes. We LOVE you, Miss Vann, and you will be missed dearly! (Also, we will miss your wonderful antics during chapel!) To all of our teachers who have taught us over the 12 years this class has been at our school: We thank you for all the hard work you have done for us! You love and care about us, you honestly want us to know and understand the truth, and each of you have your own way of encouraging us to do better and reach our full potential. Thanks for touching our lives!

With much love,

The class of 2010

So, perhaps to aid me in not taking myself too seriously after this message, the seniors conducted their "Senior Chapel" skit parodying their teachers and a colleague emailed me these photos for your enjoyment. Apparently I look like this while I'm teaching.

Scary, huh?

So, I'm going to keep looking at that banner and believing and longing and clinging to the silliness of the teaching and the teachings. ... and I suppose I'll keep picking up those snot rags too.

Why "Y"? The case for the advancement of an overlooked letter.

The other daY I was texting and the letter "Y" would not tYpe out no matter how hard I tried. Now, LG has some explaining to do but in the meantime I've reallY missed mY "Y." How can You communicate without it? I'm verY thankful for this technological failure because it has reminded me to appreciate the letter "Y" as a verY important letter in our alphabet.

It's gotten a bad rap for a long time for the whole "sometimes Y" designation...as if it's some sort of 2nd class vowel. How dare people place such a beloved letter in a subcategorY, creating divisions and hierarchies of competing values among our letters! I'm outraged that no one has stood up for this great one among the other 25.

First of all, the letter "Y" is much more beautiful looking than "i." Plus, the letter "i" requires extra work... picking up that pencil and creating that dot... so much fuss. "I" is needy... it's about "us." "Y" seems so much more inviting... and this is "whY" the letter "Y" ends so many words. It makes things more the waY they should be... stickY, lovelY, funnY. What would the world be like if things were sticki, loveli, or funni?

AdditionallY, I've decided I like a lot of words that start with the letter "Y." Yellow, Yippee, Yikes, Yodeling, Yes, Y'all, Yosemite... aren't theY nice?

So, here's to the letter "Y." WhY? Well, I suppose because I need mY letter back on mY cell phone, You emploYees of LG.

In the meantime, mY text messages might read a little weird. Miss "Y" with me and grieve.

Hellos and Goodbyes

Today I said goodbye to a good friend, Pearl. She was my Honda Accord. We had some good times together during our 127,000 mile run. I was thinking today that I've probably spent more time with Pearl than any human, if you really add it up. I will miss her a lot but I will still get to visit because my brother bought her and took her back to Winston-Salem. Here she will happily reside with some Vanns who also love her. It was a bitter sweet parting.



So, everyone, welcome Gus. Gus is my new VW Jetta auto-friend. I will most likely be spending lots of time with him too though we are still getting to know each other. If Gus was a real boy I think I'd like to marry him. He's foreign, cute, intelligent, Skip accommodating, mountain-loving, and environmentally friendly. However, if we're thinking practically, he's much more useful as a car. Here's to great memories with Gus!