Jessa Maureen M.

Carolino 2012-59026 ABSENCE Pablo Neruda I have scarcely left you When you go in me, crystalline, Or trembling, Or uneasy, wounded by me Or overwhelmed with love, as when your eyes Close upon the gift of life That without cease I give you. My love, We have found each other Thirsty and we have Drunk up all the water and the Blood, We found each other Hungry And we bit each other As fire bites, Leaving wounds in us. But wait for me, Keep for me your sweetness. I will give you too A rose.

SIXTEEN Maureen Daly Now dont get me wrong. I mean, I want you to understand from the beginning that Im not so really dumb. I know what a girl should do and what she shouldnt. I get around. I listen to the radio. And I have two older sisters. So you see, I know what the scores are. I know its smart to wear tweed-ish skirt and shaggy sweater with the sleeves pushed up and pearls and ankle socks and saddle shoes that looks as if they have seen the world. And I know that your hair should be long, almost to your shoulders, and sleek as wet seal, just a little fluffed on the ends, and you should wear a campus hat or a dink or else a peasant hankie if youve that sort of face. Properly, a peasant hankie should make you think of edelweiss, mist and sunny mountains, yodeling and Swiss cheese. You know that kind of peasant. Now, me, never wear a hankie. It makes my face seem wide and Slavic and I look like a picture always in one of those magazine articles that run And Stalin say the future of Russia lies in its women. In its women who have tilled its soil, raised its children. Well, anyway, Im not exactly too small-town either. I read Winchells column. You get to know what New York boy is the way, About some pineapple princess on the west coast, and why Paradise Pretty is currently the pretties, and why someone, eventually, will play scarlet Ohara. It gives you that cosmopolitan feeling. And I know that anyone who orders a strawberry sundae in a drugstore instead of a lemon coke would probably be dumb enough to wear colored ankle sock with high-heeled pump or use Evening in Paris with a tweed suit. But I am sort of drifting. This isnt what I want to tell you. I just want to give you the general idea of how Im not so dumb. Its important that you understand that. You see it was funny how I met him. It was winter night like any other winter night like any other winter night. And I didnt have my Latin done, either. But the way the moon tinseled the twigs and silver-plated the snow drifts, I just couldnt stay inside. The skating rink isnt far from our house--- you can make it in five minutes if the sidewalks arent slippery--- so I went skating. I remembered it took me a long time to get ready that night because I had to darn my skating socks first. I dont know why they always wear out so fast --- just in the toes, too. Maybe its because I have metal protector on the toes of my skates. That probably is why. And then I brushed my hair---- hard, so hard it clung to my hand and stool up around my head in hazy halo. My skates were hanging by the back door all nice and shiny, Id just got them for Christmas and they smelled so queer --- just fresh smoked ham. My dog walked with me as far as the corner. Shes red chow, very polite and well mannered, and she kept pretending it was me she liked when all the time I knew it was the ham smell. She panted along beside me and her hot breath made a frosty little balloon balancing on the end of her nose. My skates thumped goodnaturedly on my back as I walked and the night was breathlessly quiet. And the star winked down like a million flirting eyes. It was all so lovely. It was all so lovely I ran most of the way and it was lucky the sidewalk had ashes on them or Id have slipped surely. The ashes crunched like cracker-jack and I could feel their cindery shape through the thinness of my shoes. I always wear old shoes when I go skating. I had to cut across someones back garden to get to the rink and last summers grass stuck through the thin ice, brown and discouraged. Not many people came though this way and crusted snow broke through the little hollows between corn stubbles frozen had in the ground. I was out of breath when I got the shantyout of breath with running

and with the loveliness of the night. Shanties are always such friendly places. The floor all hacked to wet splinters from skate runner and the wooded wall frescoed with symbol of dead romance. Girls bursts through the door laughing, with snow on their hair, and tripped over shoes scatted on the floor. A pimply- faced boy grabbed the hat from the frizzled head of the eightgrade blonde and stuffed it into an empty galosh to prove his love and then hastily bent to examine his skate strap with innocent unconcern. It didnt take me long to get my own skates on and I stuck my shoes under the benchfar back where they wouldnt get knocked around and would be easy to find when I wanted to go home. I walked out on my toes and the shiny runner of my new skates dug deep into the sodden floor. It was snowing a little outsidequick, eager little Lux-like flakes that melted as soon as they touched your hand. I dont know where the snow comes from, for there were star out. Or maybe the stars were in my eyes and I just kept seeing them every time I looked up into the darkness. I waited a moment. You know, to start to skate at crowded rink is like jumping on merry-go-round. The skater go skimming round in colored blur like gaudy painted horses and the shrill musical jabber re-echoes in the night from a hundred human calliopes. Once in, I went all right. At least after I found out exactly where the rough ice was. It was round, round, Jump the rut, around, around, jump the rut round, round.And then he came. All of the suddenly his arm was around my waist so warm and tight and he said very casually, May I skate with you? and then he took my hand. Thats all there was to it. Just that and then we were skating. It wasnt that I never skated with a boy before. Dont be silly. I told you before I get around. But this was different. He was Smoothie! He was a big shot up at school and he went to all the big dances and he was the best dancer in town except Arnold Wright who didnt count because hed been to college in New York for two years! Dont you see? This was different. I cant remember what we talked about at first; I cant even remember if we talked at all. We just skated and skated and laughed every time we came to that rough spot and pretty soon we were laughing all the time at nothing at all. It was all so lovely. Then moon hung just over the warning like a big quarter slice of muskmelon and the smoke from the pipe chimney floated up and somebodys hound wailed a mournful apology to a star ashe curled up for the night. It was all so lovely Then he sat up straight and said Wed Better start home. Not Shall I take you home? or Do you live far? but Wed better start home. See, thats how I knew he wanted to the shanty to get my shoes. Black ones, I told him. Same size as Garbos And he laughed again, He was still smiling when he came back and took off my skates and tied the wet skate string in a soggy knot and put them over his shoulder. Then he held out his hand and I slid off the snow bank and brushed off the seat of my pant and we were ready. It was snowing harder now. Big quiet flakes that clung to twiggy bushes and snuggled in little drifts against the tree trunks. The night was an etching in black and white. It was all so lovely I was sorry I lived only a few blocks away. He talked softly as we walked, as if every little word were a secret. Did I like Wayne King, and did his brother? A very respectable Emily Post sort of conversation, and then finally how nice I looked with snow in myhair, and Had I ever seen the moon so close? For the moon was following us when we walked and ducking playfully behind a chimney every time I turned to look at it. And then we were home. The porch light was on. My Mother always puts the light on when I go away at night. And we stood there a moment by the front step and the snow turned pinkish in the glow of the colored light and a few feathery

flakes settled on his hair. Then he took my skates and put them over my shoulder and said, Good night now. Ill call you, he said I went inside then and in moment he was gone. I watched him from window as he went down the street. He was whistling softly and I waited until the sound faded away so I couldnt tell if it was he or my heart whistling out there in night. And he was gone, completely gone. I shivered. Somehow the darkness seemed changed. The stars were little hard chips of light far up in the sky and the moon stared down with a sullen yellow glare. The air was tense with sudden cold and a gust of wind swirled his footprints into the white oblivion. Everything was quiet. But hed said, Ill call you. Thats what he said---- Ill call you. I couldnt sleep all night. And that was last Thursday. Tonight is Tuesday and my homeworks done, and I darned some stocking that didnt really need it. And I Worked crossword puzzle and I listened to the radio, and now Im just sitting. Im sitting because I cant think of anything else to do. I cant think of anything, anything but snowflakes and ice skates and yellow moon and Thursday night. The telephone is sitting on the corner table with is old black faced turned to the wall so cant see it leer. I dont even jump when it ring anymore. My heart still prays, but my heart still laughs. Outside the night is still I think Ill go crazy and the white snows all dirties and smoked into grayness and the wind is still blowing the light so it throws weird , waving shadows from the trees onto the lawn--- like thin, starved arms begging for I dont know what. And so Im sitting here and Im not feeling anything; Im not even sad ;because all of a sudden I know. All of a sudden I know. I can sit here now, forever and laugh and laugh and laugh while tears run salty in the corners of my mouth. For all of a sudden I know, what the stars knew all the time---- he'll never, never call--- never.

HUMANITIES The humanities are academic disciplines that seek to understand, appreciate and critique the human conduction in all its depth and range of meaning. They, in varied ways, consider the "big questions," both of the contemporary and the perennial, and with these understandings and methodologies engage civic life, both locally and globally, to address the challenges faced by humanity. While there are many other disciplines that also seek to understand the human condition, the approaches and methodologies of the humanities are primarily interpretive (analytical, critical, and/or reflective), as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural and social sciences, and the creative approaches in the arts. The second distinction is in what the humanities then attempt to do with the knowledge generated, in the application of understanding. The Idaho Humanities Council goes on to say, through [the] study [of the humanities it seeks to] yield wisdom. As written in the 1965 National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities Act which established the National Endowment for the Humanities and all the state councils, Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. Wisdom is that deep understanding that goes beyond knowing to application, engaging civic life, both locally and globally, to address the challenges faced by humanity. To take up the big questions. In his keynote address, Gary Williams, my predecessor in this role of Distinguished Humanities Professor, emphasized that the Humanities are . . . a way of thinking about and responding to the world tools we use to examine and make sense of the human experience in general and our individual experiences in particular. The humanities enable us to reflect upon our lives and ask fundamental questions of value, purpose, and meaning in a rigorous and systematic way (Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities). As the 1965 Congressional Act stressed, the term 'humanities' pays particular attention to our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life" . . . . to both the particular and diverse, as well as the national and general shared in common. Attempting to address the big questions. The humanities disciplines typically include anthropology/ethnography, communications studies, cultural studies (such as American, Black, International, Latin American, Native American, Religious, Women's Studies), languages, law, literature, history, philosophy, and reflection and theory in creative writing, in the performing arts of music, dance and theatre, and in the visual arts of painting, sculpting and architecture. According to the 1965 National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, "The term 'humanities' includes, but is not limited to, the study of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse

heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life" (emphasis added), to both the unique and diverse as well as the national and shared in common. (from National Endowment for the Humanities website, http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/overview.html). BRANCHES The branches of humanities are five and they include art, music, philosophy, literature and architecture. Humanities can be defined as educational courses that are aimed at teaching individuals about the human condition in a variety of forms. REFERENCES/SOURCES Branches of Humanities?. (n.d.). - Ask.com. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.ask.com/question/branches-of-humanities Humanities Definitions. (n.d.). Humanities Definitions. Retrieved November 16, 2013, from http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/humanities/definitions.htm