Take Every Moment as an Opportunity

This is hopefully going to be a short post. One thing that I have learned in life is to take every opportunity that I can. Now, this trick doesn't always lead to success--in fact, there have been several failures along the way--but every one that I've taken has helped me grow, learn about the world, and just become a better overall human being. An interesting part about opportunities is that they can be terrifying. And it's easy to forget this when the moment has passed, which can lead to a lot of empathy problems down the road. This issue is especially true for teachers, who spend all of our days speaking in front of other people, and really putting ourselves out there. "After all," one might say, "if I talk in front of a class every day, certainly the student can do it no problem for 10 seconds." For some students, those 10 seconds might feel like an eternity. Just food for thought.

Anyway, speaking of opportunities, I now have a Social Studies blog (yay!) which gives me many options that didn't exist before. One such example is the ability to post things that wouldn't fit else where in context. See, I rather like words--I find them fascinating in fact--and one of my favorite aspect is the ability to play with them. Alliteration, for example, is one of my pleasures. Another is rhyming, and what better way to show off rhyming than with a song? This is a little ditty that I wrote last year to the tune of Orfee aux Enfer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDwTguKjIA) (Yes, I know that the second e should be accented, but I don't have accents on my work computer, grrrrr...), and it relates to Social Studies because a) music is just another piece of the human social aspect and b) it has to do with the Reformation, which is history. Without further ado...

The Reformation Song!
By Austin Schock

(For my stirringly off-key rendition, click here)
(we ignore the first 8 minutes and 26 seconds of the piece)
Martin's antithetical
His works are all heretical
"90 theses, and five more,
nailed to the chapel door!"
Calvin says, "There's something there,
the pope is wrong and we don't care!
Everything is predetermined
No free will and that's for certain."

Ref-Or-May-Tion
Changing European nations
Dee-Vee-Ay-Tion
From the papal proclamation
Ref-Or-May-Tion
There are protestant formations
Pro-tess-tay-tion
'Gainst the orthodox
'cause that's the crux
of all this rucks
no time for talks
we're out of ducksOh oh oh!
Oh oh oh oh

Oh, there is much converting
The Catholic church is hurting
Biblical translations, Oh, and by the way
There are bloody wars, now
So you should all go bow
To the nearest lord and really pray

and

Hope he is of the right sect
if he's not then defect
otherwise you'll have a really really horrid day
where they storm the castle
Huguenotic hassle
Killing everyone in every way

and

now we jump to '45
the Catholic church is still alive
"Counter reformation crew,
meet in Trent at 22!"
Keep the Pope's supremacy,
Sacraments, celibacy...
We'll stay strong
for so long
Lost a king
(marriage thing)
They'll be war
tons galore
only this and so much more and more and more and more

and

Oh, there is much converting
The Catholic church is hurting
Biblical translations, Oh, and by the way
There are bloody wars, now
So you should all go bow
To the nearest lord and really pray

and

Hope he is of the right sect
if he's not then defect
otherwise you'll have a really really horrid day
where they storm the castle
Huguenotic hassle
Killing everyone in
e-ver-y conceivable way
Hanging, flaying, and that is not OK

"Now can't we all just get along?"
"Well, no we can't 'cause you're just wrong!"
"Hey that is not a thing to say."
"Well now you're dead so it's OK!"

Oh my gosh, Europe's exploding
I'm leaving, let's go exploring
All right everyone we have to stop right here, right nooooow!