The Blue Binder

I have a few manuscripts piling up. Some projects aren’t quite finished yet; others need one last piece in order for their stories to come together.

Today I had an epiphany about one of these projects as I washed dishes. This particular manuscript (that I printed and placed in a blue binder so it can stare at me every time I enter my office) is based on interviews I did with a very remarkable woman whose life was nothing short of amazing long before she became a teacher and infused life’s lessons into the classroom. Today I was struck with a sudden, serious thought as to how to frame the characters around the writing. It might just work.

In the meantime, here’s an excerpt:

Teacher: I taught A Man For All Seasons throughout the whole of my career. That is the story of the man who had an enormously high position, Chancellor to Henry VIII. And he was a Catholic. And, you see, Henry VIII was bringing in a new religion.

Sir Thomas More wore the chain of the Chancellor, the highest position possible, except for the King himself. Henry VII wanted to change the laws to substitute the rule of law into the English Church, so that he could have a divorce and marry Anne Boleyn. And he had worked it all out; this was great, except for one man, Thomas More who handed in his chain and everything and even went to the execution block. He gave his life, but he would not take that oath.

Now my students had wonderful discussions, and as you can imagine already, their first reaction was that More had the most powerful job, he was highly paid, he was highly respected, he was the King’s man. But not any one of those things could dissuade him to take an oath stating the King was over the Pope. And he could not do what the King was asking him to do, to declare what he didn’t believe, and follow him. He lost his magnificent home and his wife--who was a sterling character, and his daughter Meg is famous for being such a clever girl. Very academic.

With the help of Richard Rich, Thomas More was taken to the Tower. And he went to the block. That is, he was imprisoned and he lost his head. But he never lost his soul. And almost 9/10s of the whole class, when they first went into their discussion, they all spoke up ferociously, calling him fool, stupid, and all the things that they possibly could. Whining and whimpering, “Oh, no, why did he do it, and eh, eh, eh…”

And then gradually, gradually, I made them read again and think again. And we had about three really good discussions on that. At the end of the first discussion on the first day, they were all saying, “Well, I think he was silly. Look at all that money he had and his beautiful home and look at all the power he had, oh, I wouldn’t give that up!” And a lot of other people were joining in.

And then on the third day after we’d had a really good open discussion, followed by two internal discussions, they more or less, in ones and twos, all went the opposite way. Life wasn’t worth living if you gave up the thing most precious that made you a true human being. So they learned something.

In the play, A Man For All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is the man who is executed but saves his soul. And Richard Rich is the man who does the opposite, who betrays everyone. But you see, Richard Rich also betrayed himself, betrayed humanity, though he went on and got lots of offices and made a lot of money.

And I just used to sit back and look at my students discussing success and say, “Yes, but we’re talking about Thomas More. You never heard of Richard Rich before you read this.” Throughout the whole period of time, Richard Rich appears nowhere. And Thomas More infuses himself into every generation, because of his action.~

I’ll let you know when I reorganize this book and finally send it to publication. It really does need to get out of the blue binder.