Evil Empire I and II and Native Son

How does a company become the largest (or seemingly so) shipping company?  Obviously, by not delivering packages and by disseminating inaccurate information.  Trying to get my new ibook from FedEx this was a test of my patience.  Thursday, they attempted a delivery at noon.  I called and requested a delivery after 4pm.  No problem.  The next day, another notice with attempted delivery at noon.  I call.  They don't deliver after 4pm or on Saturdays.  I'll have to pick it up or have the sender redeliver.  Fine.  Pick it up.  Where?  They give me an address but tell me I have to call on Monday to find out the hours they are open (no Saturday pick-up).  Monday I am told I have to make an appointment: someone will call me on Tuesday.  Tuesday passes.  No call.  I call the dreaded 1-800 number and hope I will not be the cruel, crazy woman that the poor FedEx worker dreads speaking to each day.  This guy tells me I don't need an appointment; I may pick up my package anytime between 8am and 7pm. I suppress my urge to scream and thank the man for the good news, hoping he is correct.  Finally, I make it up to the FedEx office.  I enter the boringly beige office.  There is a lone bulletin board covered in sports photos behind an empty desk.  A woman emerges from behind the beige office partition to ask if I need help.  She looks over my shoulder as she speaks to me, as if the human eye contact is too disconcerting and unfamiliar to cope with.  “I’ll be back in a minute,” she says as she disappears down the long beige hallway.  As I wait, I check out the employee bulletin boards behind me.  There is all kind of inspiring and cheerful notices about worker’s comp and the prohibitions against soliciting while working.  In the middle is a poster promoting the importance of teamwork with a photo of about 20 skydivers all linked in a star shape with uniforms of varying colors so each point of the star is a different primary color.  Call me cynical, but I anyone walks in, looks at this photo, and thinks, “Yes!  Today I am going to work extra hard for the success of team FedEx.”  I think the fact that I am in this office is proof of that.  Though I am trying to keep my loathing for FedEx from spewing out, I suddenly grow thankful that I am not employed in a place where I must endure droning monotony of cubicle life.  At least my motivational posters have useful information, such as what is a noun.  I want to run out of that place as I feel the life force be sucked out of me, absorbed by the non-color trying to find something to sustain itself.  Just in time, the woman returns with my ibook.  
However, when I get home, I don’t dare open the box, as I know it will only lead to hours of play and no work and no sleep.  A dangerous proposition since my school decided to tell us grades would be due a week earlier than expected, thus giving me less than a week to prep my grades and enter them into the now all computerized system.  I, of course, have put off grading book reviews and key papers last week so that I could go hiking with Grooveva in Malibu and have lunch with Jen on Sunday.  In addition, I still have midterms to give and grade as well as the daily grades that need to be entered in my grade book.  Each task is minimal alone, but cumulatively, it is a massive task.  

Then, in the midst of all this chaos and stress, the last pile of grading:  the senior midterm, an in class essays about the first section of Richard Wright’s Native Son, “Fear.”  For a year, I have been drilling into their head the importance of an engaging intro, of a clear thesis, of focused paragraphs, of using quotes and following quotes with commentary, of a conclusion that says something worth saying.  Always, it seems to fall on deaf ears.  I grade a few papers that are B’s, C’s, and D’s.  Then, there is one that is great.  And another.  By great, I mean they have original interpretations, which they use quotes and commentary to support (though often in a not very sophisticated, compelling, or in-depth manner).  Paragraphs are focused.  I am breezing through, not caught up in confusion of unclear sentences and unstructured writing.  Most even cited the pages correctly and used quotation marks.  Almost all the students underlined the title of the book.  These are small, small victories.  Maybe I seem like a pushover teacher, but for in-class essays (essentially first drafts), this is amazing.  I was so proud – a bit of myself – of them.  For once, I felt like I assisting in moving my students towards their full potential.  I also give much credit to Richard Wright for writing a book that finally seems to have captured my students’ interest.  Some even used the psychological and sociological theories we have discussed.  The only thing more rewarding was to see their faces reflecting the pride I felt the next day when I told them how pleased I was with their work and returned the papers.  Several students who no one would expect received 100%.  As they get ready to head out (and many write how scared they really are in their opening writings), maybe this one little victory will give them the confidence needed to face that fear and succeed, whatever success may be for them.  

So, as the Evil Empires, such as FedEx and high school administration and school districts might conspire to keep us distracted from personal growth, progress, and introspection though exhausting our bodies and spirits, we still have great literature to inspire us to rise above these menial concerns and to aggressively pursue our passion and our ideals.  Of course, this includes neglecting duties for long hikes, salsa dancing, homemade sangria, and blogging.