Sandra McLeod Humphrey's Blog

Imagine This: You love to write poetry, but during your lifetime you’re all but ignored and have fewer than a dozen poems published out of your almost 1800 completed works.

 You’re born December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and you have an older brother Austin and a younger sister Lavinia (Vinnie). Your father is a successful attorney and very strict and your mother is quite frail and is often sick. Neither of your parents displays much emotion or affection.

Like most Amherst families, you’re Congregationalists and follow the tenets of New England Puritanism. The Puritans  believe that spiritual purity can be achieved only by strict adherence to the values of simplicity, order, and austerity.

Your family is not very literary minded and your father discourages you from reading any books other than books of a religious nature. He believes that reading can be a bad influence on the minds of young people.

You attend the Amherst Academy where you study such difficult courses as Latin, geology, botany, and philosophy. Then, at sixteen, your father sends you to the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary where you’re expected to believe in God exactly as you’re instructed. You do believe in God, but you have to find your own way to believe.

Your school considers Christmas a pagan holiday and when you find out that you’ll be spending Christmas Day fasting and praying in your room, you leave school and return home. After the holidays, you return to school and your father writes a letter of apology for your leaving school without permission.

In March 1849 you develop a bronchial ailment and you return home for a month to regain your health. While home, you keep up with your studies, and pass all your year-end exams when you return to school.

In August, you return home permanently with mixed feelings. You’re happy to be home, but you feel that perhaps you failed to take advantage of all the opportunities Mount Holyoke had to offer.

At nineteen, one of your favorite books is Jane Eyre and you develop a special bond with the heroine. You long for the high-spirited and adventurous life that Jane Eyre lived while you’re still being treated as a child, especially by your father. You’re very much a part of the active social scene at Amherst, but every time you try to become more independent, your efforts are discouraged.

By the spring of 1853, many of your friends have left Amherst and are living independent lives which only heightens your feelings of loneliness. You spend a lot of your time writing letters to your friends and learning how to look at things the way a poet does. You write about the simple things of nature such as sunsets, flowers, and small creatures.

While visiting Philadelphia with your sister Vinnie in 1855, you meet the famous and charismatic preacher Charles Wadsworth and you’re both attracted to each other. Although he’s married, you begin a correspondence with him that lasts until his death in 1882.

Your life begins to change in the second half of the 1850s. You write more poetry as your social life declines. By the end of the decade, your preference for seclusion has begun to emerge and you retreat to the shelter of your house and garden.

It’s during this difficult time in your life that you begin to write poems about the joy and pain of loving someone and being in love. And soon your poetry becomes the most important thing in your life.

As your poetry becomes increasingly more important to you, your social circle grows smaller and smaller and your eccentricities become more pronounced. You never go anywhere anymore and you wear only white all year round.

But your poetry pours forth at a phenomenal rate over the next decade. By the time you die on May 15, 1886, from Bright’s Disease (a kidney disorder) at age 55, you have written almost 1800 poems, but only seven have been published.

After your death, all your poems are eventually published and you become recognized as a major American poet. You are also recognized as one of the most legendary figures in literature, renowned for your personal eccentricities as much as for your poetry.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

“I dwell in possibility.”

 For More about Emily Dickinson

 Giving Back: Emily Dickinson was one of America’s early female poets and served as an inspiration to other poets for generations to come.

Did You Know that most of Emily Dickinson’s poems have no titles?

 Something to Think about: Emily Dickinson is still considered an enigma today: some feel she was unable to escape the prison of her melancholy while others feel she was quite content and at peace with the secluded life she chose. Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 

 

 

 

 

Many Thanks to Darlene Foster at http://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/ for this cool award! Darlene is a published writer, traveler and dreamer. She has won prizes for her short stories, has a story in the anthology Country Roads and has written and published two children’s novels Amanda in Arabia and Amanda in Spain.

Instructions for the award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award

2. Paste the award on your blog

3. Link the person who nominated you for the award

4. Nominate 7 bloggers

5. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominated

So here are 7 random things about me:

1) While I was growing up, I lived in forty-six states.

2)  By the time I entered junior high, I had attended 29 schools.

3) Our kids had a dog the size of a small pony and a pony the size of a large dog.

4) We always have a house full of dogs and cats adopted from our local Animal Humane Society.

5) I’ve ridden  a camel (and, no, it wasn’t in the Sahara Desert).

6) I’m a breast cancer survivor.

7) During the summer I swim 1/2 a mile every day.

And here are some blogs worthy of the Beautiful Blogger Award and I’m passing the award on to them. Please check them out (I know, I couldn’t stop at 7):

Amanda @ http://www.booksbyamanda.com/blog.html

Deeone @ http://releasingmetoday.com/

Delinda @ http://delindamccann.blogspot.com/

Dicy @ http://www.dicymcculloughbooks.com/blog/

Heather @ http://desiresofmyheart.com/blog/

Layne @ http://amitypublications.wordpress.com/

Linneann @ http://linneann.wordpress.com/

Martha @ http://marthasteward64.wordpress.com/tag/martha-steward/

Peggy @ http://pstrack.blogspot.com/

Imagine This: You’re tired of being so shy, so filled with self-doubt, and living like a scared rabbit, but what do you do about the inferiority complex that’s making your life so miserable?

You’re born in a rural Ohio town in 1898, the son of a Methodist pastor who’s also a physician. As a young boy, you’re painfully shy and you run and hide in the attic whenever you see visitors coming to the house. You’re also thin for your age and lack your younger brother’s more rugged and athletic build. This makes you even more self-conscious about your physical appearance.

You admire your father a great deal, but being the son of a pastor isn’t always easy. Sometimes the other kids tease you because you’re a “p.k.” (preacher’s kid), and because you’re a preacher’s kid, your teachers always expect exemplary behavior from you.

But it’s during your adolescence that you really begin to develop a terrible inferiority complex, and you tell yourself that you’ll never amount to anything. When you realize that everybody is beginning to agree with your negative self-appraisal, this just makes you feel even worse! You’re tired of living like a scared rabbit, but you don’t know what to do about the inferiority complex that’s making your life so miserable.

During high school, you try to earn some extra money by selling pots and pans and you drive to another part of town where nobody knows you. But you become so flustered during your first attempt to sell something that you get right back into your car and drive back home.

Your inferiority complex continues to plague you even in college. You’re so self-consciousness when called upon to recite in class that you often become confused, tongue-tied, and red-faced from embarrassment. You describe yourself as “having the biggest inferiority complex in the state of Ohio!”

Then one day an event occurs that changes your life! After class, your economics professor has a no-nonsense talk with you. He tells you that your self-consciousness is really mostly self-centeredness and that it’s time for you to get over your shyness and inferiority complex and become a man. He also tells you that being a minister’s son you should know where to go for help. You take your professor’s advice and have a long talk with God about your problem. Although your shyness doesn’t go away completely, it does improve a great deal.

After college, you work for a newspaper for a year and then return to school. You have no intention of becoming a minister, but you find you like theology and in 1924, you graduate from the School of Theology at Boston University.

You begin to gain a reputation not only as an excellent orator but also as a minister who can simplify the Word of God so that everyone can understand it. You even try writing a book but become so discouraged that you throw your manuscript into the wastebasket. Fortunately, your wife rescues the manuscript from the wastebasket and sends it to a publisher. Your book is later called A Guide to Confident Living and makes the best-seller list.

In 1952 your book The Power of Positive Thinking is published and is unequaled in sales by any book except the Bible. It remains on the best-seller list for many years and is translated into twenty-three languages.

By the time you retire from the ministry in 1984, you have come a long way: from a young man with a terrible inferiority complex to being one of America’s most influential, most popular, and most beloved preachers!

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)

 Excerpted from Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

For More about Norman Vincent Peale:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sUSeQ...

 Giving Back: Norman Vincent Peale’s ministry which emphasizes “the power of positive thinking” has influenced millions of people all over the world.

Did You Know  Norman Vincent Peale was one of the most influential clergymen in the United States during the 20th century?

 Something to Think about: What do you think about the professor’s statement that Norman’s self-consciousness was really mostly self-centeredness?

 

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 

 

 

Congratulations to the Grand Prize winners Marnie Pohlmann and Patricia Day who won the Kindles in our John 3:16 Marketing Network Giveaway Blog Hop!

I hope everyone enjoyed our Blog Hop and here’s the list of winners for my DARE TO DREAM BIG! blog! I’ll be checking with each of you to get your mailing addresses and the first name of the person for whom you’d like your book autographed.

My DARE TO DREAM BIG! Blog Hop Winners

Kim Cole

Stan Faryna

Darlene Foster

April Gardner

Deborah Malone

Glenda Knapp Parker

Marianne Wanham

Dawn Wilson

It was an awesome blog hop and if you’re interested in learning more about the John 3:16 Network, please go to our website: http://john316mn.blogspot.ca/

Again, Congratulations to all the winners and

May you always follow your heart and  

never give up your dreams!

I want to thank Sharla Shults for passing on the Sunshine Award to My DARE TO DREAM BIG! Blog–what an unexpected honor!

Sharla is one of those extraordinary individuals who sees the beauty in everything and her poetry reflects this.  She considers herself not the writer but only the messenger–from His hand to hers, from her heart to yours.

You can enjoy her poetry on her blog catnipoflife at http://catnipoflife.wordpress.com/ and to use her own words:

Observe life at its best, listen to life’s songs, embrace life’s bounties, breathe the breath of life and savor life to its fullest!

Now it’s my turn to share the Sunshine and pass this award on by paying it forward again to ten bloggers who inspire me and bring Sunshine into my blogging life:

Pam Courtney at http://mylmnopreadstokids.blogspot.com/

Peggy Strack  at http://pstrack.blogspot.com/

Micki Peluso at http://mallie1025.blogspot.com/

Christine Hannon at http://ahairdressersdiaries.wordpress.com/

B. Swangin Webster at http://booksshoeswriting.blogspot.com/

Eric VanRaepenbusch at http://www.happybirthdayauthor.com/

Read Aloud Dad at http://www.readalouddad.com/

Donna Martin at http://donasdays.blogspot.com/

Martha Steward at http://marthasteward64.wordpress.com/blog/

Planet FASSA at http://www.planetfassa.com/blog/

Welcome to the 1st John 3:16 Giveaway Blog Hop! As one of the members of this great network of Christian Authors, I am excited to participate in this event! We have come together this week to showcase our books and to give you, our readers, a chance to win some great prizes as you “hop” from blog to blog. A different prize is offered at each blog site (no purchase necessary); however if you want to have a chance to win one of two Kindles the network is giving away, the only requirement is that you sign up for the John 3:16 ezine newsletter. (Located at the top right side column of the John 3:16 blog site.)

(See official rules here.)

At all the blogs, each author will ask you to eave a comment (and a valid email address) so they may contact you if you win a prize offered on their blog site.

May I also suggest that you show your love and appreciation to each blog host by either following them on Twitter, or “liking” them on Facebook or even subscribing to their blog. It won’t help your odds of winning a prize but I know each author would be thrilled and very encouraged!

Welcome to my DARE TO DREAM BIG! Blog which is an educational/inspirational blog for all ages! Each week Willoughby and I share a brief biography of someone who has overcome great obstacles to attain their dream and we hope that these stories will encourage you to follow your own hearts and never give up your own dreams!

You’ll have 8 chances to win an autographed copy of one of my books because I’m giving away 8 books! Each winner can select a book from my website and I will autograph the books according to their instructions. All you have to do is leave a comment below and be sure to include your e-mail address, so I can contact you in case you’re one of the 8 lucky winners!

I also invite you to connect with me via the following links and I’ll return the favor:

FB Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/KidsCanDoIt2

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandra305

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/sandra305/

Thanks so much for joining our John 3:16 Blog Hop and don’t forget to drop by these blogs for the chance to win even more prizes: 

So tell your friends about the John 3:16 Giveaway Blog Hop! It’s going to be a great week of fun!

Just click on the links below to go from blog to blog! Happy hoppin’!

Blog Hop Participants:

Lorilyn Roberts (John 3:16 Network Blog) – http://john316mn.blogspot.com/
Lynn Dove – Word Salt (Host blog) – http://wordsalt.wordpress.com/
Laura J. Davis – http://interviewsandreviews.blogspot.com/
Paulette Harper – http://www.pauletteharperjohnson.blogspot.com/
Carol A. Brown – http://connectwithcarolbrown.blogspot.com/
April Gardner – http://www.aprilwgardner.com/
Sue Russell – http://www.suerussellsblog.blogspot.com/
Thomas Blubaugh – http://tomblubaugh.net/
Susan F. Craft – http://historicalfictionalightintime.blogspot.com/
Heather Bixler – http://heatherbixler.com/
Joy Hannabass – http://splashesofjoy.wordpress.com/
Deborah Bateman – http://www.DeborahHBateman.com
Kimberley Payne – http://www.fitforfaith.blogspot.com/
Rose McCauley – http://www.rosemccauley.blogspot.com
Lisa Lickel – http://livingourfaithoutloud.blogspot.com/
Alice J. Wisler – http://www.alicewisler.blogspot.com/
Amanda Stephan – http://www.thepriceoftrust.com/
Saundra Dalton – http://gracetolivefree.blogspot.com/
Tracy Krauss – http://www.tracykraussexpressionexpress.com/
Ashley Wintters – http://ashleyschristianbookreviews.blogspot.com/
Deborah McCarragher – http://www.godmissionpossible.blogspot.com/
Lorilyn Roberts – http://lorilynroberts.blogspot.com/
Anita Estes – http://anita-thoughtsonchristianity.blogspot.com/
Martin Roth – http://www.military-orders.com
Janet Perez Eckles – http://www.janetperezeckles.com/blog
Kenneth Winters – http://www.lostcrownofcolonnade.com/
Eddie Snipes – http://www.eddiesnipes.com/
Diane Tatum – http://tatumlight-tatumsthoughts4today.blogspot.com/
Janalyn Voight – http://janalynvoigt.com/
Alberta Sequeira – http://www.albertasequeira.wordpress.com/
Tammy Hill – http://tammyhillbooks.blogspot.com/p/blog-hop.html
Marcia Laycock – http://www.writer-lee.blogspot.com/
Julie Saffrin – http://juliesaffrin.com/category/blog/
Nike Chillemi -  http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/
Elaine Marie Cooper – http://ReflectionsInHindsight.wordpress.com
Sidney W. Frost – http://christianbookmobile.blogspot.ca/
 Jairus B. King – http://ministerjking.blogspot.com
 Bill Burt - http://kotbooks.blogspot.com/
 Kathy Eberly - http://authorkathyeberly.blogspot.com/
 Bob Saffrin - http://bobsaffrin.com/
 Theresa Franklin – http://theresa-lifesjourney.blogspot.com/
 Ray Lincoln – http://blog.raywlincoln.com/
 Lilly Maytree -  http://www.lillymaytree.blogspot.com/
 Valerie King – http://www.valeriekingbooks.com
 Yvonne Pat Wright – http://www.spicetoeternity.co.uk/
 Pauline Creeden -  http://fatfreefaith.blogspot.com/
 Katherine Harms -  http://livingontilt.wordpress.com
 Brenda Wood – http://heartfeltdevotionals.wordpress.com/
 Deborah Malone – http://deborahsbutterflyjourney.blogspot.com/
 Melissa Main –  http://www.mainwriters.com/
  Kevin Main – http://mainchristianbooks.com/
  Sandy Humphrey – http://www.kidscandoit.com/blog/
  Felice Gerwitz – http://www.writingandpublishingblog.com/
 Hallee Bridgeman – http://www.bridgemanfamily.com/hallee
 Lisa Mills – http://www.authorlisamills.com/blog/

Imagine This: As a child, when other children run away from snakes and spiders, you crouch down to take a closer look. You love everything in nature, but people tell you that you can’t become a scientist because you’re a girl. So what do you do?

You’re born May 27, 1907, the youngest of three children, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, where you grow up in a tiny wooden house with no electricity, heat, or plumbing on sixty-five acres of land.

Your mother, a former school teacher, is an avid reader and shares her knowledge of natural history, botany, and birds with you. She also passes on a deep appreciation of the beauty and mystery of the natural world and a lifelong love of nature and all living things.

While your brother and sister are in school, you and your mother spend your time outdoors walking the woods and orchards, exploring the springs, and naming flowers, birds, and insects. And at night you and your mother hunt for spiders working on webs or moths that venture out while the birds sleep.

 Your mother encourages you to use your imagination, and one of your artistic ventures is a little book of animals you draw and color yourself. The book reflects the strong relationship that exists between you and the wild creatures pictured in your book, and you identify all the woodland creatures as your friends.

Your mother remains your best friend and strongest supporter throughout your life. Later on when you’re recognized for your accomplishments both as a scientist and as a writer, you acknowledge that your mother has been the dominant influence in your life.

Because of your family’s meager means, school has never been a happy place for you. You’re teased because of the hand-me-down clothing you wear, and you count the minutes until you can go home and spend your time with your books, the farm animals, your many dogs, and the outdoors. In some ways your family’s marginal economic status makes it easier for you to be independent since you’re under no pressure whatever to conform to the social values of your  peers.

Determined to be a writer after high school, you enter the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham College). You don’t think you have enough imagination to write fiction, so you turn to biology where there’s always more than enough material for your writing.

After graduating from the Pennsylvania College for Women in 1929, you study at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, and earn your MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932.

In 1936 you take a job as a writer and marine biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (which later becomes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and over the next fifteen years, you’re promoted to staff biologist and editor-in-chief of all their publications. Your enthusiasm for nature is matched only by your love of writing and poetry, and your job enables you to combine both your loves: writing and science.

Your book The Sea Around Us (1952) is so successful that you can retire and become a full-time writer. Your most important book Silent Spring (1962) is about the use of chemical pesticides, and it changes forever the way people think abut their world.

Following four years of research, you’ve identified the devastating and irrevocable hazards of DDT, one of the most powerful pesticides the world has ever known, and you conclude that DDT should be banned. Your book causes a firestorm of controversy and helps set the stage for the U.S. Environmental Movement of the late 20th century.

 By the time you die of cancer on April 14, 1964, at age fifty-six, you have become an award-winning scientist and writer and your work has begun a worldwide revolution!

 “Most of us walk unseeing through the world.”

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

 Excerpted from They Stood Alone!: 25 Men and Women Who Made a Difference by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

For More about

Giving Back: Your dedication to the beauty and integrity of life continues to inspire new generations to protect the living world and all its creatures.

Did You Know  that Rachel Carson had her first story published in a magazine when she was ten years old?

 Something to Think about: How do you think not fitting in with her peers during her early school years influenced Rachel Carson, both during her school years and later on in her life?

 

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 

 

 

Imagine This: It’s 1893 and you’re a 24-year-old Indian lawyer practicing in South Africa. While taking a train, you’re asked to leave your first-class compartment and go to the third-class compartment because of the color of your skin. You refuse because you have paid for a first-class ticket. You’re forcefully removed from the train, your luggage is confiscated, and you’re left in the bitterly cold waiting room of the railway station with only a small suitcase. What do you do? Do you fight for your rights or do you return to India and forget the injustices in South Africa?

You’re born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India, the youngest of four children and you’re influenced by your father’s politics and your mother’s religion. As a young boy, you’re shy and afraid of many things, including the dark and you have to sleep with the lights on.

In 1887 your family reluctantly allows you to leave India to study law in London, and to satisfy your mother, you  make a solemn vow not to touch wine, women, or meat. Despite your attempts to fit in, you still feel like an outcast in the city.

You feel very much alone, a foreigner in a strange country. You try to feel more comfortable and secure by transforming  yourself into an English gentleman–living in fancy rooms and wearing fancy clothes. You learn to speak perfect English, you take violin lessons, and you even learn how to dance.

 But you still feel a deep conflict between your inner self and your outer self. Remembering the values of your home, you decide to live a simpler life. You give up your fancy rooms, you cook your own meals, you walk everywhere you go,  and you join the Vegetarian Society of London. These changes make you much happier although you still remain awkward and shy.

You finally pass your law exams and, after three years in London, you return home to India in 1891 to set up a law practice in Bombay. Your shyness and problems with the Indian courts, however, lead you to accept a low-paying position as a legal adviser in South Africa in 1893 where you experience racism firsthand.

 Traveling by train to Pretoria shortly after your arrival in South Africa, you’re told to leave the first class car, for which you have a ticket, because you’re not white. When you refuse to go to another compartment, you’re thrown off the train.

Outraged by the experience, you resolve to fight back legally. Overcoming your shyness, you sue the railroad and win a grudging victory. The law is then changed so that all Indians can sit in the seat to which their tickets entitle them, provided they wear English-style clothing.

Word of this victory spreads quickly, and soon you become a champion of Indian rights in South Africa and indirectly a spokesperson for all the powerless. You remain in South Africa for the next twenty-two years, working to end the country’s discriminatory legislation against people of color.

You and your followers work for the rights of black and Indian people and also for the rights of women. You do legal work for free, you nurse sick people abandoned during a plague, and you comfort the dying. You believe that all people are your brothers and sisters and that their suffering is your suffering.

By believing in the power of love and treating everyone as your family, you discover that you’re no longer shy and no longer afraid of anything.

When you’re assassinated on January 30, 1948, by a young Hindu dissident named Nathuram Godse as you walk to a prayer meeting where thousands of people are waiting for you, your last words are of forgiveness to your killer.

Your philosophies of nonviolence and peaceful protest inspire other leaders to pick up your torch! Both Martin Luther King’s nonviolent Civil Rights Movement in the United States and Nelson Mandela’s Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa use your techniques of civil disobedience and nonviolent, passive resistance to protest racial segregation and injustice. You inspire people around the world and change the lives of millions!

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

 Excerpted from They Stood Alone!: 25 Men and Women Who Made a Difference by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

For More about

 Giving Back: Gandhi devoted his entire life to helping those less fortunate and working for equal rights for everyone.

Did You Know that  Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent because one of his first teachers was an Irishman?

 Something to Think about: Why do you think Gandhi was able to overcome his shyness and feelings of  insecurity as he became immersed in his campaign for equal rights?

 

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 

 

Imagine This: Your maternal grandparents are sharecroppers and, at age thirteen, you get a job cleaning house for a white family after school to help with the family expenses. Dignity and diligence are important family values in your home, but how far can a young African American girl go in a world where racial discrimination is still such a predominant influence?

 You’re born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, the second of four children. Your maternal grandparents  are sharecroppers in Alabama, but your parents move north to Lorain, Ohio, to escape the racism of the South.

Your mother is a patient but determined woman. When an eviction notice is put on your house, she tears it off. And when there are maggots in the flour, she writes a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt. Your father, a shipyard welder, is a hardworking man, but he distrusts all white men and does his best to keep white people out of his life.

As you grow older, you hear many family stories about discrimination and injustice, but there is one story in particular that leaves a lasting impression. Your family tells how when you were two years old, they were unable to pay the monthly rent of four dollars, and their angry landlord tried to burn down the house with the family still inside. You will remember that story about hatred all your life and will later include it in your writing.

Your family is proud of their heritage, and storytelling is the main form of entertainment. This is where you hear the songs and tales of southern black folklore that you’ll later use in your writing. Even though your family is poor, your parents make the children feel very important, and your father teaches you to always have pride in your work.

You’re an excellent student and, when you graduate with honors in 1949 from Lorain High School, you become the first woman in your family to go to college. After enrolling at Howard University in Washington, D.C., you shorten your middle name Anthony to Toni, and from then on, everyone calls you Toni.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in English from Howard University in 1953 and a master’s degree in English from Cornell University in 1955, you teach for several years.

You marry in 1958, but it’s not a happy marriage and you join a writing group to ease your unhappiness. For one of your writing assignments, you write  a story about a little African American girl you remember from your childhood who had wanted blue eyes. You write about the whole issue of physical beauty and the pain that comes from wanting to be someone else.

In 1965 you accept an editorial job with the Random House publishing office in Syracuse, New York, and move there with your two sons. You continue to work on your story about the little black girl who wanted blue eyes and, recognizing your talent, an editor transfers you to its New York City office in 1968.

You become a senior editor—-the only black woman to hold such a position at that time. You rewrite your story as a novel and in 1970 it is published as The Bluest Eye. You publish your second novel, Sula, in 1973, a novel that examines the importance of friendships between black women.

Your Song of Solomon, a novel about a young black man discovering the richness of his ancestry, is published in 1977 and becomes a best-seller. Tar Baby (1981) remains on the New York Times best-seller list for four months and your novel Beloved (1987) wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.  In 1993 you receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, the eighth woman and the first black woman to ever receive the award.

Although you’re one of literature’s greatest women, you never forget your students. Even on the day you receive the news about being awarded the Nobel Prize, you still return to teach your classes at Princeton University.

“I take teaching as seriously as I do my writing.”

Toni Morrison (1931-    )

 Excerpted from Dare to Dream!: 25 Extraordinary Lives by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

For More about Toni Morrison

 Giving Back:  Although America’s history of racism and slavery is central to Toni Morrison’s novels, her novels transcend these issues to envelop truths about the human condition and the problems we all face.

 Did you know that  when Toni Morrison entered first grade, she was the only black child in her class and the only child who could already read?

 Something to Think about: Why do you think her teaching was as important to Toni Morrison as her writing?

 

 Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!

 

 

 

Imagine This: You have a theory that boldly contradicts something that everyone else believes to be true: You believe that you can reach the East by sailing west. You believe that your theory is correct, but if it proves to be wrong, it will bring you humiliation, financial ruin, and possibly death. So what do you do?

You’re born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451, the oldest of five children. You have little schooling, so you don’t learn to read or write as a young boy. But you do love to study maps and you do love the sea. You vow that as soon as you’re old enough, you’ll go to sea.

In your early teens you become a sailor and travel to Greece and Portugal. While in Portugal, you study the works and maps of ancient and modern geographers until you’ve taught yourself all you can learn about navigation and mapmaking. The more you learn, the more convinced you become that the Atlantic Ocean is not populated by sea monsters and can be mastered.

You’re fascinated by Marco Polo’s accounts of his journey to Asia and all the riches he found there, but you believe that the quickest and most direct route to the East is by sailing westward across the unknown waters that are called the Sea of Darkness.

Your objective is not to prove the earth is round, for by the end of the 15th century, most educated people know the earth is a sphere. Your primary objective is to find a more direct route to the riches and rare spices of the East.

You ask King John II of Portugal to finance your expedition, but after consulting with his advisers, he denies your request. After King John II refuses to finance your expedition, you ask King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. After several requests, they finally agree to finance your voyage.

The Spanish rulers give you three small ships and pay for ninety crewmen and supplies. In 1492 you and your crew set out, but once you’re out of sight of land, your men grow fearful, so you devise a false set of charts to show the crew so they won’t know how far they’re actually going.

In spite of the false set of charts, after thirty-four days at sea, your men became increasingly restless and begin to threaten mutiny. You convince your crew to wait three more days, and the very next day they see tree branches floating in the water and realize that land is close.

When you go ashore on October 12, 1492, you proclaim the land part of Spain and declare its inhabitants to be Spanish subjects. You’re puzzled by the “easterners” who are dark-skinned and wear little clothing. You call them “Indians” because you believe you’re in India, but they’re not as Marco Polo had described them. Nor do you find Marco Polo’s “cities of gold” or any “pagodas with golden roofs.”

You make three more voyages after that. You travel to the islands of the Caribbean Sea and explore the northeastern tip of South America and the eastern coast of Central America. You never actually set foot on North American soil, but you do make it as far north as Cuba, only ninety miles from Florida.

You die on May 20 1506, and after five centuries, you still remain one of the most famous but also one of the most controversial figures in history. You have been criticized for your savage exploitation of the native inhabitants and the destruction of their cultures, but you have also been praised as an explorer who played a key role in helping to spread European civilization across a significant portion of the earth.

You have been described as one of the greatest mariners of all time, a visionary genius, a national hero, an unsuccessful entrepreneur, and a ruthless and greedy imperialist obsessed with your quest for gold and power.

But, regardless of how people feel about you, perhaps we can all agree that few events have altered the course of history as dramatically as your colonization of the Americas. You were a man of vision and courage in the face of uncertainty.

“By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.”

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)

 Excerpted from They Stood Alone!: 25 Men and Women Who Made a Difference by Sandra McLeod Humphrey

For More about

Giving Back: It’s doubtful that Columbus ever really gave anything back in the philanthropic sense of the term as his objectives were predominantly focused on his own self-aggrandizement.

Did You Know  that Columbus Day was first celebrated in 1792 in New York and became a national holiday in 1937?

 Something to Think about: How do you feel about Columbus?

 

Willoughby and I hope you enjoyed this week’s true story and will be back next week for another story to inspire you to DARE TO DREAM BIG!