Quote Analysis

During journal writing time on Monday June 25, 2007, Kris asked us to brainstorm cooking verbs, building verbs, and sports verbs and then incorporate them into a piece of writing that wasn’t about that topic. Or, we could revise another piece of writing with these verbs. I did it below with my quote analysis:

Quote“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”-Henry David ThoreauThis quote reminds me of marriage. The castles in the air are the love and wedding and initial commitment. The excitement of mixing being together and starting the new journey in life is the groundwork. The honeymoon, the first home, the first car, and perhaps the first child are exhilarating and refreshing.Then the real world whips slaps you in the face. The first bills, the first fight, and the crying child are not so exhilarating and refreshing. They are exhausting!Marriage is hard work-the second hardest job after raising a child. I love my husband and my children, but it is a constant process.Thoreau was a nature and outdoor person so I assume he related this to nature. Perhaps, the process of writing about nature or the process of appreciating nature was the castles and foundations.Thoreau might also have been talking about writing. The thoughts and ideas are the castles but the revisions, edits, and drafts are the foundations.This quote also reminds me of cloud watching:Cloud Watching…Shapes of many people, places, things, etc.AlligatorSnoopyA sleeping dogAn appleA triangleSimmering Lying on our backs on the tired picnic table in our cluttered driveway searching for productive puffs of clouds, Sam and Alex and I and sometimes and neighborhood friends of the girls, we freeze wait and imagine and explain and knead persuade the different objects to each other. Then, “Oh yeah, I see it. I get it.” Or, “No, I don’t see it. I see a horse.”I wonder if Carl and his family ever did this? Probably(poem found by Sandburg in gift shop)CloudsClouds are sky fluff.Clouds go by and come back.Clouds keep changing.Clouds cover the sun, the moon, the stars.Clouds make themselves into many shapes.Cloud watching-A cheap form of entertainment-no, a free form of entertainment.It’s kind of like swaying on a swing and pumping away higher and higher into the sky. As an adult you forget how fun these things are, but when you have kids you return to some old, yet familiar and fun activities.Cloud watching is great and I hear there’s even a website for it.http://www.pals.iastate.edu/carlson/bunny_txt.html