Do they still sell steel green rakes with wooden handles? I hate plastic ones. They are too stiff and graceless. Their sound and balance are all wrong and I hate the thought of wielding anything made from oil. Moreover, there is no poetry in plastic rake or a leaf blower for that matter.<\/p>\n
Raking is such wonderful exercise for the body and mind. Each person wielding one has a unique raking and piling style. The accumulation of leaves is satisfying to behold.<\/p>\n
That trilling sound of a steel rake raking up leaves through grass is so distinct and soothing. Massage therapists should play it during massages.<\/p>\n
What about starting a one-man steel raking business? Advertise the silence, simplicity and sustainability of it. I pull up with one rake (a dog) and the homeowner directs me. It could work. It might be the only job I can get in the coming years. I’ll get a book out of it, too, meeting these rake people. I’ll bring a few extra rakes for the curious and portly to join in.<\/p>\n
I like the raking metaphor. I rake Oregon stories, dogs, people, ideas, not to dispose of or compost. But instead to gather, order and admire. The metaphor stops there, although the composting of collected stories is a damn good one that I need to consider. I must also remind myself: the raking is the story, not the piling or the playing with dogs or the discarding. Sometimes the metaphor doesn’t necessarily stop, but extends only a certain distance.<\/p>\n
During my many years as a high school English teacher, my favorite and most effective demonstration on the meaning of metaphor involved a steel green rake and a leaf blower. It worked like this: I would gather some leaves from yard, bring them into the classroom, and then scatter them on the floor in an open area near the front. First, as the students watched, I would leisurely rake the leaves into a neat pile. I might even whistle or say hello<\/i> to the neighbors or birds while doing so. Second, I would scatter the leaves around the room again and then pick up the leaf blower, turn it on, and begin to herd the leaves into a pile. Of course, I also happened to accidentally<\/i> blow notebooks, journals, pens, phones, and other student possessions off tables and desks. The leaf blower made quite the racket in the classroom and I never did get the leaves into a pile.<\/p>\n
After this demonstration, I ran the students through a series of writing prompts, such as, if memory serves me:<\/p>\n
Explain your preferred tool to gather leaves. Make a case for it.<\/p>\n
Do you consider yourself more of a rake or leaf blower person?<\/p>\n
Can a rake person and a leaf blower person be friends or fall in love?<\/p>\n
Who would you want more for President? A rake or leaf blower person?<\/p>\n
What kind of teacher\/coach would you prefer? Rake or leaf blower person?<\/p>\n
What’s the more interesting murder story? By rake or by leaf blower?<\/p>\n
The students would write, write, write, and then we would share and then break into groups and write manifestos on behalf of the rake or leaf blower.<\/p>\n
I admit it, I miss teaching this lesson. It was one of my better ones and I never had to define the term metaphor<\/i> for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing a NSP book.) <\/i><\/p>\n\n Do they still sell steel green rakes with wooden handles? I hate plastic ones. They are too stiff and graceless. Their sound and balance are all wrong and I hate the thought of wielding anything made from oil. Moreover, there is no poetry in plastic rake or a leaf blower for that matter. Raking is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,942,28],"tags":[907,6,906,902,899,905,903,904],"class_list":["post-4417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-city","category-writing","tag-leaves","tag-matt-love","tag-metal-rakes","tag-rake-versus-leaf-blower","tag-raking-leaves","tag-steel-rakes","tag-teaching-metaphor","tag-teaching-writing","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4553,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions\/4553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}