First Maurice Sendak, now Ray Bradbury. There’s one hell of a happy hour going on in a library in heaven right now.
It’s fitting that Ray Bradbury died on the same day I learned of art being discounted at my sons’ school (literally and figuratively banished to the basement, or so it feels). Bird and Deal have been drawn to art, a perfect balance to their otherwise wild rumpus ways. Their art teacher is phenomenal, and their elementary school masterpieces are frame-worthy (when I get around to it!). Bradbury was a creative genius, an artist whose medium was the written word. He valued the creative spirit and wouldn’t stand for the marginalization of the arts we are facing today. To put art on the back burner of education because its worth cannot be valued in test scores is detrimental to our students. It’s deplorable and boxes in our children to fit a mold rather than create their own mold.
Just take a look at some of the things Ray Bradbury has said that underscore the importance of imagination and the creative process:
“Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
“We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.”
“We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.”
“We have our Arts so we won’t die of Truth.”
“Nietzsche put’s it beautifully: ‘We have art that we do not die of reality.’ … I think we know all the basic facts of life.” —Ray Bradbury
And this, that gave me chills, reminding me of what I wrote just yesterday:
“While I remained earthbound, I would time-travel, listening to the grownups, who on warm nights gathered outside on the lawns and porches to talk and reminisce. At the end of the Fourth of July, after the uncles had their cigars and philosophical discussions, and the aunts, nephews, and cousins had their ice-cream cones or lemonade, and we’d exhausted all the fireworks, it was the special time, the sad time, the time of beauty. It was the time of the fire balloons.“
Ray Bradbury wrote the short story All Summer in a Day, one of my favorite tales of all time. It has haunted me since I was a child when I read it for the first time around the same age Bird is now. I recently read it to my sons and let them watch the grainy TV version on You Tube. I can already tell it will leave its mark on them too.
Because it is summer, and because the sun shines gloriously today, and because the arts are valued in my family’s life even if it’s not at school, I hold my glass today to Ray Bradbury’s Margot.
Tequila Sunrise (Alton Brown’s recipe)
Ice
1 1/2 ounces tequila
Freshly squeezed orange juice1/2 ounce homemade pomegranate syrup, recipe follows (I can only imagine how much better this is that the traditional grenadine used in a tequila sunrise!)
Fill a Collins or highball glass with ice. Add the tequila. Add enough orange juice to come almost to the top of the glass; the amount will vary depending on the size of the glass. Gently pour the pomegranate syrup into the glass and serve. Do not stir.
Pomegranate Syrup
4 cups pomegranate juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Place the pomegranate juice, sugar and lemon juice in a 4-quart saucepan set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the mixture has reduced to 1 1/2 cups, approximately 50 minutes. It should be the consistency of syrup. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the saucepan for 30 minutes. Transfer to a glass jar and allow to cool completely before covering and storing in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.