Feeding What We Want to Grow
As a teacher of literature, one of my favorite genres was always those of stories handed down through cultures and generations. They have the staying power to transcend time and the natural withering away on the page because they are kept in the hearts and on the mouths of people. Recently, I saw a quick version of one of my favorites on a friend's Instagram grid about feeding the wolf inside us. For anyone that doesn't know, this story is credited to the Cherokee Nation, and this photo summarizes it really well. In this story, we can all find something with which we can related, and the message from the grandfather in the story is clear. To become the version of ourselves that we want to be, we must nourish that version. When working through this text with students, it was such a gift to uncover the variety of ways in which we will humanly respond to a story with such moral implications. The quick and more obvious reactions are that many of us don't want to ac