Friday, February 10, 2012

Six Impossible Things

"I can't believe THAT!" said Alice
"Can't you?" the Queen said in a pitying tone. "Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes."
Alice laughed. "There's no use trying," she said: "one CAN'T believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
Through the Looking Glass
Chapter 5
Lewis Carroll




'Impossible things' was the topic of a recent writing assignment. Students were asked to list six impossible things, choose one, and explain why it is impossible. Here are a few 'impossible things'-
                   - change the weather
                   - perfection
                   - swim the Pacific Ocean
                   - one person with two bodies/ one soul with two halves
                   - to shoot 18 on an 18-hole course
                   - grow wings


Trinity student, Zach Cassady, on 'impossible things':


     The impossible is only what we have not yet imagined. Throughout history, people have been changing the way others see the world. Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong all share something- they did things that seemed, at one point, impossible. There is almost no limit to what we can do. The impossible is only impossible if we are unwilling to try. There will always be people who fear change but there are also those who rise above. They reap the reward for their trouble. The things that seem impossible now may be waiting for you... right around the corner.


Another assignment asked students to imagine themselves as paper money. Here is Elizabeth Hemingway's piece:


     When I was just a blank, waiting to be printed, I was hopeful. I didn't know what I was going to be. Maybe, I dreamed, I would be lucky enough to be a fifty, a twenty or even a hundred! Imagine, me in a position of high value. I would have even been okay as a common one. At least I would have alot of friends. When it came my turn to be printed, I said goodbye to my blank buddies and started down the path. I went through the printer with my eyes squeezed shut in anticipation. When I stopped I slowly opened my eyes and looked down. Disappointment washed over me as I saw my value. I was a two. Who uses two dollar bills? After leaving the press, I first came into the hands of Wealth E. Mann. He was kind enough, and he was interested in me. I spent many years in his collection, where I made friends. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago. His family sold the collection. I was spent a few times after that. Always, I looked with longing at the things I could not buy. A snack from a vending machine, for example. I wonder what it would be like to travel through a vending machine? But that's beside the point. I ended up here, in the back of a bank vault. Someone traded me in for two ones. Rejection. I only hope someone spends me.