Venn diagrams. I'm a huge fan. As an ESL
instructor, I used them to prepare my students for midterm speaking exams. A
hot-air popper, kernels, salt, butter and a bowl were unpacked in the
classroom. A bag of Smartfood too. We made fresh popcorn before
sampling its factory-made counterpart; then, the template with its overlapping
circles helped us do a detailed comparison. The students proceeded to abstract,
complex topics while I swept white reminders of the lesson off the floor.
In XII – Within, there’s a another one. "Sketch
a Venn diagram (of Pam and me) and the mutual attributes would enlarge the
overlapping circles until only slim crescents of divergence remained, but that
divergence was formidable and impacted the way we walked on the earth before we
walked together on the trail. Me? A hand-wringer. Pam? She pulled up her socks.”
Today as we get ready to say good-bye (good riddance, WTF...) to 2020, I’m once again drawn to, well, drawing a Venn diagram. Hand-wringing vs. pulling up socks. 2019 vs 2020. Pfizer vs Moderna. Citizens vs. finance ministers. There are countless options; enough to keep me pondering well into January, possibly beyond.