Lucy had to work to perform three impossible tasks to free her from the curse. Talk about an "impossible task" you had to perform sometime in your life to accomplish a goal.
Include one question and one reading that will support good discussion with young adults.
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I have never had to deal with anything as grave as what Lucy went through, especially as through the book she finds revelations that the curse is so much worse than originally thought. However, when I first thought of going back to school after taking time off of my bachelor degree to have my children, I put it aside at first as being ‘impossible’. Attempting to raise my children and go back to school as a non-traditional student scared me, but with the strong support of family I did head back to school to finish my undergraduate degree. My mother has a Master’s degree and my father has his PhD, and I always felt like the ‘black sheep’ of the family because I had only completed my Associate’s. Being so close to graduating with my Master’s it truly is a huge sense of accomplishment and the feeling of having overcome many obstacles that go hand-in-hand with returning to school.
Question: In previous generations the Elfin Knight made sure the Scarborough girls knew their fate, but Lucy finds out early in her pregnancy because of her mother’s diary. Please analyze how the outcome may have been different had she not found the diary until later or not at all.
Reading: In a letter from her mother Lucy reads “You are due to come into this world any day now. I need to make sure you learn everything that I know. I believe that this letter and my journal are my only hope for transferring to you the knowledge that I have about our family history. I want you to have more than the song, you see. The song was all that I had. It’s all that HE permits us to have, in the little game he’s playing with our family.”
Response: I was once training for a new job and we, the other two trainees and I, were given a task: we were to build a replica of a figure using materials given to us. Our only instruction was that we were not allowed to touch the figure, which happened to be placed inside a box. The box hindered our ability to see the figure completely. After much deliberation and neck-craning, we built a similar, but not exact, copy of the figure. Upon completion of the task, the moderator pointed out that we were not allowed to touch the figure, but we could have asked someone else in the room to remove it from the box.
I thought of this instance a lot while reading Impossible. I was expecting Lucy to keep secrets and to try to accomplish the tasks alone. Somehow, I feel that many would have responded as I expected. But the biggest part of my enjoyment of the book stemmed from the fact that Lucy relied so heavily on others and that those friends and family responded so wonderfully to her, even though the whole situation did seem to be complete “madness.”
Question: Lucy’s various relationships (with Zach, with Sarah, with Leo and Soledad) exhibit different types of love. How does the elflin knight (Padraid Seely) embody the opposite of love?
Reading:”But I said nothing out loud,” Lucy said. There was some strength in her voice now. And hope. She was thinking of what Leo had said about the faeries and their tricks (Werlin, 2008, p. 355).
When I began to brainstorm an “impossible task” that I have had to overcome, one of the first things that came to mind was a math class I took two years ago. At first I laughed it off and thought to myself, “It was just a class. There are things in life much more impossible.” However, after I thought about it, this class was an impossible task for what was going on in my life at that time.
It was a simple college algebra class and the only math credit I needed to take. I figured I would take it online and get it over with as I had taken up to calculus and high school. Well, I should not have gone into it with such an overly optimistic outlook. The class ended up being the hardest, most time consuming class I had ever taken. I spent hours upon hours every week trying to get the work completed. Yet, it was not just the class that seemed like an impossible task. It was making my whole life seem impossible (or so it seemed at the time). It began affecting my other classes as I spent all my time working on assignments for the math class. It was affecting my work. I would leave as soon as possible to get home and continue homework and I was taking on less duties. It was even affecting my relationship with my fiancé as I was always crabby from working on the math class all the time. This “impossible task” seems so mundane compared to what Lucy had to overcome. However, in my life, at that certain time, I felt that I would never accomplish what seemed to be my “impossible task.”
Question: Although Lucy’s foster mother thought it was a good idea, Lucy decided against an abortion and decided she wanted to have her baby. Predict what would have happened in the story had Lucy decided to get an abortion.
Reading: Pages 298-299. “There’s no giving up. Believe me, I’m not ready to lose you or our life together. It’s just that, right now, I want to hear you promise me that if we do run out time and I go mad, like Miranda, it ends with me. The curse ends here, because our baby will be safe. You will make that happen. Isn’t that so?”
The “impossible” task that I had to overcome occurred when I was in Jr High. After falling while running down a gravel road and landing directly on my knee, I was left with a chunk larger than a quarter missing from my knee. It was a deep wound, I could see the tendons that go over the kneecap, and being in a small rural hospital, it was though best to stitch it up until I returned to Omaha. In my first visit to my doctor here, I was told to bend my knee and the stitches immediately popped and the wound opened back up. After bandaging it up, the wound was then left to heal on its own. All I could think about all summer while my leg was stuck stiff and straight, was how am I going to play soccer this fall? When I was given the all clear to begin walking on the leg again and bending it fully, a couple months had passed. While I now realize it was the muscles atrophying, each time I went to bend my leg and experienced great pain, all I could think about was the stitches popping out or the scar tissue tearing in some way. Quickly the thoughts of never playing soccer again, or playing street hockey, or riding my bike trumped the thoughts of pain. With daily exercising of the leg, and my brother harping about how bored he was without someone to run around with, I was soon riding around on my bike even with the bandages still on and still needing to be changed several times a day.
Lucy always had the love of her parents and of Zach for support. How do you think things would have turned out for her if she did not have these people to lean on?
“I’m not saying I’m glad it happened. Not exactly. But I’m not sorry to be the person I am today”
I have never had to do anything that I believed was impossible. I believe Matthew 19:26 when it says, “…with God all things are possible.” I have had things that were difficult. I once took a class that seemed like I would not pass. I had to keep working at it just little by little and eventually passed it. At the time, it was very hard not to get depressed and to keep trying. It was very easy to believe that I should just give up. As with all things, you just have to keep trying and working, and things will usually work themselves out.
Question: Create another task for Lucy to complete. Can you make it fit into the song?
Reading: She didn’t speak much that day, but she gripped my hand and sang to me. It was like being sung a lullaby. The song had our name in it, Scarborough. She sang it to me several times, and she made me sing it with her, so I wouldn’t forget. She told me I must never forget. She said that her mother sang it to her, and that we Scarborough girls needed to always keep trying to do the tasks in the song. (152-153)
It lays out three tasks.
-Make a magic shirt without needle or seam.
-Find an acre of land between the salt water and the sea strand.
-Plow the land with a goat’s horn, and sow it with one grain of corn. (159)
There must be a way. There must. I just don’t have a lot of time.(162)
RESPONSE:
Years ago, I had taken martial arts as a young adult. It was thirty years before I had a chance to take it up again. Sometimes the hardest task to overcome is the mental attitude of being too old or out of shape or having responsibilities for the family or embarrassment of being one of the oldest students. Yet I was determined to get my black belt. So I signed up and signed my various kids so that I would have both the youth of remembering all the moves and sparring partners at home. Three years and three months later, I broke my final boards and completed all my forms to obtain that Tae kwon do blackbelt.
QUESTION:
One of the themes that seems to course through the book is love. What do you think are the various types of love shown and their effects on Lucy being able to break the curse?
READING:
From the sting of my curse she can never be free
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Unless she unravels my riddlings three
She will be a true love of mine (P.154)
Response to Question:
I was never a cheerleader. Or prom queen. Or class president. People didn’t idolize me. But I was always nice. I was always a sweetheart. Always putting others first. To use a religious metaphor, I was the Angel you would want to welcome you at the Pearly Gates. But, life happens and some qualities about ones self change. My life happened Junior year of High School. Life’s droplets began to pour down, one after the other after the other. That made me a very angry and hostile person. My parents noticed, my friends, my teachers. Even my regular customers where I worked noticed I was not the bright cheery Anni they had always known. I didn’t like the person life had made me. I could tell you guys every little detail that lead to the angry and hostile person I had become, but that would not only bore you, but would use most of the storage space on this free blog. I struggled with who I was and who I wanted to be. I had to fight myself to rid my person of the aspects I had assimilated. I worked hard and I am at a better place with myself now. I realize that, as they say, “You are your hardest critic,” Or something to that affect. I still have my quick-witted, quirky moments of hostility, but the important thing is that I recognize them and work on them every day.
Written Question:
Even Lucy, who was described as being confident and extremely rational, questioned and doubted herself. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Compare yourself then to yourself now. Would the outcome have changed if that situation had happened now instead of then? If so, why?
Quote:
Page 364 – She had not even dared to dream of this. She had not even dared to let herself hope.
Around five years ago I battled Major Depresive Disorder and Anorexia. At the time it seemed like nothing in my life was going right, and that there was nothing I could do to change how I felt. It felt like being happy with myself was an impossibility and that I only had control over the way that I looked. It was only with the help and support of my mother that I could start battling these disorders. It took a lot of support from my family and therapy but I finally recovered. Like Lucy, I could not have achieved my final goal without the help of others.
Question: Toward the end of the novel the Elfin Knight offers Lucy a deal that would save her husband and daughter if she could not complete the final task. Imagine you were in Lucy's shoes. Would you have accepted the Elfin Knight's deal?
"Luce. Lucy. Lucinda Scarborough. Marry me. Please. I want you, and I want to be your daughter's father."(222)
RESPONSE:
I don’t know if I would classify this as an “impossible” task, but it has been a difficult goal for me to reach. You see, all my life I was told that I could do or be anything I wanted. It wasn’t until I started telling my mother that I wanted to become a teacher or go into public service that I began receiving messages along the lines of you can be whatever you want – just not this, or just not that. So for a VERY long time, I believed it and I stumbled through life from one empty job to another. I felt incomplete, despite the fact that I had lived a wonderful life. I married the most wonderful man and I have four children who continue to amaze me every day. It took 15 years of my husband’s constant “nagging,” uh, encouragement, for me to finally decide to go to school to earn that elusive teaching degree. In fact, he, my husband, has become my biggest cheerleader. On the other hand, my mother still tells me, to this day, how foolish it is for me to be going back to school, especially for teaching. She constantly brings up the notion about me having epilepsy and what if I have a seizure in front of the students.
So, I guess the thing that has been difficult for me is coming to terms with the fact that my mother is not always right and does not always know what is best for me. THEN having the courage and the strength to do what I knew I should have been doing all along, and that is teaching. Today, even though I love my mother very much, I have limited contact her or anyone else who says, “You can’t do it” or “That’s just foolish,” because I CAN do it and it is NOT foolish.
Remember that incomplete feeling that I have been living with all these years, as I get closer and closer to graduation and becoming a teacher – that incomplete feeling continues to get smaller and smaller. What I have learned from this journey is how important it is to follow your dreams. Don’t let others tell you what you can and cannot accomplish. If it’s important to you – then do it and if you don’t succeed the first time you try something, learn from that experience and then try again. The important thing is to NEVER give up on your dreams.
QUESTION:
If Lucy had not received help and guidance from her family and friends, would the outcome of the story have been the same or different? Explain your answer.
READING:
“It is absolutely okay with me if you need to keep some secrets. I’ve been thinking about this and I decided that a best friend is someone who, when they don’t understand, the still understand.” (252)
I think the most “impossible” task for me is letting go of the image I had of what my future looked like. I got married when I was twenty-two, had my kids before I was thirty and settled into a life that was comfortable, nice, and secure. Until my father called me one afternoon while I was on a field trip with one of my son’s classes. He told me in that cell phone conversation he had been diagnosised with terminal lung cancer. At that point, all I really wanted was more time more time with my father and that was impossible, there was no cure and we had to face that. Learning to let go of a preconceived notion of what my future looked like was impossible.
My father asked me to get back in college and finish, to graduate with a degree because that was one of the things he regretted the most— he had not helped me to go to college the first time I tired. So I did, I gave up my idea of what life was and went to college. Talk about learning to juggle. I used to say balancing, then Dr. Edwards told me “Deb, look at it like juggling, that way you are allowed to drop a ball every now and then.”
I am working on the impossible right now. How to raise two children, run a business with my husband, keep our marriage happy and healthy, and do my homework, as well as keep everyone else productive and happy—that is the job of this mom. I am learning to be the master juggler. I think it is the most beneficial preparation I have to become a successful teacher—and an impossible task at times.
Quote:
“I’m going to change my whole life plan right here, right now. For Lucy. And I know for a fact that it’s not the smartest move I could make for myself. But with everything in me, I believe that it’s right for her—no. No. NO.
For us.” Pg 221
Question:
Fenella: “From all of us Scarborough girls, greetings and thanks. This task required two, working together, trusting each other. It required the ‘us,’ not the ‘I.’ For that is true love, is it not?”
There are many examples of two people working together in breaking this curse, pick one of the pairings and explain the impact their “true love” had on the curse and the outcome of the story. Consider the roles each played in Lucy’s life and how that helped to break the curse. Why is your choice the most important pairing? Some examples of parings include Miranda and Lucy, Lucy and Zach, Lucy and Sarah, Lucy and Soledad, and Lucy and Leo.
My first foray into real estate sure seemed like an impossible task at the time! I had my first house built at age 23, and at 25 decided to sell it on my own to move in with my fiancé. While both were frustrating, the buying process was definitely more guided than selling was. With almost no guidance, relying on my own research, I sold my house with 2 yard signs and a few flyers. I relied entirely on drive-bys, but was able to sell the house within 2 weeks, probably out of sheer luck. I found a title company to do the paperwork for very little money and made a tidy profit. This task seemed impossible, especially since I was highly discouraged by many people from trying this on my own – no one thought I’d be able to do it without the help of a real estate agent to show my house and handle all the legal aspects. But in the end, it worked out wonderfully, and I accomplished my goal.
Question: Lucy’s foster parents tried not to make decisions for her, instead providing guidance. What is more important in a parent/child relationship – protecting the child from dangerous consequences or letting the child decide for herself and learn from her mistakes?
Reading: (P. 34)
“Still, Soledad wished she could meat this Gray Spencer person before the prom. However, she had in the end agreed with Leo that while they could hint, they could not insist. It was Lucy’s business, and they would meet the boy in a few days anyway, on prom night.”
Response: I was given a nearly impossible task to complete at my job for a New Years concert. Originally the arranger was supposed to provide both scores and parts. Instead, I received a handwritten faxed score, no parts. OK, I thought, write out 3 arrangements in 1 day before the rehearsal the next morning, without mistakes, for the Music Director’s wife to perform? At first, I really felt I would fail. There was no choice but to muster the courage to tackle it head on. I recruited everyone on the staff based on their various skills. I had myself, another staff member who was a flute player and the Music Director himself copying out the music for individual parts. I had the Director of Media Relations proof the parts for errors and the Music Director’s Executive Secretary photocopying and creating the parts for musicians to perform from. Thankfully all went fine, and the concert went on without anyone in the audience knowing the near crisis in the music library. They simply enjoyed the music.
Question: Propose three different ways to support Lucy as a friend, beyond what Sarah did, to give her the support she needed to continue her pregnancy during high school.
Reading: p. 131 “And as she realized how different her senior year of high school - not to mention her life afterward - would now be from what she had expected. But still, she had never been surer of anything in her life. She could not explain. She had to have this baby. It was alive. It was her responsibility.”
Thinking back on an impossible task that I was once faced with, I found my mind blank. Although this is not an "impossible" task, it was more so an impossible time. Throughout the years, I have moved around quite a bit. Growing up, I lived in 3 different states. With each state came a new school and as many of you may know that transition can be very difficult. It was following our first move as a family that I found myself faced with a challenge. It was in the middle of the school year and we had just moved to a small town. Having never lived in a small town, I had no idea what to expect. Shortly after moving, I realized that we were the outsiders. A certain bond existed in this small town. Everybody was acquainted with everyone, except for us. A sort of mystery followed us. Everyone was eager to find out about our family, but yet nobody was friendly enough to try to get to know us. In conjunction with this move, our family was also going through a difficult time. My older sister, a teenager at the time, was expecting. Things were made even more difficult by her excessive attempts to runaway. In a small town, information like this is news. Being new in a town with no friends I found myself alone. Shortly after settling here, gossip started to fly. Word about my sister had gotten out. It was then that I was harassed daily to and from school regarding my sister’s situation. With the transition to a new school and the lack of acceptance from my peers, I struggled with my grades. My grades were lower than they had ever been before. During this time in my life, everything felt like a struggle. It felt like it wasn’t even possible that things would turn around and become comfortable again for all of us. Things did though. As the first year passed, everything started to boil down. Although nothing was stable during this time, my family included, it was still with the help of one another that allowed each of us to make it through.
Question:
Predict what would have changed in the story if Grey would not have come back for Lucy and instead Zach took her to the prom.
Page 146: “We are women who have baby daughters at eighteen and then go insane. My mother did. I will too. It’s not our fault. We’re a long chain of women who are cursed.”
A seemingly impossible task I had to overcome to achieve a goal was during the summer of 2008 when I wanted to go to Uganda on a mission trip. At my initial interest in this cause my parents put their foot down and wouldn't even consider letting me go because of a war that has been ongoing for 23 years. Also, I wanted to go with a group of individuals from all across the U.S. who I had never met. However, I felt it was something I had to do. I knew that without my parents support, it would be difficult to raise the $3500 to get me on my way. At the age of 18, bound and determined I received the support of my grandma, church and close friends and raised the money. After I had the money to go, the vaccinations, the passport, and plane ticket my parents finally stood behind me.
Pursuing my goal, despite a few hurdles allowed me to have an experience I will cherish forever. Interacting with the people and serving them in Uganda changed my outlook and deeply impacted my life. Had I allowed my parents, although I do respect them greatly, to stand in the way of something I knew I had to do, I wouldn't have had that opportunity.
Question: Think about the main relationships in Lucy's life and the roles they play in the story: Soledad, Leo, Zach, Miranda, and Sarah. Choose which relationship had the greatest impact on Lucy's ultimate success and support your answer.
Reading: (pg. 168)
It wasn't Gray raping me. I know that sounds like something as craxy as what Miranda would say. But it wan't him. There was someone else inside him. Someone else's-I don't know what word to use, okay? Someone else's spirt. Someone . . . someone who was amused, Azch. And whoever that person was, he said things Gray wouldn't say. Used a language I never heard before.
RESPONSE:I remember my first year at my job. I learned that part of my job would be to organize graduation and scholarship awards for the high school. There is soooo much involved in making sure everyone is recognized properly!! As a person who struggles with (as my friends and family call it) perfection syndrome, I constantly would go over and over all the awards, diplomas, programs, submissions, directions, and any other part of the ceremony I was in charge of. Looking at the amount of information I had to work with, I thought this would be impossible to complete in time and with everything right. Just like Lucy, I needed help and guidance to be successful. There were points in doing all these things that were driving me to madness but again, like Lucy, I calmly worked my way through with the support of my coworkers and breathed a sigh of relief when it was all over. Every year this is an anxiety-ridden part of my job (I just don’t want to leave anyone out or have anything wrong!!). It’s a lot of work but the end result is worth it! As Zach was able to do with Lucy, you have to keep your eye on the goal, know it is worth it and complete the task.
QUESTION: In this story, Lucy finds a letter from her mother that helps her understand Miranda better. Compose a letter to a family or friend that would help them understand you better.
READING: “It was Gray. His hair. His nose. His mouth. His cheekbones and his very pale skin. Lucy recognized him. But looking out at her through his eyes…
It wasn’t Gray Spencer at all. That made no sense, but Lucy felt the truth in her bones. It was someone else, using his body.” (p 75)
Response:
The most impossible task I have accomplished in my life was the birth of my son. My husband and I waited several years before we decided to have a family. Once we decided to try, I was able to get pregnant right away, but the pregnancy was ectopic and had to be terminated. For months we tried again, but with no positive results. I always worried that maybe there was damage from the first pregnancy that was keeping me from getting pregnant so I requested a test that would help determine if there was a problem. The test revealed that everything should be fine. Either because of the physical effects of having the test, or the psychological effect of knowing everything was fine, by the next month I was pregnant! What for the longest time had felt impossible, had become reality!
Question: Although Lucy never told her friend Sarah about the curse, do you think she played a role in Lucy’s ability to break it? Could the same story have been told without Sarah in it?
Quote:
“It was Gray. His hair. His nose. His mouth. His cheekbones and his very pale skin. Lucy recognized him. But looking out at her through his eyes… It wasn’t Gray Spencer at all. That made no sense, but Lucy felt the truth of it to her bones. It was someone else, using his body.”
Lucy had some tough challenges to face. I’ve never faced the kind of pressure she was under: locked in a struggle against evil with her life (and the life of her baby) at stake. She had to be intellectually, physically and emotionally strong, even though she was pregnant, had recently been through a terrible trauma, and was only eighteen years old.
When I thought about what “impossible” tasks I had completed, I first thought of things like getting through my first college degree program, getting through labor, or getting through a three-mile run on a bad day. I was able to push through to “victory” on those things, but compared to Lucy’s battle, mine seemed like minor irritations. And was the fact that I was struggling with these irritants in the first pace really just the result of poor planning, poor preparation, or laziness on my part?
It made me wonder: if I knew a task was truly impossible, would I even try to complete it? Then I realized I do face an impossible task every day, one that is connected to my faith. My impossible task is to be worthy of the grace God has given me, and to somehow deserve the spot that I have waiting for me in heaven. I know this task is impossible (I certainly fail in my efforts often enough), but I will never stop trying for victory. Maybe the honor is in the struggle.
Question: Considering how much Zach stood to lose (his freedom, his chance to go to his first choice college), do you think it was right for Lucy to agree to marry him? Why or why not.
Quote: “She watched her mother’s face, hoping for some kind of acknowledgement. But Miranda kept her eyes shut. But then, after a minute, she took her hand from Lucy’s stomach and put it instead around Lucy’s hand, and tightened, so that her fingers formed Lucy’s into a fist” (pg 250).
Response:
While it doesn’t come close in comparison to the impossible tasks Lucy took, one “impossible task” I performed was managing to take an international flight by myself.
While working on my bachelor’s, I had dreamed of being able to study abroad in Europe for a semester, but scheduling and financing issues made it seem like that would never happen. Finally, when I was reaching the end of my last semester, my mom mentioned that I should reward myself with a trip for all my hard work. She had a road trip in the U.S. in mind. I had Europe in mind.
A friend of mine was studying abroad in Sweden at the time, so he helped me plan a two-week long, very budget-friendly first journey across the Atlantic.
At this point in my life, I’d only been on a few airplane trips, none of which were by myself. Needless to say, I was terrified about missing my connections, trying to find the right gates in foreign countries, and worried that maybe once I landed in Sweden, my friend Alex wouldn’t be at the airport and I’d have no idea how to find him since I didn’t have his phone number or the name of the school he was studying at. But somehow, I was able to navigate myself through the airports and when I landed and arrived, Alex was there.
That was the first time I’d been so far away from home and I worried that something bad would happen to a family member and I wouldn’t be around to be supportive. The worst thing that occurred was that my sister’s cat fell off a balcony and had to get hip surgery. I did not suffer any guilt for not being around for that.
Since then I’ve been on more flights by myself than I can count. I guess I needed that big leap before I was ready to have the confidence that I could make smaller ones.
Question:
Given the circumstances Lucy was facing with having the baby, what do you think you would do in her situation? Who would you go to for advice in making that decision?
Reading:
“She believed that complete healing – which would make those surreal and sick feelings go away – would surely not take as long as the therapist said. The therapist spoke in terms of months or even years. Soldead had added that occasional relapses into anxiety might occur throughout Lucy’s life, and even that she should expect, on some emotional level, to be forever changed” (Werlin, 96-97).
Werlin, N. (2008). Impossible. New York: Dial Books.
Response:
One of the reasons Lucy was successful in completing her tasks and ending her family curse was due to the loving support of her friends and family. I cannot personally think of an example of an impossible task or situation I had to solve, but I remember being a part of a support system for another. My sister was diagnosed with cancer when she was 19 years old. Through the course of her treatments, she had to deal not only with the effects of the disease and medicine, but she had to deal with her boyfriend leaving her as well. I cannot even imagine what she was feeling at the time. Anyway, our parents were supportive, but also quick to create limitations based on her health. Many family members also were acting a little different, like they never wanted to talk about anything negative around her. I chose to treat her like I always had. I never babied her. I was her comic relief, someone she could confide in, and someone she could talk to about serious things like treatments without me trying to tell her what she needed to do. I even shaved her head when her hair was falling out. Her cancer came back two times after the initial diagnosis and each time she knew she could count on me to just be there. She made it through all her trials and I think it would have been a much tougher road for her to follow if she didn’t have someone she loved and trusted to help her get through it.
Question:
Lucy’s foster mother Soledad suggested abortion as a solution to her tasks and at one point in the story Lucy briefly considered taking her life to end the curse. What factors kept her from making these choices? How would the story have ended if she had followed one of these paths?
Reading:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves.” (page 278)
(1st of 2 comments)
1n 1993, I had to drop out of college. I’d only attended Wayne State for one year after graduating high school, but my parents were divorcing and needed me at home. More than that, my two young sisters needed me. So, I packed up my junk and went home. As my parents set about the business of dismantling the family they’d been building for 23 years, my sisters and I tried to keep our sanity intact. Mom and dad both fell into a kind of second childhood. My dad stopped going to work at the small liquor store we owned. My mom started putting ads in singles magazines and dating heavily. It was as if they had suddenly let go of everything (I thought) they believed in.
Not that things had ever been stable at home. Dad was an alcoholic, and a violent one. Mom was violent, too though she never drank Dad beat mom, mom beat us kids, and yet there were things that were good. Like, my dad’s humor and my mom’s ability to function in a crisis…and there was always a crisis.
Eventually things calmed down. I got a small apartment and my sisters and I moved in. I tried to do the things I thought a mom should do. I bought prom dresses, and cheerleading outfits, school clothes, and car insurance. For five years we struggled together. During that time, I married and had a son. We were a family, albeit an unconventional one.
My dad finally pulled it together enough to have my younger sister, then seventeen, live with him. I was left alone with my husband and son, trying to make the best of a life that I didn’t expect, and didn’t want. As fate would have it, my husband turned out to be a drunk, and I violent one. (The old cliché’ holds true, I guess…girls marry their fathers.) One day, after we’d moved into a new apartment and had a new baby, he hit me. I packed his junk and sent him home to his parents. That was that, or so I thought, no more men. (I remarried two years later.)
So, that brings me to my “impossible” task. I developed agoraphobia as a result of the anxiety of raising my sisters and being married to an idiot (mostly the being married to an idiot part, I think…my sisters were angels). I don’t know how it happened, actually, but one day I realized that I was terrified…of everything. I was especially afraid to be around people I didn’t know, which caused me to be afraid to leave my home.
I started seeing a therapist on a weekly basis, mostly because, more than being afraid, I was angry. I’m a bit of a control freak, and I knew that my fear was controlling me. I hated it. Soon, I was comfortable enough to start taking some online classes. I’d been wishing I could go back to school since I dropped out. My kids were both in school. I thought it was time I was too. Finally, I signed up for classes at UNO. One of the first classes I enrolled in was Argumentation and Debate. I knew that would be one of the hardest classes for me and I wanted to get it out of the way.
On the first day of class my worst fear was confirmed…there would be public speaking, and lots of it. I prepared my first presentation with sweaty palms and a knot in my stomach. On the day I was to present it, I spoke to my therapist before going to class. She gave me all the usual advice…don’t make eye contact, remember that everyone gets nervous. She told me that I was competent and prepared and then she said, “Quit whining and just do it, Carolyn.” I don’t remember a single second of that presentation. I don’t know if I stumbled on my words, or if I said “um” 500 times. I only know that I did it. I didn’t think I could, but I did it.
I kept seeing my therapist for about six months after my presentation. Now I can go to the store whenever I want. I can talk to whomever I want. I can breathe when I’m in a crowd. I didn’t think I would be able to, but I can. The best advice Kate, my therapist, gave me was to find a mantra and use it often, out loud, in my head, whatever. So, I remembered reading somewhere a very old Taoist saying. It is said to be the answer to every question; “Walk On.” So, that’s what I do; I walk on. And, I’m not afraid anymore.
Question: What do you think Padraig Seeley's motivation was for largely ignoring the impact of Zach's presence in Lucy's life? Predict what would have happened if Miranda had sought Soledad and Leo's help during her pregnancy.
"The Elfin Knight smiled. It was the smile Lucy had last seen from three inches away, when this creature had pasessed and destroyed Gray Spencer. 'On the contrary, Lucinda," he said. 'I wanted you to recognize me. It's time. You and I will be very closely acquainted. Beginning very soon.' His gaze caressed her stomach. 'I will own you completely.'"
One of the toughest things I went through in high school was my senior cheerleading tryouts. It sounds funny but I really liked to cheer, I had been on the basketball team but I preferred to stay on the bench and cheer my teammates on then to actually play! I tried out for cheerleading every year but never made it and then I joined the basketball team instead. My senior year I finally made the team! I was so excited and so happy. I don’t remember ever being so happy about any group I had joined in high school then when I made the cheer squad for basketball. The hard thing at that moment was that I had beat out a friend who had actually been on the squad last year and had taken her place. But, a little over an hour after I had got home from cheer tryouts, the cheer coach came to my house and told me there had been a mess up in the scoring at auditions and that I didn’t make it but my friend did. I felt horrible and wanted to scream and yell at the coach, but I didn’t and my parents always told me they were very impressed with how I handled the situation. Some other parents and the coach had petitioned the superintendent that I be allowed to become a cheerleader, but he was already anti-cheerleading. I didn’t join the basketball team that year, but instead chose to sit in the crowd. It was really hard to sit there but I continued to cheer my friends on both on the team and the squad. I got told all the time that I was the best fan in the crowd because I was the only student who really watched and paid attention and that almost made the whole thing worth it. I decided not to punish everyone around me and to stay positive and to continue to encourage but from a new position. It might seem like a small trial but it was one of those moments who made me become who I am today.
Question:
Abortion is one of the major social issues discussed in this book. If you had been in Lucy’s situation would you have chosen to have the baby as well? Choose what you would have done and defend your choice.
Excerpt:
“You’re too pretty!” Miranda had called her today. “I wish you were an ugly girl! Ugly! Expect less from life!” Miranda had stood there, leaning on the fence, her face contorted, yelling directly at Lucy for a full five minutes. She had gestured with her hands too, a strange gesture, as if she were flinging water – or a curse – on Lucy. “Expect less! Expect less!” (35)
Lucy had the Elfin Knight for an enemy. In the context of this book, he was a real foe. Some people can be their own worst enemy and cause themselves not to achieve their goals. That was certainly my circumstance. My “impossible task” was to stop my self-doubt, convince myself to take a chance and get back to the profession that I loved.
Family concerns forced me to abruptly leave my teaching career. Later, after finding a job that allowed me to work and be available for my struggling child, I had totally convinced myself that I did not miss teaching. Five years passed and I was in cruise mode. Nothing spectacular happened until I saw a part time job in a library at our local community college. I took the job and thoroughly enjoyed it. However, once again, family financial concerns (three children in college) forced me back into my previous job which happened to be open. Two more years passed, but in the back of my mind I knew what I really wanted to do – get back to teaching – but that continual self-doubt and concern for my family always stopped me.
Finally, I convinced myself to check into the library program at UNO. And even though I knew it was what I wanted to do, I still kept trying to talk myself out of it. I once again attempted to convince myself that even after taking the classes, no one would hire me since I had been out of the profession for so long. I finally decided to take one class and see how it went. Well, I was hooked. I quit my job, took 12 hours of summer school, and was hired that summer. The rest is history!
My “impossible task” was not something I had to perform; it was something I had to overcome. I still do the “what if” thing every once in a while, but not nearly as much. I am convinced that sometimes the foes you can actually see are the easy ones to deal with. The ones inside your head are the tough ones!
The song “Scarborough Fair” played an important role in the book. Is there a song that is particularly meaningful to you? Give an example of the lyrics and discuss their significance in your life.
“Then Lucy saw her face, and gasped. The woman’s face wasn’t the face of a single woman, but a constantly shifting rotation of faces. Lucy knew, even before she caught a glimpse of the one she recognized – that of Miranda – that the faces were those of her ancestors.” (p. 326)
Knight-Impossible Blog
Date rape is, sadly, still a hidden subject for some females. The violence exists in many countries across the globe. There are, however, some wonderful people who are supportive, nurturing to victims of date rape, trying to assist females in healing from this very real threat. I find it very intriguing that this novel offers a fairytale aspect, which would appeal to many readers. The story weaves so many current real-life scenarios: foster parents, wanting to rekindle a bio-Mom's love, having a warm and caring boyfriend (who later becomes your husband), finishing high school/college all while raising your first child. These realities mixed with magic and fantasy makes this novel a real winner.
My deeply personal goal is something I have never written about until now: to be there, in full, loving support, as my mother died. Impossible? Yes, but No! Four years before this uncontrollable moment, my mother stopped smoking cigarettes. But the lung and liver cancer came anyway. A short stay in intensive care identified this. I knew then that I would be there at the end, I would have a better relationship with her starting now, I would phone her more often...I will be there at the end. I really didn't want to be there-I am so numb, so in denial, so disavowing about deaths. But when that call came to go to the hospital four years later, I was there. Holding her hand, talking about not much, returning day after day, watching the morphine drip snaking away some of her pain. I was there by her side day after day, night after night. Just a few hours before she died, Mom was lying there in pain, whispering about when I was born; I was standing there in pain, waiting for her imminent death. Phenomenal! Thinking of my birth as she lay dying. It was the bravest thing I have ever done; it was the most impossible thing I have ever done. But I was there.
Question: Zach is an unusual young man, mature, caring and funny. Lucy is more than lucky to have had him as a childhood friend, then as a husband. Predict how the story would be changed if Zach was actually the Elf Knight.
Reading: "She was giving herself pep talks, Zach thought, in his more hopeful moments. but in his less hopeful ones, he wondered if she was hallucinating. If the madness might be descending. Or it could be fever; it would be a wonder if she didn't catch pneumonia out there. There were in fact so many things to be afraid of that Zach hardly knew which to settle on."
An "impossible" task I needed to accomplish was to lose weight as a teenager. I grew up an obese kid, but always got along because I was good at sports, had a laid-back attitude and came from a big family and neighborhood so I had many friends.
But in high school, I was 5-8, 230, and had a 42 inch waist. I figured in my present shape, I would not achieve my "destiny" to be a pro baseball player. Also, I still had many friends, but guys were starting to have girlfriends, so that was nagging at me too.
This task was made harder by the fact I had made numerous attempts at losing weight since I was 10 or 11.
But surprise surprise... I was able to lose 65 pounds in nine months and not in a bad, or completely unhealthy way.
Like Lucy, I had the support of family and friends. But my mom knew it was not healthy to lose weight that fast so she was always trying to shove a brownie in my face.
I did lose the weight and adapted a healthier habits with food and exercise, but I never did become the pro baseball player.
QUESTION: In sports at the end of a championship series, the media often selects a Most Valuable Player (MVP). You will select a "Most Valuable Person" for Lucy in her breaking the curse.
Was it Sarah? Zach? Maybe the MVP was actually The Elf Knight? Whomever you select, you must give your reasoning behind your choice. Challenge yourself on your selection.
READING: Discuss how the author gives a sinister feel to the scene and Padrig in the following selection. Also, any foreshadowing done by Werlin here? (p.304):
"A dark voice, like syrup, interrupted her. The sound of it went down Lucy's spine like a touch. She looked up at the man who had taken a seat next to her in the abandoned waiting room. She knew him. It was the incredibly handsome man with the dark hair and the blue, blue eyes, the one who worked for Soledad. His name floated into her mind after a second groping: Padrig Seeley."
Sorry about the deleted comments - It kept wanting to post under the name I have for my own blog, even though I use a different email address for that! Not sure how that works, but it looks like I've got it sorted out now. Anyway...
Response: I don’t know if any task I’ve ever had to perform was really ‘impossible’ as such, but Lucy’s dreams about Miranda in the first third of the book reminded me of my own problems with my dreams that I used to have; Namely, that I couldn’t remember any of them to save my life. It wasn’t even a matter of simply not knowing what my dreams meant - I just couldn't remember any of it after I'd woken up. I remember telling myself that something must have been going on in my head while I was sleeping, though, so on advice from a couple of friends, I started trying to force myself to wake up when I knew I was dreaming, pick up the notebook I'd placed on my nightstand and jot down what all I could remember. It wasn't much in the beginning, as I recall, but as time went on, things slowly got better, and as more came to me, I like to think that I learned a little more about myself in the process. This is going to sound really self-centered, but when you're around the age that I was at that time (we're talking early teens), it's important to have a well-rounded self-image, and I like to think that I did myself a favor there.
Question: While recycling the bottles from Miranda's shopping cart, Zach finds Miranda's diary that she had kept while pregnant with Lucy. Do you keep a diary, and, if so, how does it compare to what we found out about Miranda through her's?
Reading: (P. 103-104) Reading this, a little click happened in Lucy's mind. The song, the family song, "Scarborough Fair." In her insanity, Miranda appeared to believe that the directives in the song were somehow instructions to her. Personal instructions.
Tell her to make me a magical shirt.
Whoa boy.
After seeing this Lucy wondered if she could even bear to go on reading. But then she told herself: If she can live madness, I can read it. I owe Miranda that much.
An Impossible task in my life - That one is easy. My very first semester of college. It was fall of 2006. I was 24 years old, and 9 months pregnant with my second child. We had just moved here to Omaha in April of that year.
Not only was I nine months pregnant, but I had enrolled in fulltime classes at Metro. After all that was a big part of why we moved here to Omaha, so that I can go to school. It happened that I had a great pain in my mouth. It was my tooth. It hurt so bad that my entire left side of my face hurt and I got headaches and pain in my eye from it. I went to the dentist and he told me I need to get my tooth pulled. Two weeks before the baby was due and I had to go get my tooth actually cut out of my mouth under local anesthetic, because I was pregnant, they could no knock me out.
Less than a week later, I got some pain in my stomach. I knew I was not having the baby because it was not that kind of pain. I had had these pains before, but my previous doctor in Ogallala told me it was an ulcer. These pains started with my first pregnancy. When I moved here to Omaha, I made my new doctor aware of these pain that occur about once every six months. His reaction was, "Have you had your gall bladder checked?" Well, no, I have never had my gall bladder checked.
This particular night that the pain was occuring, I had began to vomit, as usual. The pain was radiating around my back and stomach. It was not going away like it usually did after a couple of hours. I decided to wake my husband to take me to the hospital. I started to vomit up black liquid there. The nurses in the ER did not believe me that I was not in labor. I knew it was not labor pains. So they sent me up to the maternity ward, and the doctors up there sent me back down to the ER because, like I told the ER nurses, I was not in labor. When they contacted my doctor, he told them to do an ultrasound on my gall bladder. Sure enough, I had major gall stones.
Here I am, nine months pregnant, baby is due in about a week, and I am on an operating table having emergency gall bladder surgery. They had to make an incision all the way accross my stomach. Normally they can remove your gall bladder with about a 1/2 inch incision but they had a baby to work around.
To make a long story short. They baby was 10 days late, thank goodness. I spent a total of about two and a half weeks in the hospital. I literally could not move for over a month. Not even to sit at the computer to do my homework. I still had those full time classes to worry about.
Luckily, My instrructors were very understanding and I ended the semester with 1 A, 2B's, and only 1C! That was an impossible semester for me.
Question:
What do you think may have happened if Lucy did not succeed in breaking the curse? Would Zach have raised Dawn by himself? Would he have helped Dawn to break the curse or just let her live her life?
Reading
My mother was insane. She was completely cracked. Page 151
I’ve discovered that a lot of what makes something seem impossible is the fear and unknown behind it. One seemingly “impossible” task in my life was overcoming my fear of driving in busy cities, such as Omaha. I grew up in a tiny town, so small that there wasn’t even a traffic light. Driving on the highway to and from school was no problem, but once I graduated from high school, I worried how I would get around the larger town of Yankton, SD where I planned to attend school. I made it nervously to campus, but was content to not venture further and assumed that that is how it would be during my freshman year – drive straight home and drive to campus. The two hour trip was mostly a straight shot from my house to Yankton, and the most nerve wracking part was driving through Norfolk and then over the large bridge that divided Nebraska and South Dakota.
The first week of classes I met my friend Karoline, who didn’t have a car on campus and would sometimes need someone to take her to the grocery store or to Walmart. It was Karoline who forced me to drive. Her patience and understanding helped me to be brave enough to overcome, such a seemingly silly fear. Because I had someone with me to help navigate and reassure me that all was well, I gradually got used to driving around. By my sophomore year I was brave enough to drive by myself, in the dark, on snowy roads to tutor a student at the public library. By my senior year, I had no trouble at all getting around my college town.
And baby steps such as this helped me to feel confident enough to expand and drive in larger places. Graduating from college, I didn’t worry about taking a job in Lincoln (much larger than Yankton) which in of itself was a little intimidating in size. Added to the reality of a larger city in which I’d be living was that my job was in outreach, which had me traveling around the city almost every day. That first year I took main streets and did little exploring, but now after living there for five years I rarely worry about driving to my destination (unless there’s ice and that’s a whole ‘nother story!)
If you had asked me in high school if I would ever feel comfortable living in the state capitol, I’m sure I would have doubted my capabilities. If you had asked me if I would be willing to commute to Omaha for classes, I’m sure I would have called you crazy. But after doing it for a while, and even being lost multiple times while trying to navigate my way around Omaha, I know that I’m capable of more than I thought. I have really come a long way in this fear, and am quite proud that I have been able to overcome such an “impossible” fear.
Question:
Communication is a strong theme in the book, Impossible. Lucy was fortunate that she had parents she felt she could approach. Predict what may have happened to Lucy if she had chosen not to communicate with her parents about the curse. Who do you think she would have turned to instead? Would this have altered the decisions she made in her life?
Quote:
And he’d think: We formed the Fellowship of the Ring when we should’ve all just gone on medication. -- Zach pg. 193
A time in my life when I was faced with a seemingly impossible task was when I decided to change careers and pursue teaching. Growing up, I was never sure what I wanted to be. When I was preparing for college the first time around, I felt more confused than ever. I really wanted to major in Communication, but my parents discouraged me—saying that I would not find a good job when I was done. So, instead I followed their advice and majored in Business. I found myself unhappy and achieving only mediocre grades. At the time, I justified my distaste for business by thinking that college was supposed to seem impossibly hard, wasn’t it?
After college, I got a job working in logistics with a major national corporation. I got paid really well. Things went okay for the first couple of years, even though long hours and high demands really stressed me out and ultimately diminished my quality of life. Work was my life. Even worse than that realization was the fact that I was not contributing anything meaningful to society. I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. I wanted this world to be a better place because I lived in it. So, I started the long and arduous process of making a major life change.
It was not easy to find the strength and courage to make a monumental change. It would mean a lot of things—giving up my salary, living on a very limited income, taking more student loans, going back to school as a non-traditional student, facing criticism from my mom and dad, and most of all facing the fear of failure. But I remained strong and determined. I did lots of research, took career and personality inventories, and thought about what I really enjoyed. I liked training people at my new job—that was the best part. I also loved reading and writing—which I had little time for while working in my current job. After narrowing my list of careers further and further, I finally started to meet with professionals in the fields I was interested in, and I even shadowed them in their jobs on my vacation days. I concluded that the best fit for me would be a secondary ed. language arts degree. After about 18 months, with the support of my husband and friends, I made the decision to enter the teacher preparation program at UNO, and it has been one of the best, most fulfilling, and most liberating decisions of my life.
Question:
At the end of Impossible, a pretty, young redheaded woman appears to Lucy and Zach. She tells them that “this task required two, working together, trusting each other. It required the ‘us’ not the ‘I.’” Given this information, explain Zach’s role in helping to break the curse. Describe how the story may have ended if Lucy chose not to marry Zach.
Reading:
“So this is what I’ve figured out: We are women who have baby daughters at eighteen and then go insane. My mother did. I will too. It’s not our fault. We’re a long chain of women who are cursed. But there might be a way to break the curse” (p. 146).
When I think about impossible tasks, what immediately comes to mind is my seventeen years as a baton twirler. As I mentioned in my last blog, I was recently in Europe. I did not mention, however, that I was overseas as a member of the United States team to compete in the World Baton Twirling Championships. To understand why this task was difficult, like Lucy’s, let me begin with some history.
Baton twirling, like ice-skating or gymnastics, is widely based on subjective opinion. It has rules and penalties, but ultimately it is up to judges to make numerical scores that determine placing. Although this is necessary, it can also lead to favoritism and politics within the sport. If you are not one of the “chosen” groups, the road is very long and difficult.
For the last nine years, my team, Sue’s Stepper-ettes, has worked on winning a baton twirling spot on the United States team. Qualifying years occur every three summers, and only the number one team in each division is chosen to compete in Europe. The division that we are in requires a six to seven minute routine with each member of the team twirling or dancing for the duration (the equivalent of running two miles in the same amount of time). It took seven years, thousands of practices, and one dedicated team to finally win two summers ago. I was on that team. This, however, was not a qualifying year.
So, last summer when it was time to qualify for the Worlds, we put all of our energy into our pom routine. We had gone to Worlds three times in pom and zero times for baton. Thus, we placed our odds on dancing our way to Europe. However, on Friday night of our national competition, it was decided that for the second year in a row we were national champions in the twirling division, meaning that we were going with batons in hand, rather than pom pons.
The initial shock wore off the next day, when an influential leader in the National Baton Twirling Association told our coach that she did not think we could win. As the United States is the major player on the twirling scene, we would be a huge embarrassment for Team USA if we could not pull off a decent routine. In only a few words this woman managed to give our coach second thoughts about competing at all. However, as a team we decided to work for the next nine months to prove her wrong.
It was a very, very long journey. We had two to three practices a week with somewhere between five to fifteen hours in the gym. Most of us are either married, in college, or just graduating high school, so the extra hours were killer. However, the months of preparation finally paid off when we were awarded first place on April 12, 2009. World champions for the very first time!
After the competition, the woman who had set out to destroy our hopes approached our coach. She told Sue that we had revolutionized the division and put baton corps on a whole new level. Although, we originally had doubts and seven years of very, very hard losses, our team was able to pull through despite age and injury and various other struggles. Like Lucy, I credit the relationships and bonds we have formed to our success. The girls on my team are like twenty-eight sisters, with whom I share my hopes and fears. Together as a family we achieved the impossible, a gold metal at Worlds.
Question:
One turning point in the story occurs when Zach gives Lucy the diary from her mother. This diary gives Lucy the important information she will need to understand her destiny. It also gives Lucy insight into the person that her mother was before the curse took hold. Pretend that you are Lucy and compose a letter/diary entry for your future daughter. Share with her your hopes and fears, like Miranda did for Lucy.
Reading:
“Dear Lucinda,
How strange it is to be writing to you when you’re not even born. But it feels wonderful too, to talk to you, even though I’m scared, scared for you and for me. But I can feel you right now, beneath my heart. You’re awake and alert. Nowadays, so often, you kick and you fight inside me.”
I think that life is a series of “impossible tasks” with some being easier than others. I think that my education is one of my biggest tasks and one of my biggest accomplishments. I did not finish my bachelor’s degree right after high school as many of my classmates did. I took a seven year break from school the majority of this time I spent working and then I had my daughter. I then decided to go back to school to complete my Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in an effort to obtain a better paying job. When that goal was accomplished I thought I was done with school. Then five years later I decided to go a whole new direction with my career and returned to school to obtain a Master’s Degree in Library Science. This decision seemed like an “impossible task” at the time. I am so excited that I am almost done with my master’s degree. It has been a tough decision trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. I am very proud of these accomplishments that several years ago seemed like “impossible tasks”. Who knows maybe my next “impossible task” will be seeking a doctoral degree.
Question:
If Lucy would have shown her parents the papers she found in the secret hiding place on her seventh birthday would it have made a difference in future events? If yes, how so? If no, why not?
Reading:
Her voice cracked, and now she was speaking again, not singing. “Pay attention,” she said. “I’ve been trying and trying to tell you. Pay attention to the song. Now it’s your turn. You’ve been warned. I’m supposed to warn you. You’re allowed to try to escape. You have to try, in fact. None of us have ever managed it, though. Will you be any different?” (Werlin, p. 59).
Werlin, N. (2008). Impossible. New York: Dial Books.
When I was 9 years old my impossible task was learning how to walk all over again. That year I got a really cool 5-speed bike for my birthday. One day I was riding this bike along side of my brother when there was an accident.
We were a neighborhood near the Ralston Middle School and we were riding down a steep hill. Those of you familiar with the area know that there are many hills. We were about half way down the hill when my front break (which was similar to that of a 10-speed bike) came loose and got caught in the spokes of my wheel. The wheel rotated once before the break cable became lodged in the front forks causing the bike to come to an instant halt. Momentum flipped the back of the bike and it also flipped me, end over end. I landed on my left hip breaking it, rolled about 30 feet down the street, hit a curb, and flopped up onto someone’s front yard. When I hit the curb, I broke my right leg.
Consequently, I went through 2 hip surgeries and I had to learn how to walk all over again. I remember how difficult it was and how I didn’t care if I could walk or not. I had minimal strength in my legs, muscle timing was virtually non-existent, and I could barely stand. Well, my parents said quitting wasn’t an option. If there was one thing that my parents knew would happen for sure, it was that I was going to walk. Sure enough, they were right. It took several months, but I made it happen.
Question: When Lucy tried to break the curse she had some help. Make a prediction regarding the curse had Lucy’s mother been given similar help (minus the internet.)
Reading: He recognized the handwriting on the pages instantly. Indeed, he recognized the shape and look of the paper itself. Miranda’s diary.
Beside him, he heard Lucy inhale. “OH” she said. “All right. I remember this now too. I found something in here, under the shelf. Paper. And then I left it with the shirt.”
Together, their eyes took in the first words on the first page.
Dear Lucinda, How strange it is to be writing to you when you’re not even born. But it feels wonderful too, to talk to you, even though I’m scared, scared for you and me. (p. 135)
I see that one of my fellow classmates also had the “impossible” task of taking an algebra class. I am a non-traditional student and had been away from algebra since my sophomore year in high school. With my first degree I was able to fulfill the math requirement with Business Math; however my present teaching degree requires college algebra. When I learned that I needed this course I was petrified. I put it off, avoided it, —and loathed the idea of it. I knew that I would have to overcome my fear and take the necessary steps to reach this goal. I took baby steps—enrolled at Metro and took some refresher courses to get reacquainted with my long lost pal Algebra. A man, who also taught at South High, taught the first class I took. He was very entertaining and made learning the material quite easy. I began to feel comfortable and thought that this maybe wasn’t so “impossible.” The next class was taught by a brilliant engineer, who I am sure dreamt of square roots and hypotenuse formulas, but he really didn’t teach the material that well. I started to feel anxious and began to think that maybe I wasn’t going to be able to reach my goal. The third class was it, College Algebra! This was where I was going to make it, or break it. A high school teacher also taught this class and she was great! She taught us in a way that was easy to follow and gave us many opportunities for help and support. Needless to say, I passed and actually did quite well. Now, I am in our present class and on my way to my second degree.
We have put a man on the moon, cured diseases, and currently have an African-American president in office, at some point in time, all of these thing seemed “impossible,” but they came to fruition. I have to agree with another classmate, I don’t think that things are “impossible.” Sure, we all have obstacles and personal issues that get in the way, but it is a drive within yourself that will make you reach your goals, no matter how “impossible” they may seem. I bet no one, including myself, at the beginning of this book thought that Lucy would be able to accomplish all three tasks, but she did. She did because she wanted to and she had the help and support of her family. Lucy’s tasks, and probably most of the things that we encounter in our lives are not impossible, just implausible.
Question: Do you think that Lucy should have told Gray’s parents that he was actually the father of Dawn and how she became pregnant, why or why not?
Reading: “Together, and with Soledad and Leo, they continued strategizing about impossible tasks two and three, trying to generate ideas and make progress on various lines of research while concealing from each other—not always successfully—any sense of panic or discouragement.” (288)
I suppose my most impossible task so far is completing college. I couldn’t afford college after high school – even with financial aid. My parents were helping to put my sister through college so I went to work instead. After several years, the opportunity to return to my education presented itself. It hasn’t been necessarily difficult, just very frustrating at times. I’ve switched programs twice now – just trying to find that right fit. The most frustrating part came this past spring when I was doing my student teaching and things simply didn’t work out the way I had hoped and once again I’m back in the college classroom – instead of getting ready to teach in my own. Each setback makes things seem impossible – especially when it adds another year of school when I already had one foot out the door. I simply look forward to a better experience in the future and hope that this new path is finally the right one for me.
Question: The Elfin Knight’s song repeats the line “she’ll be a true love of mine.” However, the final line of the song says “And her daughters forever possessions of mine.” What does this tell you about what “love” means to the Elfin Knight?
Reading: She hesitated. The: “Well,” she said. And then was surprised – shocked – amazed – by the many questions that she wanted to ask her friend. And could. (262)
1. August 25, 2002. I ran the Omaha Half Marathon. I had never done anything like that before. A friend of mine trained and ran her first marathon the year before. I felt encouraged by her experience and started running in January 2002. I got the ‘Runner’s Bible’ which she recommended; I had a lot to learn. When I was growing up, I never did any sports or activities. My dad worked shift work, my mom did not drive, and money was tight. A year after high school, I joined the Air Force. I had to run one and a half miles once a year. The running was okay, but sometimes the heat in Texas and (later) Arizona got to me. I was concerned about training for and running the half marathon in the summer due to that experience in the past. When my second child was born in 1993, I developed a pinched sciatic nerve which comes and goes ever since. That ended up being one of my biggest challenges while training in 2002. I thought the cardio- would be the hardest part physically, but it wasn’t. I ended up going to the chiropractor, physical therapy and more than one doctor to help me continue running and training when my nerve or hip or whatever would get irritated. Preparing for the half marathon also required a huge time commitment. I had to run 3 miles at least three times a week, and once a week I had to run longer, between 5 and 12 miles. I learned it was important to do certain stretches and other exercises and how the clothes and shoes can make a difference. My immediate family did not understand what I was doing or why (‘Mom, you’re not going to win.’) The support and encouragement of my friends was vital. I learned and grew in many ways—physically, mentally and emotionally. I would love to do a full marathon, and if I had time, a triathlon would be awesome!
2. In the book (page 13), Lucy says she does not “have any truly extraordinary level of talent” in track, but “what she did have was will and determination.” Discuss the role that talent has in our goals and dreams and what effect our character traits like ‘will and determination’ play. Is one more important than the other? Can you succeed with only one and not the other?
3. “’Because people always go and break your heart,’ his mother had said instantly, almost fiercely. ‘I want you to look out for yourself first.’ This had caused Zach to look at her thoughtfully. But he had not asked if Carrie really, truly, believed this, and if so, why then did she herself go through life taking care of people the way she did?” (page 289)
When reading Impossible the tasks truly did seem impossible to me. It is my opinion that in life we face decisions and tasks that seem impossible on a regular basis, I know I have, but as Miranda wrote in her diary entry I think … “there must be a way!” I chose the following example but I also felt it was a good fit for the “Trap” post so some of the story is here and the rest is in “The Trap” post area.
There were several times in this story that I thought of an impossible time in my life. I was not a happy kid. Without going into too much detail finally at about 15 years old I realized I was not going to last much longer in my house. I started to plan my life so that the second I graduated I could join a branch of the military and be able to escape form my current situation. My mother and her mother had gotten pregnant young and did not have the skills to take care of their children, financially or emotionally and I wanted out of the cycle. Lucy was fortunate to be surrounded by people that loved her. I was searching for someone that would love me. Of course being a teenager myself I was not very good at making smart decisions. I thought it would be impossible to escape from my living situation. My home life spun out of control and I left. Leaving turned out not to be an option because my mom just called the police and found me. …my goal was to get out of my impossible situation and live my life…to be continued in the “The Trap” blog post.
Discuss/write a list of pros and cons to allowing a foster child contact with a birth parent that might be a negative influence on the child’s life. Distinguish at what point you should allow the child to make their own decision to spend time with/contact a birth parent?
Lucy’s gaze had caught and held on a single word toward the end of one of the sections of pages. Fenella.
Your ancestress Fenella.
She swallowed hard. For a second her mind whirled and she could almost see Gray Spencer again- the possessed expression in his eyes…He had said the same word, the name Fenella.
As Lucy learned, “impossible” tasks are rarely accomplished all on your own. Consistent love and support from those around you are needed for goals to succeed. I learned this while recuperating from meningitis when I was thirteen. Although my body had done most of the fighting, it was up to me to regain enough strength and health to go back to school. Lying in a hospital bed for a little under two weeks, half spent in a coma, had deteriorated my muscles enough that even bathing myself was a chore. Solid food was out of the question and homework was the furthest thing from my mind. I don’t know what I would have done without my mom. Being a nurse, she realized that I wasn’t going to get better by just lying there – which was my intention. Without regard to my protests, she made me get up every morning and walk around the hospital to regain strength in my legs. She made me eat every meal brought and drink strawberry protein shakes when I couldn’t keep the food down. She also arranged for homework to be brought by my visiting friends. I was released from the hospital about a week later, but the routine kept up until I was strong enough to spend an entire day at school. Luckily, due to my mom’s help, I missed less than a month of classes and did not have a stack of makeup work to do when I got back. Although I believed my mom was being very insensitive and pushy at the time, without her constant prodding I probably would have taken a much longer road to recovery. That, in turn, may have caused me to fail my eighth grade year. I am very grateful that my mom believed in my ability to get better and nudged me along even when I didn’t think I could do it myself. Without her help my life could have turned out much differently.
Q.) Lucy never tells Gray’s parents about Dawn. Do they have a right to know? Why or why not?
“Who cares about intentions? It’s the actions that matter” (Werlin, 2008, p. 355).
Werlin, N. (2008). Impossible: A novel. New York, NY: Dial Books.
When Papillion-La Vista South High School first opened, there was a great deal of unexpected difficulties. One such difficulty centered on a young woman who decided less than one week prior to the doors opening that she didn’t want to work at the school. Having been passed up originally, I was called and given my first and only teaching job. I was hired at the end of the day on a Thursday, and we were to have students that Monday. At the time, I was also the weekend supervisor at Kinko’s Copies. I was charged with setting up an English classroom while working 32 hours at Kinko’s in one weekend.
The one saving grace in this equation is that we started a tradition the first year that the school was open. The school mascot is the titan, due in no small part to the movie Remember the Titans. We decided that students ought to see that movie, so every freshmen English class shows it first thing in the year, and assigns a writing assignment over it. This bought me a few days to set up my classroom, and most of my students didn’t know that I was a first year teacher until nearly the end of the first quarter.
Reading: But still, she had never been surer than anything in her life. She could not explain. She had to have this baby. It was alive. It was her responsibility (131).
Question: This book is based on the English ballad “Scarborough Fair” and contains numerous allusions to the poem. When a piece of literature has a series of allusions that match another story or historical event, it’s called an allegory. For instance, the musical West Side Story is an allegory of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Animal Farm is an allegory of the Russian Revolution. Map out the allegorical match of another book or movie that you have read or seen.
As far as impossible tasks go, Lucy's take the cake, but sometimes I feel that my impossible task is just as hard.
My impossible task as the current junction in my life is finding someone suitable to take home to mom and dad. While all of my brothers and my sister have brought their girlfriends or boyfriend over for dinners and family functions, I have not. Finding the right someone is pretty tough, and finding the right someone when you're gay is even more tough. And it's not like my parents don't approve. I'm just too picky.
Question:
Consider the point of view of our antagonist. Defend his response to the initial incident. Why might he be justified in his actions.
Passage:
Page 222:
Luce. Lucy. Lucinda Scarborough. Marry me. Please. I want you, and I want to be your daughter's father.
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