by Teri Ong A poignant movie scene that never fails to choke me up to some extent is the scene in Chariots of Fire where the head master of a college in Cambridge is welcoming new students. He references a memorial on the wall behind him listing the names of all of the students from that college who were lost in World War I. He says it represents the “loss of a generation.” I think it affects me more than it might some others because I, too, am a teacher who has now seen numerous classes come and go. I […]

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by Teri Ong Physiologists tell us that the sense of smell is more acute and memory of particular scents more long lasting than other sensory input in humans. In a metaphoric sense, we ascribe a “scent” to aspects of our life. When things are good we may say that things are “rosy” or “sweet”. If someone comes out of a difficult circumstance in a positive way, we say they “came out smelling like a rose.” But when things are not good we are likely to say, “That stinks!” There are a lot of things in life that are necessary, but […]

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