Skip to content
The Copper Penny
Menu
  • Blog Home
  • About
  • Contact Me
  • Resources
  • Poetry
Menu

Category: Life

Reflecting on Wanderlust

Posted on May 28, 2023May 28, 2023 by Shelby Tone

Why is it that a spirit of wanderlust or adventure exists within each person? What is it about exploration and nature that fills the senses and creates a hunger to go and see the world? I have never thought seriously about the “lust” component of the word “wanderlust,” but that section of the word pops…

Read more

A Salve for Memory

Posted on May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 by Shelby Tone

There is something tremendously stabilizing about a library. Really, I’ve never noticed it before, and it is incredibly strange, so much so that I feel as though it must mean something to me, must point me somewhere else, to some goal or career or future. Today I made the mistake(?) of wandering through classroom buildings…

Read more

Individual Rights and the Common Good in American Education

Posted on March 10, 2022March 10, 2022 by Shelby Tone

The following is the transcript of a speech that I wrote and presented for Hillsdale College’s Edward Everett Oratory Contest this February. The contest’s topic for all competitors was “Individual Rights and the Common Good in American Education.” Speeches were to be ten minutes long and delivered entirely from memory. With this speech, I made…

Read more

A Fool’s Progress

Posted on February 1, 2022February 5, 2022 by Shelby Tone

With Ash Wednesday, Lent, and Easter arriving in the next several months, my thoughts have been straying to the action of God and religion in my life, as well as to my life in general. A convergence of literature in my various classes—all focusing on or mentioning confessions, testimonies, biographies, or journeys toward God—supports this…

Read more

Healing Nature

Posted on January 16, 2022January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

“Call me Ishmael.” That highly recognizable three-word imperative begins Herman Melville’s iconic American epic, Moby Dick. While even a casual listener might remember the opening line, the first few sentences taken as a whole more completely express the ideas of the book, turning readers toward the ocean and making assertions about human nature: “Call me…

Read more

On Trees and Birds

Posted on August 17, 2021January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

This past Thursday morning, my little town of Hillsdale was hit by a severe thunderstorm that caused a lot of damage in the town, including on my college’s campus. I spent part of Thursday morning driving around, just looking at the trees down and observing the effects of the power outage. This post springs from…

Read more

At the End of the Rope

Posted on August 2, 2021January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

Sometimes, the commonplace objects of life provide useful analogies or descriptors for more complex, abstract concepts. Consider the following examples: Using physical coins, pebbles, blocks, etc. to teach children addition and subtraction. Comparing electrons and their movements to that of the planets in the solar system. Calling a person “like a cat” and bringing to…

Read more

Rabbit Trails

Posted on July 28, 2021January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

“There’s no such thing as rabbit trails,” one of my English professors recently said at a department end-of-semester party. Such a phrase, at the time used casually and likely without any connection to metaphysics or more complicated imaginings, nevertheless hit me at the moment hard enough that I jotted down a record of it on…

Read more

Thou Mayest

Posted on July 5, 2021January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

Last summer, I read John Steinbeck’s East of Eden and found it to be a intriguing book. Since then, the words timshel and “thou mayest” have been ringing in my head from time to time. Timshel is a Hebrew word that has”thou mayest” as a translation of it. If you have read East of Eden,…

Read more

In the Garden

Posted on June 25, 2021January 16, 2022 by Shelby Tone

An old but lovely hymn goes, “I come to the garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear falling on my ear The Son of God discloses And He walks with me And He talks with me And He tells me I am his own And the joy…

Read more

“A Penny for Your Thoughts”

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Search the Site

Recent Posts

  • Reflecting on Wanderlust

    May 28, 2023
  • A Salve for Memory

    May 5, 2023
  • Individual Rights and the Common Good in American Education

    March 10, 2022
  • On the Nature of Education

    February 17, 2022
  • A Fool's Progress

    February 1, 2022

Categories

  • Education (4)
  • Life (10)
  • Literature (7)
  • Miscellaneous (2)
  • Uncategorized (1)

Archived Posts

  • May 2023
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021

More Pages

  • Privacy Policy

Thanks for viewing!

Please drop by again soon

© 2025 The Copper Penny | Powered by Superbs Personal Blog theme