University of South Carolina Libraries
' 10 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 15, 2004 ■ ■ V ""1* IW~ ■ "JT" “Do not mistake a goat’s beard ■ ^ 1^ /I I % / W: for afine stallion’s tail.” I-1 M-J \\ / I I yC IRISH PROVERB Contact. Us tf Pi V I A ^ * Story ideas? Questions? Comments? I | ^ j y | | y ^ Jr Jr E-mailusatgamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu -*-™-u — -A-f _■-■—m f Novelist inspires students, shares love of reading BY BRITTANY BULLINGTON TUBViAMECOCK Sharon Draper, accomplished young adult author and the 1997 National Teacher of the Year, visited Boiling Springs High School in upstate South Carolina March 8 to speak with students about her books. Draper began writing when one of her students encouraged her to enter a literary contest — first prize was $5,000 and publi cation. Draper described her inspi ration for that initial short sto ry submission to the group of students gathered in the cafete ria at Boiling Springs: “If you don’t sit your stinkin’, useless butt back down in that shop ping cart, I swear I’ll bust your greasy face in.” Draper heard those words uttered years ago, by a young woman speaking to her very small child in a gro cery store while shopping for dinner. From that single sen tence Draper created a tale ti tled “One Small Torch,” which won first prize in the contest. “One Small Torch” later be came the second book in her Hazelwood High Trilogy, “Forged By Fire.” Her other two novels are the award winning “Tears of a Tiger” and “Darkness Before Dawn.” Draper encouraged the stu dents to read. She said she feels reading is important because it stimulates the imagination by producing images that “are not pre-done; they are your own cre ation,” she said. Draper’s works challenge readers by discussing dark issues such as depression, alcohol, drugs and abuse. In her first book “Tears of a Tiger,” the main character deals with guilt and depression without much guidance — and the ending is not a happy one. Along with being a published author and teacher, Draper proved to be a dynamic speak er. She captivated the students of Boiling Springs High School by telling jokes, pulling volunteers onstage, and using voices as she read small parts of some of her books. After her speech, she sold and autographed copies of her books. • Draper’s latest book “The Battle of Jericho” details a young boy’s struggle as he is forced to decide between fitting in or living his dream. Draper said that people who read her books “learn more be cause the main character made the wrong decision.” She added, “People like tragedy, especially in other’s lives because then it’s safe.” Comments on this story? E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu Americans embrace yoga as new trend BY SARA STEFFENS KIITCAMI'IjS You’re not imagining it: Everyone really is doing yoga. OK, maybe not everyone. But the ancient discipline, which promises spiritual enlightenment along with long, lean muscles, has indeed boomed in popularity over the past several years. Yoga is now practiced by 7 percent of U.S. adults, or 15 mil lion people, according to a mar ket study conducted by Harris International this summer for Yoga Journal. That’s up 28.5 per cent in the last two years alone. The same study found that more than half of the general popula tion has at least a casual interest in yoga, and one in six respon dents planned to try yoga in the next year. Three-quarters of fit ness clubs now offer some form of yoga class, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association. For a dramatic example of the juggernaut that yoga has become in America, look no further than San Francisco, where Berkeley based Yoga Journal magazine held its West Coast regional con ference five weeks ago. The event brought hundreds of teachers and practitioners to the Embarcadero Hyatt Regency, where they did lunch, traded business cards and unrolled their sticky mats in giant meet ing rooms to work with such yoga legends as Baron Baptiste. Some teachers, such as Ashtanga veteran David Swenson, had to wear micro phone headsets to amplify their voices through the twisting and stretching crowds. “I wonder if Patanjali had one of these,” Swenson joked, refer ring to the Indian sage who wrote the Yoga Sutras. Quite a change from the old days, he added, when yoga en thusiasts scrounged for old car pet scraps to use as mats. Judith Hanson Lasater, au thor of "30 Essential Yoga Poses,” said the current flurry of interest in yoga is really the second to hit the United States. “I started yoga practice myself in 1970, when there was a mini wave of yoga, with the Beatles and the Maharishi and sitar in rock music,” she said. “There was a big cultural divide, and this was sort of part of the counterculture. It wasn’t just yoga; it was how you ate and how you dressed. PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Americans are practicing yoga for physical benefits. The shamrock survives as the epitome of all things Irish BY MEG MOORE TIIBUAMECOCK Dig out that green shirt and brush up on your Irish accent — ‘tis the season for leprechauns, “Erin Go Braugh” and all things associated with the Emerald Isle. While col ored beer and big city parades are modern St. Patrick’s Day trade marks, the annual celebration is steeped in folklore and traditions as rich as Ireland is green. Adorning holiday T-shirts and taking root on the doors of stores and restaurants, the shamrock has become one of the day’s most iconic symbols. Derived from the Irish word “seamrog,” “sham rock” means “little clover” — specifically, white clover, the species of plant that generates the typically three-pronged leaves. “Little” they may be, but clovers have found their way onto party decorations and into poignant odes: “O, the Shamrock, the green, immortal Shamrock! Chosen leaf of Bard and Chief, Old Erin’s na tive Shamrock,” Thomas Moore waxes in “Oh, the Shamrock.” i- .... --- A long-standing Irish emblem, the trefoil has represented and sig nified a number of things during its tradition-spawning history. As the national flower of Ireland, the trefoil embodies much more than any St. Patty’s Day Hallmark card can capture — however, it is per haps most well-known for its reli gious significance. Today, St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland is celebrated with church services and community gather ings — it is the feast day for St. Patrick, patron saint of the Emerald Isle. In pre-Christian times, the clover had already been deigned a sacred plant. The three leaves were symbolic of the Triple Goddess and the return of spring. Legend maintains that St. Patrick, attempting to explain Christianity to a pagan world, used the trefoil to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Instead of abolishing age-old tra dition, he is said to have adapted the shamrock to fit his new reli gious message. Supposedly, St. Patrick picked a clover during one of his hilltop -! T—5 W.M T"' " sermons and asked the audience if it had one or three leaves. The crowd responded that it was “both one and three” — the saint then explained that similarly there are “three persons and yet one God.” According to Triskelle, an Irish history Web site, this story didn’t appear in writing until centuries after the saint’s death and is most likely fiction — but the symbolic importance of the three-leaved plant remains evident. The three leaves are also said to represent faith, hope and love — the rare fourth leaf, which is the result of a genetic mutation, stands for luck, of course. Regardless of what worth one at taches to the trefoil, it has become Ireland’s unofficial national em blem — on St. Patty’s Day, Ireland’s Aer Lingus airlines flies fresh clovers to Irish embassies across the world and the British Royal Family presents the British army’s Irish Guards division with shamrocks. Clovers are also closely linked with the tale that St. Patrick drove all snakes out of Ireland. Considering that snakes have nev ~ ‘ Tzsmms: er inhabited the Emerald Isle, the story itself holds no clout, but the clover plant is reputed to repel snakes and aid in healing snakebites. During the 17th century, Irishmen began wearing sham rocks on their lapels. The symbol later became representative of cer tain political movements, and in the 19th century, Queen Victoria outlawed wearing the symbol. In the States, St. Patrick’s Day is not a religious celebration but an excuse to party and celebrate one’s real—or adopted-for-the-day — Irish heritage. The first St. Patty’s day celebration was held in Boston in 1737 and it has since become a green-tinted day of carousing. To add an air of au thenticity to an otherwise Americanized St. Patrick’s day, wear a shamrock pin along with that green shirt that, hopefully, you’ve managed to find. As the Irish say, “May your blessings out number the shamrocks that grow.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu » I-Will Ml II-1 I I\nu TU I n 1C LI A host of other symbols are associated with st. Patrick’s LUvIl U 111 Iff ion DAY AND THE CONCEPT OF LOCK IN GENERAL ON THE EMERALD ISLE. LEPRECHAUNS: Usually dressed as a shoemaker, a leprechaun is a type of Irish fairy. The term is derived from the Irish word “luchorpan* or “little body." Loners and tricksters, they are known for being generally unfriendly. Yet each is said to be hiding a pot of gold - capturing one might just be worth the risk. r f THE CELTIC CROSS: The cross represents St. Patrick's revised sort of Christianity - he did loffoandon theJbn|’s old traditions when \ introducing the new. Instead he affixed a sun, whichwas a familiar Irish symbol/to the standard Christian cross. THE BURNEY STONE: Set in the wall of a Blafney Castle tower, the famous stone is sajd to give those who kiss it the “gift of gab,” or persuasion. In order to reach the stone, prospective kissers must lie on their backs and cling to iron bars for support- the stone is located f between the main wall and the parapet, situated high within the battlements of the castle. THE COLOR GREEN: While Saint Patrick was actually assorted with the color blue, Ireland’s lush landscape caused the color green to become a symbol forthe appropriately named Emerald Isle during the 19th century. School children started the practice of pinching those whoforgetto wear green on March 17. '-%■ W*’ _SOURCE: WWW.ENGUSH-2QNE.cdM/HOUDAVS/ST-PATSYMBOLS. All._%.. . -___ifei- -.__> : ‘ eleases March ifi-lfl —. —. “Split Personality” Cassidy Li_ _ I PAN EEEPCRl Dan Reeder LP “Grown Backwards” David Byrne » “Heritage” The Irish Tenors _*! “The Very Best Of...” Jackson Browne “Frustration Plantation” Rasputina $