My Life as a Farm Worker

Every day during the harvest I get up before the sun rises. With my
family, I travel to the fields. We might pick strawberries one week
and apples the next. Squatting down in the field all day long makes
my back and knees ache. If it's hot, my skin burns. When it rains, I
have no choice but to get wet. While all my friends are at school,
I'm stuck out here. When I come back, I'm far behind and some times I
feel like I want to give up. I fight with my parents about working,
but if I didn't we wouldn't have enough money to get by. I wish we
could get paid more, work in safer conditions or just get out.

My Picture with Freud

If I could stand next to anyone in a photo it would be Sigmund Freud. Freud was born in 1856 and died in 1939. He is the most important thinker in the history of psychology. Maybe you’ve never heard of Freud, but I bet you’ve heard of some of the ideas he invented. Ever heard of “ego”? Freud invented that concept to explain the side of humans that reason and have common sense. Ever heard someone say “he’s in denial”, or “she’s acting out”, or “she is suppressing her true feelings”? All those concepts are from Freud! Freud also wrote a lot about how to figure out the meaning of dreams. 

If I could ask Freud a question after our photo was taken it would be “why is it that some mornings you remember your dreams and other mornings you have absolutely no idea what you dreamed about?” I think he would reply, “the deepest and most meaningful dreams you have are often too difficult to face, so your mind hides them away.”

My New Song: Pelican

So a few months ago, I went on vacation with my wife, Mrs. Silverstein, and Mr. Silverstein to Costa Rica.  Mr. Silverstein plays the ukulele.  I, of course am a rhymer.  We thought it would be interesting to make a song that blended our two talents.  For a couple of days we sat under a palm tree near the ocean and recorded.  Click below to hear the result:

PELICAN