Spreading the Martyrs Mirror

A student decided she wants to write her research paper on acts of love. After blinking for a moment, I decided to let her do it. I cannot argue for the false division between high and low culture if I'm going to exclude certain topics just because they're "affective" instead of "analytical." I can't argue to my students that ethos and pathos matter just as much as logos if I'm going to restrict them from writing about the emotional/psychological/personal side.
So she started out with analyzing Do the Right Thing. Of course, I have a special attachment to that film because Sue taught it to us, then I taught it at Northeastern. I began to understand that by "love" she really meant "emotional conviction in the face of adversity"--her other examples come from Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi, a pacifism beyond passivism.
So of course I mentioned Dirk Willems. And set her off on the Great Martyr Search. She's surprisingly enthusiastic about the story. And kinda creeped out by all the Martyr books out there. She ran into the Mennonite Quarterly, and I saw Gerald's name appear in one thing she printed out. I tried not to giggle. Nothing like showing your students wood carvings of execution to make them think you've lost it.