The bad kind of bold: a website called Free Essays that offers 32,000 "Free Essays for All Students."
The student who is eager for knowledge can find a paper on any of a huge and sometimes hilarious selection of subjects. For example: "Plagerism" (sic). And a search for papers that deal with personal courage turned up 317 choices, one labelled Values.
Click on PeerPapers on this site and you'll find an archive of 190,000. "Less Work, More Weekend" is the slogan. Browsers are informed that using one of these papers as a guide is not plagiarism, copying it is.
Type in the keyword "honor," and a list of an even 1,000 essays and term papers comes up. One of them begins: "Why do students cheat? This is an age-old question...."
It's even possible to find a paper on "Why I Want to Become a Nurse." Surely, if one wants to be a nurse, one is the authority on why.
...Though I once knew a man whose first writing success was a grade school personal essay on the assignment "Why I Love the Detroit Symphony." He was having trouble writing it. His much-older sister helped him with it a lot. He won a highly-publicized award for the work. His sister asked him if he had any doubts about accepting full credit. He absolutely did not. He went on to become a respected novelist.
I doubt if his story is typical.
A few other ironic topics in the essay libraries:
Apathy
Critical Thinkin (sic)
The Time I Made a Fool of Myself
Are We More Creative Today
How People Learn
And some charmingly specialized ones:
Slime Molds
Raving Is A Lifestyle
Biotreatment Of Wastewater Using Aquatic Invertebrates, Daphnia Magna And Paramecium Caudatum
Pear Culturing in India
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.
Visitors are invited to donate papers and to alert headquarters if any papers on the sites are discovered to be of questionable quality.
Custom essays are available starting at $19.95 a page.
Approximately 368,000 google searches were done in April for the phrase "term paper" and over 9 million for "essay."
This rant is making me feel like a back-in-my-day old blowhard. So I'm doing a search for a paper on the hackneyed "old-fart" question: what's the world coming to? All I get was a paper on Mad Cow Disease.
So I look up "hookups" and get an essay: "Is The Traditional Date Dying" It's worth a visit.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Thinking (and Acting) Outside the Therapy Session
I'm a huge fan of psychotherapy. One stretch of 11 sessions over a few months when I was 32 years old led me to start writing fiction and to get (happily) married. We celebrated our 25th anniversary in December. And, BTW, I married a therapist.
At the same time, I think it's important not to act like the whole world is a therapy group. Both self-questioning (to which I'm prone) and processing every human interaction can get really annoying--and counterproductive!-- if they turn into a full-time thing.
So I was delighted to find a wise blogger who agrees with me: a singer who writes about vivid living. Christine Kane's blog has lots of good lists of tips. Here's item number 7 from "10 Ways to Set a Powerful Intent."
"Move out of therapy thinking and into forward thinking.
Therapy is and has been a great help to many of us, AND it can be easy to get stuck in seeing yourself as flawed. It’s a habit. Therapy thinking says, “I have to get it all fixed before I can move on to better things.” Forward thinking says, “What would happen if I acted in spite of how I’m feeling about my life, or my capabilities?”
When it comes right down to it, we’re all complete train wrecks. Have a little celebration about your own train-wreck-ed-ness (invite the rest of us too), and then move forward, take actions, and learn that it is possible to function well without having figured it all out."
My fellow train wrecks, she's right. My own wise Mom tends to say: "Life is not about getting ready." And: "Do something, if it's wrong." This shorthand does not mean to go rob a bank, it means take some action that would appear to be toward the good and if that doesn't work, modify it or try something else. In other words: rock on!
(And have a Happy Mother's Day today.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
At the same time, I think it's important not to act like the whole world is a therapy group. Both self-questioning (to which I'm prone) and processing every human interaction can get really annoying--and counterproductive!-- if they turn into a full-time thing.
So I was delighted to find a wise blogger who agrees with me: a singer who writes about vivid living. Christine Kane's blog has lots of good lists of tips. Here's item number 7 from "10 Ways to Set a Powerful Intent."
"Move out of therapy thinking and into forward thinking.
Therapy is and has been a great help to many of us, AND it can be easy to get stuck in seeing yourself as flawed. It’s a habit. Therapy thinking says, “I have to get it all fixed before I can move on to better things.” Forward thinking says, “What would happen if I acted in spite of how I’m feeling about my life, or my capabilities?”
When it comes right down to it, we’re all complete train wrecks. Have a little celebration about your own train-wreck-ed-ness (invite the rest of us too), and then move forward, take actions, and learn that it is possible to function well without having figured it all out."
My fellow train wrecks, she's right. My own wise Mom tends to say: "Life is not about getting ready." And: "Do something, if it's wrong." This shorthand does not mean to go rob a bank, it means take some action that would appear to be toward the good and if that doesn't work, modify it or try something else. In other words: rock on!
(And have a Happy Mother's Day today.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Bold Roses
Came home from work last night to find that my rambling roses had exploded into bloom. They're very pale pink and they looked spectacular (by the standards of my garden) even in the dark as I drove up.
Last year (first season) they bloomed a little, and then grew like crazy everywhere, up to the second floor, pushing up against a window, etc.
I like their doing this all at once, instead of tiptoeing out, a few and then a few more. It seems both bold and generous.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Last year (first season) they bloomed a little, and then grew like crazy everywhere, up to the second floor, pushing up against a window, etc.
I like their doing this all at once, instead of tiptoeing out, a few and then a few more. It seems both bold and generous.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Itchy for a Call
Since Monday I've been on the alert for a phone call. Monday is when the itching started. First my head, then an arm...and so on. It took me four days of scratching to think what is usually my first thought about any physical complaint: could this all be IN my head rather than on it?
That thought, as well as a chat at dinner with psychologist/hypnotist husband Bob put a sudden and total end to Itchy-and-Scratchy. The problem was gone. It should always be so easy.
And: I should refrain from using my creativity and magic in this way. There's no end to the trouble I can make for myself. Better to make up novels.
Bob reminded me of a New Yorker article on itching and the mind, aptly titled "The Itch." that talks about how the mind may be filling in info from tiny bits of data: connect-the-dots. Called the "brain's best guess."
My research also turned up someone who itched during yoga, another whose feet itched when she washed dishes, and one who itched whenever her hands were full with two bags.
With me and the business of a phone call, I think it may come down to the fact that I'd rather be active than passive, rather do something than wait. Surely I can find something better to do.
I'm starting to feel a faint tickle as I write this. Must stop now.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
That thought, as well as a chat at dinner with psychologist/hypnotist husband Bob put a sudden and total end to Itchy-and-Scratchy. The problem was gone. It should always be so easy.
And: I should refrain from using my creativity and magic in this way. There's no end to the trouble I can make for myself. Better to make up novels.
Bob reminded me of a New Yorker article on itching and the mind, aptly titled "The Itch." that talks about how the mind may be filling in info from tiny bits of data: connect-the-dots. Called the "brain's best guess."
My research also turned up someone who itched during yoga, another whose feet itched when she washed dishes, and one who itched whenever her hands were full with two bags.
With me and the business of a phone call, I think it may come down to the fact that I'd rather be active than passive, rather do something than wait. Surely I can find something better to do.
I'm starting to feel a faint tickle as I write this. Must stop now.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
New Flavor, New Law
Four times a day forever, a friend of mine has to drink a tall glass of water with a vile pink powder stirred into it. It's medication.
Yesterday she called the manufacturer, their Customer Service Department, and asked if they would please develop a new flavor. The customer rep fumbled about and then sent her call to the Regulatory Department. They're probably not going to be the ones to add mango or licorice or bubble gum to their stock. But someone may. I wouldn't be surprised.
What I like is her taking the initiative to go to the source and ask for a change. It costs nothing to dial an 800 number and sometimes it works.
By contrast, another friend said to me once, "But it's the law. You can't change the law."
Yes, you can. I covered the NC state legislature for years for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper and on NC public TV. This gave me the opportunity to see that laws are made up, just like fiction except that lawmaking is done by committees. In this country, we elect the committees, and we can go talk to them. See: "How to Lobby a Bill into Law." It's a lot of work, but it can be done. Realizing that is a reminder of how many other things are also possible.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Yesterday she called the manufacturer, their Customer Service Department, and asked if they would please develop a new flavor. The customer rep fumbled about and then sent her call to the Regulatory Department. They're probably not going to be the ones to add mango or licorice or bubble gum to their stock. But someone may. I wouldn't be surprised.
What I like is her taking the initiative to go to the source and ask for a change. It costs nothing to dial an 800 number and sometimes it works.
By contrast, another friend said to me once, "But it's the law. You can't change the law."
Yes, you can. I covered the NC state legislature for years for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot newspaper and on NC public TV. This gave me the opportunity to see that laws are made up, just like fiction except that lawmaking is done by committees. In this country, we elect the committees, and we can go talk to them. See: "How to Lobby a Bill into Law." It's a lot of work, but it can be done. Realizing that is a reminder of how many other things are also possible.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Creating for a New Generation
Since posting about star designer Philippe Starck, I learned that he gave one of those famous TED speeches, where you give the talk of your lifetime in 18 minutes: a great concept and a great series.
So I went to listen to Starck's TED talk. A little frustrating, a lot inspiring. This man looks at the truly big picture in order to design the humblest objects (he has also designed some pretty grand ones.)
To design a toothbrush, he says, you have to think of the mouth and the species the mouth belongs to. And that subject took him back to the origins of life about 4 billion years ago. The bacteria back then had no idea what we would be like today. "Today we have no idea what we'll be in 4 billion years....Every generation thinks he's the final one."
But we're not the final one, and we're still evolving. So, the job of each of us is "to be a good mutant," and help to create the tools that the next generation will need to do their best for those who succeed them. That's what keeps him working, he says, even when he's designing something as lowly as a toilet brush.
It seems to me that that kind of thinking can take the pressure off. If what I'm doing is just taking the next step, then I'm simply playing my part in a group effort. Starck says that we don't have to be geniuses, we just have to participate.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
So I went to listen to Starck's TED talk. A little frustrating, a lot inspiring. This man looks at the truly big picture in order to design the humblest objects (he has also designed some pretty grand ones.)
To design a toothbrush, he says, you have to think of the mouth and the species the mouth belongs to. And that subject took him back to the origins of life about 4 billion years ago. The bacteria back then had no idea what we would be like today. "Today we have no idea what we'll be in 4 billion years....Every generation thinks he's the final one."
But we're not the final one, and we're still evolving. So, the job of each of us is "to be a good mutant," and help to create the tools that the next generation will need to do their best for those who succeed them. That's what keeps him working, he says, even when he's designing something as lowly as a toilet brush.
It seems to me that that kind of thinking can take the pressure off. If what I'm doing is just taking the next step, then I'm simply playing my part in a group effort. Starck says that we don't have to be geniuses, we just have to participate.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
One Brave Flower
This year's crop of irises at my house turned out to be a total of one. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, whether it's the increasing shade, the fact that the rhizomes are buried in periwinkles or the wrong fertilizer, but my once lush iris patch has pretty much given up. (And I have divided them!)
Still, this year there is the one bold yellow iris that has the spunk to stand alone.
I just googled this iris and the website I read said it's a pest and told how to get rid of it. I don't need help with making things not grow. I say: celebrate this hardy individual.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Still, this year there is the one bold yellow iris that has the spunk to stand alone.
I just googled this iris and the website I read said it's a pest and told how to get rid of it. I don't need help with making things not grow. I say: celebrate this hardy individual.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Your Formula for Creativity
The astonishing designer Philippe Starck told Fast Company magazine his formula for creativity: "Every morning, take royal jelly and omega-3 oil, eat oysters, and have a good sexual life. Don't care about anything, and never listen to anybody. Be free."
Do you have a formula for creativity? Mine is show up and write. But I've yet to reach the Starck level of success. Maybe I should rethink.
(Royal jelly is produced by the salivary glands of worker bees and fed to up-and-coming queen bees.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Do you have a formula for creativity? Mine is show up and write. But I've yet to reach the Starck level of success. Maybe I should rethink.
(Royal jelly is produced by the salivary glands of worker bees and fed to up-and-coming queen bees.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
The Puppy Portrait
The puppy-in-the-garden-with-Bob portrait is a tradition at my house. I've taken a picture of Bob holding each subsequent pup, but we waited too late to shoot this one.
Aura at 5-ish months weighs about 75 pounds. She may look uncomfortable, but she was fine. Bob, on the other hand, says he's not hoisting any more dogs this size.
Aura will weigh in at about 140 when she's grown. It takes a bold dog person to take on a dog this size. And he already has another mastiff type dog who outweighs me. It's a team of canine Clydesdales.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Aura at 5-ish months weighs about 75 pounds. She may look uncomfortable, but she was fine. Bob, on the other hand, says he's not hoisting any more dogs this size.
Aura will weigh in at about 140 when she's grown. It takes a bold dog person to take on a dog this size. And he already has another mastiff type dog who outweighs me. It's a team of canine Clydesdales.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Saturday, May 02, 2009
Sunlight Shining Through Cobalt blue
Simply because my new novel is called "Cobalt Blue" and I'm in a novel-aggrandizing mood...
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, May 01, 2009
Launch Your Own Adventure
It's Friday, day of the planet Venus, the Roman goddess of love. It's spring. The weather is gorgeous, at least here in Raleigh. So think of a good adventure to launch, large or small, to celebrate the day and the season. (The beauty bush at the edge of my woodland garden is celebrating.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Godwinks
I never heard the term before yesterday, but now I'm completely charmed by the idea. "Godwinks" (on Beliefnet.com) encourage courage. How could they not?
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Live at "Dancing Like the Stars"
On Sunday afternoon, Ruth Sheehan, one of my intrepid sisters-in-law, engaged in a public dance competition at the N.C. State Fairgrounds on behalf of children with special needs and the honor of the newspaper industry. She and her dance partner won!
That's her in the pink sequins, as photographed on my phone by her nine year old son Tucker who was sitting beside me at Dancing Like The Stars. She's dancing with Dick Hensley, a dance instructor who performed in the movie Dirty Dancing.
Ruth is a columnist at Raleigh's News & Observer, and she was competing against TV people (accustomed to performing in person). Each of the media contestants had a professional dance partner who rehearsed with her/him for six weeks. Then they all got dolled up like those on the TV show, "Dancing With the Stars" and each couple danced for the live audience.
People could vote on-line, after watching a video of a rehearsal, or at the performance. Votes cost $10 for the first and $1 for any additional. The money went to the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, for programs that promote inclusion of kids with special needs. The show was emceed by Clay Aiken's mother, Faye Parker. (Clay's from here in Raleigh.)
Ruth and Dick got the most votes. No way could a devout newspaper person let a broadcaster win. Never mind that one of them was a former Washington Redskins cheerleader and Ruth has long been known for bumping into doorjambs and the edges of things. But you can't beat a crusading columnist like her; as one of the judges, a waggish Simon Cowell wannabe, said: Ruth, your dancing, like your column was all over the place and leaning a little to the left.
I don't know how much money the children's foundation took in, but I'm guessing it was a fair amount. Because the competition was seriously bold. One 6'5" sportscaster did "the worm" across the stage and jumped over his partner. The dancers went all out, and what a lot of fun it was.... There's nothing like getting fiercely competitive and bold in pink sequins--and for a good cause.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
That's her in the pink sequins, as photographed on my phone by her nine year old son Tucker who was sitting beside me at Dancing Like The Stars. She's dancing with Dick Hensley, a dance instructor who performed in the movie Dirty Dancing.
Ruth is a columnist at Raleigh's News & Observer, and she was competing against TV people (accustomed to performing in person). Each of the media contestants had a professional dance partner who rehearsed with her/him for six weeks. Then they all got dolled up like those on the TV show, "Dancing With the Stars" and each couple danced for the live audience.
People could vote on-line, after watching a video of a rehearsal, or at the performance. Votes cost $10 for the first and $1 for any additional. The money went to the Bubel/Aiken Foundation, for programs that promote inclusion of kids with special needs. The show was emceed by Clay Aiken's mother, Faye Parker. (Clay's from here in Raleigh.)
Ruth and Dick got the most votes. No way could a devout newspaper person let a broadcaster win. Never mind that one of them was a former Washington Redskins cheerleader and Ruth has long been known for bumping into doorjambs and the edges of things. But you can't beat a crusading columnist like her; as one of the judges, a waggish Simon Cowell wannabe, said: Ruth, your dancing, like your column was all over the place and leaning a little to the left.
I don't know how much money the children's foundation took in, but I'm guessing it was a fair amount. Because the competition was seriously bold. One 6'5" sportscaster did "the worm" across the stage and jumped over his partner. The dancers went all out, and what a lot of fun it was.... There's nothing like getting fiercely competitive and bold in pink sequins--and for a good cause.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Dancing Like The Stars
The dancer in pink took action beyond-bold for a good cause on Sunday. More to come on this story tomorrow.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Never Shake a Baby
Seems like it's either Pickle Day or Fork Lift Operator Month or some such, every time the calendar page turns over.
This month is one we might take notice of: National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Here's something you can do in observance that is so easy it barely counts as bold. But it's important: Go to the site of the Child Abuse Prevention Center and take the Never-Shake-A-Baby pledge, on the right below the kiddo with enormous eyes and a pacifier. Raising awareness of the danger will help to educate and pacify babysitters and parents who have run out of patience.
Here are a few other actions you can take. Intervening in child abuse is truly bold.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
This month is one we might take notice of: National Child Abuse Prevention Month. Here's something you can do in observance that is so easy it barely counts as bold. But it's important: Go to the site of the Child Abuse Prevention Center and take the Never-Shake-A-Baby pledge, on the right below the kiddo with enormous eyes and a pacifier. Raising awareness of the danger will help to educate and pacify babysitters and parents who have run out of patience.
Here are a few other actions you can take. Intervening in child abuse is truly bold.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Raising Children Who Shine
"I want their lives to always feel full and purpose-driven. I want to watch them as they continue to sprout new feathers on their wings and as they share their gifts with the world." From the blog of regular contributor Debbie, who writes about her "four angel daughters."
You have to see the photos of "Little Miss Fierce," Angel Daughter Number Four dancing hip-hop. They're as good as hearing the beat of the music itself. You'll want to dance to your own lively beat.
And don't miss what their momma has to say. On an earlier post, she talks about the kind of encouragement she received:
"My dad is a tough man, but he is also an incredible cheerleader. In so many ways, I am who I am because of him. A realist who chooses to believe that we can all do great things.
Strive to do something great. Not perfect, just fantastic."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
You have to see the photos of "Little Miss Fierce," Angel Daughter Number Four dancing hip-hop. They're as good as hearing the beat of the music itself. You'll want to dance to your own lively beat.
And don't miss what their momma has to say. On an earlier post, she talks about the kind of encouragement she received:
"My dad is a tough man, but he is also an incredible cheerleader. In so many ways, I am who I am because of him. A realist who chooses to believe that we can all do great things.
Strive to do something great. Not perfect, just fantastic."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Stand By Someone
Take some inspiration from street musicians around the world who "Play for Change." Listen to "Stand By Me." Click on the big screen-filling picture of Grandpa Elliott in New Orleans.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Small Changes in Routine
Blogging outdoors in my bathrobe, sitting in my car in our driveway, where reception is better than inside. The air is room-temp, so I've left the car door open; birds are happily chirtling in the trees, nice liquid-y sounds. A horse fly madly buzzs against the inside of windshield, trying to get out.
Even small changes in routine are great for the creativity and sense of adventure: I've gotten a lot of pretty good work done this morning. Now off to the writers' group I've been meeting with for 26 years: some good things to be said for routine as well.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Even small changes in routine are great for the creativity and sense of adventure: I've gotten a lot of pretty good work done this morning. Now off to the writers' group I've been meeting with for 26 years: some good things to be said for routine as well.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
"Two Roads Diverged in a Yellow Wood..."
Today I'm in the particular swivet known as "Which Should I Work On?". I'm talking about my own writing, not clients' projects which follow a more easily-decided schedule. I have two unfinished projects of my own (more than that actually, but two that are extremely timely) and last night at dinner with another novelist I got great encouragement to focus on the one I hadn't been thinking about lately.
"Do you know how much money you can get for a YA paranormal romance these days?" she said. She described this time as the "golden age" of Young Adult books. I happen to have a draft of such a novel.
So after dinner I went searching round the house for it. Found it in only the second room I tried. It was under the guest room bed. The colleague I had lunch with today responded to this story with, "Talk about hiding money under the mattress."
We'll see.
I started reading my old draft last night, thought it pretty good, though I know it's going to need a stronger ending. This afternoon my ambition is to make good progress on some book or another, and not fritter too much of my time asking myself which one.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
"Do you know how much money you can get for a YA paranormal romance these days?" she said. She described this time as the "golden age" of Young Adult books. I happen to have a draft of such a novel.
So after dinner I went searching round the house for it. Found it in only the second room I tried. It was under the guest room bed. The colleague I had lunch with today responded to this story with, "Talk about hiding money under the mattress."
We'll see.
I started reading my old draft last night, thought it pretty good, though I know it's going to need a stronger ending. This afternoon my ambition is to make good progress on some book or another, and not fritter too much of my time asking myself which one.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Anger Strategy
How does one boldly handle irritability that arises for no particular reason or at least has nothing to do with the innocents who cross one's path?
I have an idea that total withholding of the snappishness that longs to surface isn't good for the relationships. But neither is the full-strength snapping.
Intellectually I know that the right thing is to say: I'm in an irritable mood. Then the other person can proceed forewarned. But that doesn't feel particularly satisfying. In fact, the prospect annoys me more.
Exercise is always good, gardening in particular. But I need to work just now.
Looking out my office window to the deck of the house door next has possibilities. The 46 year-old woman who lived there died two weeks ago of pancreatic cancer. As I sit here, that approach is starting to work.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I have an idea that total withholding of the snappishness that longs to surface isn't good for the relationships. But neither is the full-strength snapping.
Intellectually I know that the right thing is to say: I'm in an irritable mood. Then the other person can proceed forewarned. But that doesn't feel particularly satisfying. In fact, the prospect annoys me more.
Exercise is always good, gardening in particular. But I need to work just now.
Looking out my office window to the deck of the house door next has possibilities. The 46 year-old woman who lived there died two weeks ago of pancreatic cancer. As I sit here, that approach is starting to work.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Let Your Mind Rock and Roll
Today I'm fulminating primarily on the Mystic-Lit blog. The title is "The Greasy Elements Approach to Writing." Doesn't that title entice you?
The basic idea is to improve creativity by visually dislodging and breaking up the frozen clusters of words and images so that they interact in new ways. Doing Word Jumbles is my laboratory for this technique.
While you're over at Mystic Lit, do check out some of the other essays on writing. A lot of interesting writers have contributed there, including Greta James who is a regular visitor here.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The basic idea is to improve creativity by visually dislodging and breaking up the frozen clusters of words and images so that they interact in new ways. Doing Word Jumbles is my laboratory for this technique.
While you're over at Mystic Lit, do check out some of the other essays on writing. A lot of interesting writers have contributed there, including Greta James who is a regular visitor here.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
An Experiment to Try
One day my husband was at our house when the woman who cleans for us every other Thursday arrived. She does a superb job, and so often adds special personal touches.
Bob inquired about her way of going about her work that led to such results. She said her approach is to "do it with love."
Try that for a bold experiment: try doing today's work or some routine task with love.
Any interesting results?
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Bob inquired about her way of going about her work that led to such results. She said her approach is to "do it with love."
Try that for a bold experiment: try doing today's work or some routine task with love.
Any interesting results?
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Win a Sister India and Turn Up the Music
...by supporting the Brussels Chamber Orchestra's visit to North Carolina this summer.
This is one bold project that is being launched from the office next to mine.
First an intro: The BCO is a group of 12 remarkable twenty-something musicians from 6 countries, based in Brussels, Belgium. Playing without a conductor, they are a marvel to watch as well as to listen to. Their first concert during the upcoming Raleigh visit will be on July 2 at Burning Coal Theatre, when they'll perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons
The group gets around; they have toured in Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc., and played for royals. Next week they're on in Venice.
Here's the NC connection: my office partner, writer-and-artist Carrie Knowles is the mother of BCO violist Neil Leiter. She raised the money last year for the group's first performance in Raleigh (they were originally coming to this country for the first time to perform in a festival in the Hamptons.) In North Carolina, their concerts were well-attended and well-reviewed.
Carrie is turning the Raleigh event into an international music festival called Cross Currents And she's doing it, slowly but successfully, during this on-the-way-out recession.
To encourage this valuable, large, and bold undertaking, I will send an inscribed (to whomever you wish) copy of my novel Sister India to the first person and the 20th person to send a check of any size to support this project. Make it out to Friends of Brussels Chamber Orchestra. And send it to: Carrie Knowles, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, 410 Morson St., Raleigh, NC 27601. Contributions are tax-deductible
Many thanks!
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
This is one bold project that is being launched from the office next to mine.
First an intro: The BCO is a group of 12 remarkable twenty-something musicians from 6 countries, based in Brussels, Belgium. Playing without a conductor, they are a marvel to watch as well as to listen to. Their first concert during the upcoming Raleigh visit will be on July 2 at Burning Coal Theatre, when they'll perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons
The group gets around; they have toured in Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, etc., and played for royals. Next week they're on in Venice.
Here's the NC connection: my office partner, writer-and-artist Carrie Knowles is the mother of BCO violist Neil Leiter. She raised the money last year for the group's first performance in Raleigh (they were originally coming to this country for the first time to perform in a festival in the Hamptons.) In North Carolina, their concerts were well-attended and well-reviewed.
Carrie is turning the Raleigh event into an international music festival called Cross Currents And she's doing it, slowly but successfully, during this on-the-way-out recession.
To encourage this valuable, large, and bold undertaking, I will send an inscribed (to whomever you wish) copy of my novel Sister India to the first person and the 20th person to send a check of any size to support this project. Make it out to Friends of Brussels Chamber Orchestra. And send it to: Carrie Knowles, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, 410 Morson St., Raleigh, NC 27601. Contributions are tax-deductible
Many thanks!
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Courage Within a Group
How to encourage courage is a field of research that surely has potential for enormous impact on the world, and on individual lives. I just ran across some interesting findings on the Leading With Lift blog on "Where is the Courage in Organizations." As a nearly-lifelong freelancer who comes from a family of DIY-ers, I've often felt that organizations actively discourage courage: policies and systems make speedy action and change of course harder than they are for an individual.
But this study by Ryan Quinn and Monica Worline comes up with a couple of ideas that in the abstract seem like no-brainers, yet as I looked at the applications, I could see tremendous possibilities. For people within a team to be more courageous, it's important to:
*have good relationships with other people inside and outside the organization
*have information that argues for their action being brave rather than foolhardy.
An example: brave people who crashed their own flight on 9/11 first talked with family members by cell phone. They knew from those people on the ground what their situation was, and they had their relationships to help them bear up.
Even working alone, I find that making a call like that helps me. An embarrassingly petty example: when I sat down to write my first assignment for Travel & Leisure magazine, I called my friend novelist and screenwriter Randee Russell, who said: you can do it. Then I put on fresh lipstick, called her back again and reported this progress. She said again: you can do it. Then I did.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
But this study by Ryan Quinn and Monica Worline comes up with a couple of ideas that in the abstract seem like no-brainers, yet as I looked at the applications, I could see tremendous possibilities. For people within a team to be more courageous, it's important to:
*have good relationships with other people inside and outside the organization
*have information that argues for their action being brave rather than foolhardy.
An example: brave people who crashed their own flight on 9/11 first talked with family members by cell phone. They knew from those people on the ground what their situation was, and they had their relationships to help them bear up.
Even working alone, I find that making a call like that helps me. An embarrassingly petty example: when I sat down to write my first assignment for Travel & Leisure magazine, I called my friend novelist and screenwriter Randee Russell, who said: you can do it. Then I put on fresh lipstick, called her back again and reported this progress. She said again: you can do it. Then I did.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Red Hair, Blue Jello: Are You Hungry or Tired?
Monday afternoon and night, I was very tired. So I ate a lot. Not exactly logical or a solution to the problem, but overeating felt like the right thing to do.
I've long known that a gutsy move would be to learn how to figure out which bell is ringing and answer that one: i.e., sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm hungry, that sort of thing.
Instead what happens is, if I feel a shortage of any of the basics, the solution seems to be to do anything that feels good. At another moment this week when I was impatient to get an email that hadn't arrived, I bid on a pair of gold driving loafers on Ebay. And years ago, when I'd been waiting for months for a visa to spend a winter in India researching my novel, I dealt with the problem by putting a very red rinse on my hair.
So this morning, I googled "needs confusion." What I mostly found had a punctuation mark in between: "...needs. Confusion..." I did learn some interesting facts: that blue food is a natural hunger suppressant. (I should tell this to the folks who run my regular lunch spot, the K&W cafeteria, who frequently have blue Jello in the salad section at the front of the line.) I also learned that others have failed to find an easy solution. From the blue-Jello blog: "It would have been helpful to receive a user manual with your body. I would have settled for one page, hand written or even just an outline."
The answer seems to be:
*pay attention to the signals.
*And then, the tricky part: do something relevant to the actual problem or lack. That takes discipline, which is one of the often-unrecognized and very important pieces of serious and effective boldness. I like the leaping component better.
There's also a parallel problem to this needs-confusion that I run across fairly regularly: when work has to be finished on deadline, I sometimes vigorously set to work at breakfingers-speed on something else. As if some free-floating sense of urgency were all that was needed. More on this one later.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I've long known that a gutsy move would be to learn how to figure out which bell is ringing and answer that one: i.e., sleep when I'm tired, eat when I'm hungry, that sort of thing.
Instead what happens is, if I feel a shortage of any of the basics, the solution seems to be to do anything that feels good. At another moment this week when I was impatient to get an email that hadn't arrived, I bid on a pair of gold driving loafers on Ebay. And years ago, when I'd been waiting for months for a visa to spend a winter in India researching my novel, I dealt with the problem by putting a very red rinse on my hair.
So this morning, I googled "needs confusion." What I mostly found had a punctuation mark in between: "...needs. Confusion..." I did learn some interesting facts: that blue food is a natural hunger suppressant. (I should tell this to the folks who run my regular lunch spot, the K&W cafeteria, who frequently have blue Jello in the salad section at the front of the line.) I also learned that others have failed to find an easy solution. From the blue-Jello blog: "It would have been helpful to receive a user manual with your body. I would have settled for one page, hand written or even just an outline."
The answer seems to be:
*pay attention to the signals.
*And then, the tricky part: do something relevant to the actual problem or lack. That takes discipline, which is one of the often-unrecognized and very important pieces of serious and effective boldness. I like the leaping component better.
There's also a parallel problem to this needs-confusion that I run across fairly regularly: when work has to be finished on deadline, I sometimes vigorously set to work at breakfingers-speed on something else. As if some free-floating sense of urgency were all that was needed. More on this one later.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Britain's Got Talent and So Do You
Want to see a thrilling eruption of talent, to watch someone boldly and delightedly living and enjoying her big dream?
Go hear Susan Boyle sing. It's a moment of glory on Britain's Got Talent. It even warmed the heart of Simon Cowell. Very moving and inspiring. It'll make you want to cheerfully belt out your song, whatever it is.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Go hear Susan Boyle sing. It's a moment of glory on Britain's Got Talent. It even warmed the heart of Simon Cowell. Very moving and inspiring. It'll make you want to cheerfully belt out your song, whatever it is.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Family Holiday Dinner
Easter was at my house yesterday. Relatives drove three hours each way to eat lunch with us. Since I'm famously not a cook, expectations were low on their side and anticipatory tension notable on mine.
I served heated up take-out from a Whole Foods grocery, and Husband Bob, who is more of a cook than I, supervised the heating up.
It turned out great. People ate like sawmill workers, and asked where to buy the frizzled beans, (no kidding, that's their real name.)
I've decided to change from viewing myself as a non-cook, to being a great take-out shopper. It puts a whole new light on the process.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I served heated up take-out from a Whole Foods grocery, and Husband Bob, who is more of a cook than I, supervised the heating up.
It turned out great. People ate like sawmill workers, and asked where to buy the frizzled beans, (no kidding, that's their real name.)
I've decided to change from viewing myself as a non-cook, to being a great take-out shopper. It puts a whole new light on the process.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Turkey Town
The pig spa that I wrote about here a couple of weeks ago has been rivaled in real life.
A travel story in my local paper had turned out to be an April Fool’s trick on us readers. I believed it—and then posted here about the bold deception. The story described an inn where the happy guest can pat pigs, eat a pork diet, and have beauty treatments involving bacon fat.
So yesterday I was flipping through an old Guideposts magazine and came upon: Cornwell’s Turkeyville! This time the place is for real.
On a patch of farmland north of Marshall, Michigan, is a destination dedicated to pleasures provided by the turkey. In addition to the restaurant that cooks 20,000 birds a year, there’s a dinner theatre, an ice cream parlor offering Turkey Trax ice cream, a gift shop, a playground, and a turkey pen. Writer Mary Lou Carney noted some of the kinds of turkey sandwiches available, including buttered turkey, turkey salad, sloppy tom, smoked turkey. Or you could dig into turkey stir fry.
The only thing missing here was a turkey skin conditioner. At least it wasn’t noted in the article.
My point (aside from wonderment at the existence of such a place): If turkey’s your thing, don’t hold back. If you want to build a pig spa, do it. No joke. The world may very well beat a path to your door.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
A travel story in my local paper had turned out to be an April Fool’s trick on us readers. I believed it—and then posted here about the bold deception. The story described an inn where the happy guest can pat pigs, eat a pork diet, and have beauty treatments involving bacon fat.
So yesterday I was flipping through an old Guideposts magazine and came upon: Cornwell’s Turkeyville! This time the place is for real.
On a patch of farmland north of Marshall, Michigan, is a destination dedicated to pleasures provided by the turkey. In addition to the restaurant that cooks 20,000 birds a year, there’s a dinner theatre, an ice cream parlor offering Turkey Trax ice cream, a gift shop, a playground, and a turkey pen. Writer Mary Lou Carney noted some of the kinds of turkey sandwiches available, including buttered turkey, turkey salad, sloppy tom, smoked turkey. Or you could dig into turkey stir fry.
The only thing missing here was a turkey skin conditioner. At least it wasn’t noted in the article.
My point (aside from wonderment at the existence of such a place): If turkey’s your thing, don’t hold back. If you want to build a pig spa, do it. No joke. The world may very well beat a path to your door.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Dealing with Bad Publicity
A fellow I know just got a blast of highly personal, heavily negative national publicity. It's the kind of scrutiny of a person that borders on inhuman, every aspect of his life touched on.
It must take big-time courage to show up at work, at lunch, at the gym, or wherever, after that kind of exposure. I'm not even going to say who or where the article was, so as not to further spread the stories. The fact that the writer said some good things doesn't really help a lot; it gives an air of credibility and balance and makes the watching of the man seem more unrelenting.
Unless you've sponsored a genocide, or at least committed a crime, I don't think this kind of treatment is warranted. Some arguable business decisions don't merit such an attack.
And I am someone who has spent decades as a reporter writing for magazines and newspapers, and who relishes reading the trashiest of gossip publications. So maybe I have a double standard for people I know and like. Or maybe I have a double standard for movie stars and other people. Likely both are true. Even so, this particularly brutal extreme close-up shocks me. I wouldn't want my own life treated this way. There aren't many people, if any, who'd look spotless in that kind of light.
Again: the guy is super-bold to keep showing up and making the effort.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
It must take big-time courage to show up at work, at lunch, at the gym, or wherever, after that kind of exposure. I'm not even going to say who or where the article was, so as not to further spread the stories. The fact that the writer said some good things doesn't really help a lot; it gives an air of credibility and balance and makes the watching of the man seem more unrelenting.
Unless you've sponsored a genocide, or at least committed a crime, I don't think this kind of treatment is warranted. Some arguable business decisions don't merit such an attack.
And I am someone who has spent decades as a reporter writing for magazines and newspapers, and who relishes reading the trashiest of gossip publications. So maybe I have a double standard for people I know and like. Or maybe I have a double standard for movie stars and other people. Likely both are true. Even so, this particularly brutal extreme close-up shocks me. I wouldn't want my own life treated this way. There aren't many people, if any, who'd look spotless in that kind of light.
Again: the guy is super-bold to keep showing up and making the effort.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Singing a Song from the Unconscious
Skiing on a glacier in Austria some years ago on slopes (catwalks) far beyond my ability, I realized that I had been humming the same tune over and over all day. When I finally noticed I was doing it, I immediately recognized it: "Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?"
It was true that I'd been scared--from mild to wild--all day. This was back in my mostly-travel-writing days when I made a long-running specialty of writing ski stories for beginners and bad skiers. It tickled me that I was unconsciously singing the message from myself that I was trying to ignore.
Since then, I've realized many times that I was mindlessly humming something that was terribly appropriate to the moment: "I've Got a Never-Ending Love For You," and "Release Me" (think Engelbert Humperdinck), for example.
Yesterday, I noted that I'd been humming all day. What was the tune? "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Going to Let It Shine." What could be more appropriate for a writer's theme song?
So what's your theme song today?
Could be it would work better to pick one, instead of letting the song pick me. But even when the song simply arises, it's useful information, always good to know what I'm feeling.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
It was true that I'd been scared--from mild to wild--all day. This was back in my mostly-travel-writing days when I made a long-running specialty of writing ski stories for beginners and bad skiers. It tickled me that I was unconsciously singing the message from myself that I was trying to ignore.
Since then, I've realized many times that I was mindlessly humming something that was terribly appropriate to the moment: "I've Got a Never-Ending Love For You," and "Release Me" (think Engelbert Humperdinck), for example.
Yesterday, I noted that I'd been humming all day. What was the tune? "This Little Light of Mine, I'm Going to Let It Shine." What could be more appropriate for a writer's theme song?
So what's your theme song today?
Could be it would work better to pick one, instead of letting the song pick me. But even when the song simply arises, it's useful information, always good to know what I'm feeling.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
College Admissions Mistakes
A guy I know is in the midst of his first personal encounter with injustice. He's a superbly accomplished and bright student and he didn't get into the schools he wanted. College admissions problems have happened to quite a number of excellent students this year.
It's not fair. He's right about that.
And he's angry. Which is healthy, of course. As long as that dies down and he replaces it with vigorous action to make the most of the situation he has now.
It's not easy to be heroic when the difficulty is not life-and-death, but instead disappointment and having to plow on anyway. Plowing on doesn't get the kind of credit and appreciation that it's due.
I've often thought that so-called "loss of innocence" has nothing to do with sex or with seeing the seamy side of life. It comes from personal experience of something going wrong that can't be fixed. When that happens, it becomes necessary to take a new road. And after that, one is more watchful, less reflexively sure that things will turn out "right."
I wish the guy had gotten into the schools he wanted. I hope he will gather the courage to design his own new road and make the most of his new knowledge.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
It's not fair. He's right about that.
And he's angry. Which is healthy, of course. As long as that dies down and he replaces it with vigorous action to make the most of the situation he has now.
It's not easy to be heroic when the difficulty is not life-and-death, but instead disappointment and having to plow on anyway. Plowing on doesn't get the kind of credit and appreciation that it's due.
I've often thought that so-called "loss of innocence" has nothing to do with sex or with seeing the seamy side of life. It comes from personal experience of something going wrong that can't be fixed. When that happens, it becomes necessary to take a new road. And after that, one is more watchful, less reflexively sure that things will turn out "right."
I wish the guy had gotten into the schools he wanted. I hope he will gather the courage to design his own new road and make the most of his new knowledge.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
The Solitary Freelance Writer
Have I mentioned? On the morning of April 18, I'll be giving the keynote for the Triangle Area Freelancers conference on "Seven Secrets of Freelancing I Wish I'd Known from the Start." If you're in central North Carolina, I hope you'll come. I also wish there had been a TAF years ago when I was getting started in magazines and newspapers.
I remember when the feeling of solitude started to feel heavy at some point in the second half of my first year. I decided that maybe going out to lunch would help, but couldn't find anybody loose to join me that day. So I went by myself to a semi-hip restaurant where they had booths placed in odd settings within the restaurant. Mine, as it happened, was in a jail cell. So I sat there by myself looking through actual bars.
Nobody needs networking more than writers, for information, contacts, and mental health.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I remember when the feeling of solitude started to feel heavy at some point in the second half of my first year. I decided that maybe going out to lunch would help, but couldn't find anybody loose to join me that day. So I went by myself to a semi-hip restaurant where they had booths placed in odd settings within the restaurant. Mine, as it happened, was in a jail cell. So I sat there by myself looking through actual bars.
Nobody needs networking more than writers, for information, contacts, and mental health.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Garrison Keillor Gets Sexy
The ever-cheeky Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion set a new standard for home-spun boldness Saturday. If you missed it, do go listen to his song "Fatherhood", a bebopping rendition of the heroic journey of a sperm. It's in Segment 3, just after "Bailout Boogie."
(I'd offer a sample of those daring lines, but ever since I paid for the right to quote from "Puff the Magic Dragon" in my first novel Revelation, I've been careful to stay out of song lyrics.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
(I'd offer a sample of those daring lines, but ever since I paid for the right to quote from "Puff the Magic Dragon" in my first novel Revelation, I've been careful to stay out of song lyrics.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Unhappy Puppy
While I was planting verbena this afternoon, our new puppy Aura had her first encounter with the electric fence of her little corral. I'd never been around when such a thing happened and I was almost as upset as she was.
She yowled, then ran, but wasn't sure where to run. Didn't know what was safe.
I couldn't stand it. I got her out of there and spent the rest of my gardening time trying to stop her from walking on the columbine and eating the daffodil fronds.
I don't know whether I'm too soft-hearted to train a dog or a child, or simply too squeamish: unwilling to suffer myself in seeing them hurt.
I do know that Aura, shocked, dramatically illustrated how all kinds of creatures tend to behave after a broadside. Not sure what to trust, desperate to avoid further hurt. It's hard at such moments -- takes boldness -- to figure out what caused the pain and not blame it on any and every thing in sight.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
She yowled, then ran, but wasn't sure where to run. Didn't know what was safe.
I couldn't stand it. I got her out of there and spent the rest of my gardening time trying to stop her from walking on the columbine and eating the daffodil fronds.
I don't know whether I'm too soft-hearted to train a dog or a child, or simply too squeamish: unwilling to suffer myself in seeing them hurt.
I do know that Aura, shocked, dramatically illustrated how all kinds of creatures tend to behave after a broadside. Not sure what to trust, desperate to avoid further hurt. It's hard at such moments -- takes boldness -- to figure out what caused the pain and not blame it on any and every thing in sight.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
The Snake in My Head
A garter snake is on the list of entities I've always thought of as ridiculously harmless. Like dandelions, cotton candy, soap bubbles, toads, puppies, primary colors, large print, milkshakes, and the board game Candyland.
So today I was weeding the periwinkle and startled a two-and-a-half foot striped snake sunning his/herself on the ledge at the back of the bed. I jumped back. The snake fell still, head raised in my direction. I yelled for Bob. He came out and told me it was not a copperhead at all, instead a garter snake. First time I realized I'd never seen one. It didn't look like bubbles or cotton candy at all. More like, say, a pygmy rattler. But I let him/her alone and went back to my gardening -- at a little distance. Next time I looked the snake was gone.
I didn't want to make a pet of the creature, but neither did I have any sense of lingering alarm. Hours later near dusk, I grabbed a handful of weeds and dead leaves that squirmed in my hand. I gasped and tossed it, then discovered that the live thing was a toad that was hopping away from me at top toad speed.
What interests most me about all this is that the mini-burst of adrenaline on grabbing the toad probably would not have happened it not been for the earlier moment of alarm over the snake. Without even realizing it, I was expecting to stumble onto trouble.
This secondary reaction made me wonder what other and larger ways I may have conditioned myself to unnecessary wariness.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
So today I was weeding the periwinkle and startled a two-and-a-half foot striped snake sunning his/herself on the ledge at the back of the bed. I jumped back. The snake fell still, head raised in my direction. I yelled for Bob. He came out and told me it was not a copperhead at all, instead a garter snake. First time I realized I'd never seen one. It didn't look like bubbles or cotton candy at all. More like, say, a pygmy rattler. But I let him/her alone and went back to my gardening -- at a little distance. Next time I looked the snake was gone.
I didn't want to make a pet of the creature, but neither did I have any sense of lingering alarm. Hours later near dusk, I grabbed a handful of weeds and dead leaves that squirmed in my hand. I gasped and tossed it, then discovered that the live thing was a toad that was hopping away from me at top toad speed.
What interests most me about all this is that the mini-burst of adrenaline on grabbing the toad probably would not have happened it not been for the earlier moment of alarm over the snake. Without even realizing it, I was expecting to stumble onto trouble.
This secondary reaction made me wonder what other and larger ways I may have conditioned myself to unnecessary wariness.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, April 03, 2009
The Courage to Relax
The ability to relax is underrated as an act of courage. I tend to have tense shoulders all the time. And I've just now come from the dentist where I tend to turn into a 5 foot 8 inch steel plank. A snootful of nitrous helps, but still I can be fairly tense.
Somehow tight muscles feel like the proper state of readiness for everything, good or bad. Never mind that I almost never resort to a physical solution to problems. I don't actually engage in fight or flight. Instead, I ponder, revise, negotiate, think, chat. These activities don't require the muscle tone of a shark.
Nevertheless, the habit persists. This morning at my dentist's I made a point of using not just the nitrous but as much muscle-loosening as I could muster. I made my hands feel heavy. It felt good.
And I have an idea I could probably think better with loose muscles. If you happen to have any studies or experiences that demonstrate that, I'd love to know. I fear it's going to take all the king's horses to get my shoulders to move to a different position on a regular basis.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Somehow tight muscles feel like the proper state of readiness for everything, good or bad. Never mind that I almost never resort to a physical solution to problems. I don't actually engage in fight or flight. Instead, I ponder, revise, negotiate, think, chat. These activities don't require the muscle tone of a shark.
Nevertheless, the habit persists. This morning at my dentist's I made a point of using not just the nitrous but as much muscle-loosening as I could muster. I made my hands feel heavy. It felt good.
And I have an idea I could probably think better with loose muscles. If you happen to have any studies or experiences that demonstrate that, I'd love to know. I fear it's going to take all the king's horses to get my shoulders to move to a different position on a regular basis.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Pig Spa
I'm ever scanning the world for sterling examples of boldness to report on, and I found some true moxie yesterday in my local News & Observer.
The story by Kathleen Purvis was about Hog Heaven, an inn and spa devoted to an appreciation of pork. "'I figured if California could have the Napa Valley, maybe it was time for the South to celebrate what makes us truly happy,'" owner Sue Trotter says. "'And no place appreciates bacon like the South.'"
This North Carolina mini-resort doesn't stop with a pork-heavy menu and opportunities to spend time with the cute little piglets: "...You can relax under a cooling raw-bacon eye mask while you get a facial with high-quality leaf lard, prized for its antioxidant content."
I was worrying a bit about how comfortable it would be to eat pork while patting a pig; especially since I liked the hogs that wandered the streets near where I lived in India, found them surprisingly personable. And then of course I came to the final punch line: April Fool's Day. I'd been completely suckered up to that very last sentence.
What was bold was that story. And the photograph that went with it.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The story by Kathleen Purvis was about Hog Heaven, an inn and spa devoted to an appreciation of pork. "'I figured if California could have the Napa Valley, maybe it was time for the South to celebrate what makes us truly happy,'" owner Sue Trotter says. "'And no place appreciates bacon like the South.'"
This North Carolina mini-resort doesn't stop with a pork-heavy menu and opportunities to spend time with the cute little piglets: "...You can relax under a cooling raw-bacon eye mask while you get a facial with high-quality leaf lard, prized for its antioxidant content."
I was worrying a bit about how comfortable it would be to eat pork while patting a pig; especially since I liked the hogs that wandered the streets near where I lived in India, found them surprisingly personable. And then of course I came to the final punch line: April Fool's Day. I'd been completely suckered up to that very last sentence.
What was bold was that story. And the photograph that went with it.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The Confident Camel
I picked out this camel pin (for Husband Bob to give me) just because I liked it. Probably also at the back of my mind was the fact that when I was a kid my mother smoked three packs a day of unfiltered Camels and I have good memories of the image.
I also think my camel is an excellent reminder of persistence and steady long haul effort. The camel tends to get where she's going. She also knows her worth; if you've ever been around camels (as I was now and again in India), then you know there's no loftier manner in the animal queendom.
So I've been wearing her image on a pocketbook, the equivalent of heart-on-sleeve for visibility. I like the combo of confident persistence and regal bearing. And as you can see, my camel is smokin'!!!
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I also think my camel is an excellent reminder of persistence and steady long haul effort. The camel tends to get where she's going. She also knows her worth; if you've ever been around camels (as I was now and again in India), then you know there's no loftier manner in the animal queendom.So I've been wearing her image on a pocketbook, the equivalent of heart-on-sleeve for visibility. I like the combo of confident persistence and regal bearing. And as you can see, my camel is smokin'!!!
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
My Polka-Dot Woodland Semi-Shade Garden
By popular request (Regular Contributor Debbie Whaley suggested it), I've posted here a few of the bold blossoms around my house. They're bold to peep out because we live in woodland amongst herds of deer and large swathes of shade and voles and other diggers, including something that can only be the Tunneling Yeti. And I tend to plant what I want even if it would like more sun, (these pics are prior to the arrival of the summer leaves.) My strategy yields a few courageous blooms that are much-appreciated. They're all the more admirable for venturing out under such adverse circumstances.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Blount Wisdom on the Economy
The hilarious and wise Roy Blount, Jr. writes a don't-miss column in the Authors Guild Bulletin (he's president of that group.) His most recent entry is about the economy and writers. It applies to more people than writers.
"Look. It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors....For 33 years I have been a freelance writer, literally never knowing where my next dollar is coming from, even when I knew from whence it was supposed to have come three or four months ago....But I know this: Authors have been scared before, and not deterred."
That's the key strategy idea here: "NOT DETERRED." And that definitely applies to all of us.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
"Look. It was imprudent of us, in the first place, to become authors....For 33 years I have been a freelance writer, literally never knowing where my next dollar is coming from, even when I knew from whence it was supposed to have come three or four months ago....But I know this: Authors have been scared before, and not deterred."
That's the key strategy idea here: "NOT DETERRED." And that definitely applies to all of us.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Bringing Home the Mastiff Puppy
The new puppy arrived at our house yesterday. What does this have to do with bold?Well, Husband Bob is extremely bold to take on this dog. She--Aura--is a sweet soft, though rather large, mastiff puppy now. She'll become a 140 pound animal, a Boerboel, bred as a guard dog. Already, at about four months old, she's over sixty pounds and hyperalert.
Bob likes big, challenging dogs from faraway places. He already has a Kangal dog, Kaya, a Turkish mastiff-type, a strong-willed fellow who outweighs me.
Last night, little Aura met big Kaya for the first time. The puppy rushed up to the big guy. Kaya, on a leash, stayed cool but had a fiercely interested look in his eye. Aura (gutsy puppy) would back off a little but then dash forward again. I think we're all going to get along fine. In the meantime, it's quite a household adventure.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Sky-Diving In Without a Laptop
When I got to my office today, I discovered that I'd left home the cord that goes between my laptop and the power strip-- called a power supply? or battery pack or something like that. And of course the battery in the machine was out of juice. And I had appointments etc. and no time to get back home.
So, I turned my attention, in my non-appointment time, to doing everything in my office that could be done without my computer. By 6 o'clock I'd finished my taxes and filed receipts going back to October. And paid some bills. I could have put these off a bit longer. But, laptopless, I was forced to face them. Not such a bad thing.
And my desktop, the upper surface of my physical desk is clean, except for a few notes and a Fresca can.
This is the third time I've left that cord in the wrong place. And I've gotten a lot done every time. So maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. Sort of like getting pushed out of the plane when it's time to make your first parachute jump. Ordinarily I don't like that kind of help, but I did do this to myself. So I can't complain.
(Note: Sky-diving is one thing I declined to do even back in my more reckless years. Parasailing twice around Puerto Vallarta Harbor is as close as I ever want to come. I got the second trip around for free because there was difficulty getting me down, and when I finally skidded in for a landing, I came to a halt lying across a sunbathing gentlemen who had seen me approaching in the last seconds and desperately tried to get out of my way.)
(Note 2: My process in writing novels is very much the same as that used in this post. Start off with a missing cord and wind up in Puerta Vallarta. I like that.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
So, I turned my attention, in my non-appointment time, to doing everything in my office that could be done without my computer. By 6 o'clock I'd finished my taxes and filed receipts going back to October. And paid some bills. I could have put these off a bit longer. But, laptopless, I was forced to face them. Not such a bad thing.
And my desktop, the upper surface of my physical desk is clean, except for a few notes and a Fresca can.
This is the third time I've left that cord in the wrong place. And I've gotten a lot done every time. So maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. Sort of like getting pushed out of the plane when it's time to make your first parachute jump. Ordinarily I don't like that kind of help, but I did do this to myself. So I can't complain.
(Note: Sky-diving is one thing I declined to do even back in my more reckless years. Parasailing twice around Puerto Vallarta Harbor is as close as I ever want to come. I got the second trip around for free because there was difficulty getting me down, and when I finally skidded in for a landing, I came to a halt lying across a sunbathing gentlemen who had seen me approaching in the last seconds and desperately tried to get out of my way.)
(Note 2: My process in writing novels is very much the same as that used in this post. Start off with a missing cord and wind up in Puerta Vallarta. I like that.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Creative Unconscious
I sat down this morning to start proofreading my novel and wound up making substantial and marvelous changes to the opening. (Some might not call these substantial since the events didn’t change, but I do: the emotion became clearer and stronger.)
This reminds me once again: it’s not only our will and resolve and conscious minds with the capacity be bold. The unconscious can at the most unexpected times kick in with some pretty cheeky ideas as well. Thank God! I’d hate to think I was on this job entirely on my own.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
This reminds me once again: it’s not only our will and resolve and conscious minds with the capacity be bold. The unconscious can at the most unexpected times kick in with some pretty cheeky ideas as well. Thank God! I’d hate to think I was on this job entirely on my own.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
In Bold Chase of Dad
A man whose father left him as a baby decided he wanted to find out about his father and where he'd gone. After decades and networks of research and with the help of some DNA detective work, he learned at the age of 82 what he wanted to know.
This story, "DNA Reveals Story of Dad's Disappearance," was in my local paper, the News & Observer, yesterday--written, as it happens, by my sister-in-law, Ruth Sheehan.
The story got an enormous outrageous shocking number of hits.
I wonder if it was because DNA and genealogy are hot topics. Or because the story of a guy who kept on looking is inspiring. ('Course, Ruth's a really good writer, it could've been entirely that.)
Whatever else the attraction, I'm pretty sure that the story of someone keeping on--for more than six decades, even into old age--and succeeding is always a hot topic.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
This story, "DNA Reveals Story of Dad's Disappearance," was in my local paper, the News & Observer, yesterday--written, as it happens, by my sister-in-law, Ruth Sheehan.
The story got an enormous outrageous shocking number of hits.
I wonder if it was because DNA and genealogy are hot topics. Or because the story of a guy who kept on looking is inspiring. ('Course, Ruth's a really good writer, it could've been entirely that.)
Whatever else the attraction, I'm pretty sure that the story of someone keeping on--for more than six decades, even into old age--and succeeding is always a hot topic.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
A Passion for Mastiffs
A big piece of the boldness equation is going full-tilt after what draws you, what you care about.
Saturday night my dear old friend Susie came to dinner; we had not seen each other in 41 years. Until our mid-teens, we lived one door away from each other, and had played together from my earliest memory. Then she moved.
The Internet (with the assistance of my brother Harry) reconnected us. She lives only three hours away, and she was traveling with four Tibetan mastiffs.
Turns out that she, Susie Ochsenbein, has a passion for these huge beautiful dogs and has traveled over much of the world showing, judging, visiting, and studying them. She's a global expert on these animals. And has 13 of her own. That's pretty close to an actual ton of live dog.
The one I got to meet was a sweet-tempered, quiet girl with a gorgeous fluffy coat, as they all seem to have. She's only a year old and about the size of a very large bulldog.
What strikes me even more than the wonder of these handsome dogs is Susie's devotion to them, her knowledge and her passion. I love to see anyone seize life that way; and that's what I think is happening when we follow our true and abiding interests.
It's especially nice when it's my old pal.
From a Joseph Campbell interview with Bill Moyers: "...If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Saturday night my dear old friend Susie came to dinner; we had not seen each other in 41 years. Until our mid-teens, we lived one door away from each other, and had played together from my earliest memory. Then she moved.
The Internet (with the assistance of my brother Harry) reconnected us. She lives only three hours away, and she was traveling with four Tibetan mastiffs.
Turns out that she, Susie Ochsenbein, has a passion for these huge beautiful dogs and has traveled over much of the world showing, judging, visiting, and studying them. She's a global expert on these animals. And has 13 of her own. That's pretty close to an actual ton of live dog.
The one I got to meet was a sweet-tempered, quiet girl with a gorgeous fluffy coat, as they all seem to have. She's only a year old and about the size of a very large bulldog.
What strikes me even more than the wonder of these handsome dogs is Susie's devotion to them, her knowledge and her passion. I love to see anyone seize life that way; and that's what I think is happening when we follow our true and abiding interests.
It's especially nice when it's my old pal.
From a Joseph Campbell interview with Bill Moyers: "...If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, March 20, 2009
"Bold, Persistent Experimentation"
A Newsweek article, "America's New Shrink", on Obama said that his model is FDR (we all knew that), who based his New Deal on (here's the juicy item): faith in "bold, persistent experimentation."
I love the phrase: bold, persistent experimentation. And I too have faith in that method. It's so often the basis for revising a manuscript. I'll know from feedback that there's some problem I need to solve. But usually if a reader offers a prescription for solving the problem, it doesn't quite work. So I sit and experiment -- on and on -- and then try the results on that reader again. And if the problem isn't solved, then back to work on it again.
Sort of like Thomas Edison's famous approach to invention: keep changing the recipe, and if that doesn't work then change it again, thousands of times.
It's a pretty good strategy. And all three ideas in this mantra are crucial: bold, persistent, experimentation.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I love the phrase: bold, persistent experimentation. And I too have faith in that method. It's so often the basis for revising a manuscript. I'll know from feedback that there's some problem I need to solve. But usually if a reader offers a prescription for solving the problem, it doesn't quite work. So I sit and experiment -- on and on -- and then try the results on that reader again. And if the problem isn't solved, then back to work on it again.
Sort of like Thomas Edison's famous approach to invention: keep changing the recipe, and if that doesn't work then change it again, thousands of times.
It's a pretty good strategy. And all three ideas in this mantra are crucial: bold, persistent, experimentation.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The Indiscreet Novelist
Philip Roth's birthday was noted on Garrison Keillor's almanac, and included a choice bit of wisdom that should urge us all to boldness. Note that Roth is the novelist who reached his first fame with Portnoy's Complaint (1969), about a man obsessed with sex.
Roth is quoted as saying: "I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you -- it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Roth is quoted as saying: "I cannot and do not live in the world of discretion, not as a writer, anyway. I would prefer to, I assure you -- it would make life easier. But discretion is, unfortunately, not for novelists."
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Cleaning the Fish Tank
I did something this morning that I've been telling myself I needed to do for weeks, perhaps months. Cleaned the aquarium. This involves a siphon and a tube that runs over the side and into a bucket. It vacuums up goldfish waste. What a surprise that I don't get around to it too often.
But every time I've walked up or down the stairs in recent weeks, I've looked at that tank and thought: Gotta do that!
Bold would be to do it when it first came to mind,when it was first needed. At the same time, what a nice feeling that I get to walk upstairs tonight and congratulate myself on having gotten it done.
I dare you to tackle one of your own fish-tank-type chores.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
But every time I've walked up or down the stairs in recent weeks, I've looked at that tank and thought: Gotta do that!
Bold would be to do it when it first came to mind,when it was first needed. At the same time, what a nice feeling that I get to walk upstairs tonight and congratulate myself on having gotten it done.
I dare you to tackle one of your own fish-tank-type chores.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Family History Mania Update
I just put in the mail the family history I threw together over five intense days; sent it to my Mom for her birthday. Now I feel like I finished exams, even more so than I do when finishing the draft of a book.
I worked on this little 30 page item like a madwoman. It's the story of my mother's father's family. It's no dissertation; I used mainly secondary sources and included stories that have been handed down, and a file of old clippings and notes that others had amassed, and internet sources, such as websites done by other people chasing Tuckers and Woffords, and ancestry archives.
I did write one email to someone who'd done a Tucker site, asking him a question about a man named John Tucker who was in Virginia or Maryland in about 1750. Turned out the wife of the man at that website is my second cousin. Astounding to all concerned! She and I are both descended from the son of a Civil War captain who died at the Battle of Second Manassas at the time that his son, our most recent ancestor, was two years old.
The impact of this frenzied chronology exercise on me is that I learned in a gut way how hard life used to be, how hard it was until fairly recent decades. I knew intellectually, of course. But now I feel it. I think it burned up more boldness just to live daily life not so very long ago.
For one thing, I discovered that my generation is the first in this side of my family not to go to war. For hundreds of years on end, the men fought and the women usually had six or nine babies. A lot of those babies died. And the men so often died early, leaving the women with all those kids.
This is such old news. But it feels new whenever it strikes emotionally.
I'm glad I get to use my store of courage for edgy writing and such, not, as one of my foremothers did, by driving a covered wagon across three states with six small daughters in tow after her husband disappeared. This sort of thing can easily put problems that occur at a desk into perspective.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
I worked on this little 30 page item like a madwoman. It's the story of my mother's father's family. It's no dissertation; I used mainly secondary sources and included stories that have been handed down, and a file of old clippings and notes that others had amassed, and internet sources, such as websites done by other people chasing Tuckers and Woffords, and ancestry archives.
I did write one email to someone who'd done a Tucker site, asking him a question about a man named John Tucker who was in Virginia or Maryland in about 1750. Turned out the wife of the man at that website is my second cousin. Astounding to all concerned! She and I are both descended from the son of a Civil War captain who died at the Battle of Second Manassas at the time that his son, our most recent ancestor, was two years old.
The impact of this frenzied chronology exercise on me is that I learned in a gut way how hard life used to be, how hard it was until fairly recent decades. I knew intellectually, of course. But now I feel it. I think it burned up more boldness just to live daily life not so very long ago.
For one thing, I discovered that my generation is the first in this side of my family not to go to war. For hundreds of years on end, the men fought and the women usually had six or nine babies. A lot of those babies died. And the men so often died early, leaving the women with all those kids.
This is such old news. But it feels new whenever it strikes emotionally.
I'm glad I get to use my store of courage for edgy writing and such, not, as one of my foremothers did, by driving a covered wagon across three states with six small daughters in tow after her husband disappeared. This sort of thing can easily put problems that occur at a desk into perspective.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
The Boldest Business
I'm alarmed and saddened by the ongoing disaster in the newspaper industry.
Yesterday was a sort of Black Monday here in Raleigh, another long list of very good reporters and editors got their pink slips at The News & Observer. In the last few weeks, one major American paper has died and another has cut back to a very trimmed-down online existence. Newspapers' very continuation is threatened.
I'm frightened by the thought of an America without serious daily news reporting. Imagine what some of our sneakier administrations would have gotten away with if no one were looking. Blogging, as we now know it, is not enough. Blogging is rarely more than comments on recycled news. And the advertising on blogs will not support the kind of news gathering operation that is adequate to covering what's going on. Who knows when that revenue rise, if ever? Our country can't go a minute without reporters.
Reporting is the bold business of poking into places that often tell you to stay out. We need that as much as we need police and firemen and a whole lot of other basic services.
I'm hoping someone will come up with a bold solution fast to SAVE THE NEWSPAPERS.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Yesterday was a sort of Black Monday here in Raleigh, another long list of very good reporters and editors got their pink slips at The News & Observer. In the last few weeks, one major American paper has died and another has cut back to a very trimmed-down online existence. Newspapers' very continuation is threatened.
I'm frightened by the thought of an America without serious daily news reporting. Imagine what some of our sneakier administrations would have gotten away with if no one were looking. Blogging, as we now know it, is not enough. Blogging is rarely more than comments on recycled news. And the advertising on blogs will not support the kind of news gathering operation that is adequate to covering what's going on. Who knows when that revenue rise, if ever? Our country can't go a minute without reporters.
Reporting is the bold business of poking into places that often tell you to stay out. We need that as much as we need police and firemen and a whole lot of other basic services.
I'm hoping someone will come up with a bold solution fast to SAVE THE NEWSPAPERS.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Following a Mania
For the last three days, I've worked enormous numbers of hours on an unlikely-for-me project: a bit of genealogy that I'm turning into a riveting story of one line of my family: the Tuckers and Woffords. Months ago my mother gave me a folder about her father's family, a bunch of bits and pieces, and said, "Here you take this." So I decided to flesh it out, and finally got serious on Saturday and am trying to get it ready to mail to Mom in time for her 87th b'day this weekend.
Inevitably, answering a few questions led me to a few more questions and I took the research back 200 more years, into the late 1500s in England--and quite a number of juicy details. Now I see why people do this. It satisfies the lifelong need created by reading Nancy Drews.
Joseph Campbell advises: "Follow your bliss." I take that to mean being really committed to the pursuuits that are really important to me; and I've structured my life to be able to do that. But this has a sudden fire to it that says: Do this now! Don't stop! Don't eat! It's exciting. And, as of this moment, exhausting.
Have you had this experience? And did it involve chasing ancestors? I'm more measured about writing books and articles, I've been doing it so long. It's nice to feel this kind of fire. Wipe-out refreshing.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Inevitably, answering a few questions led me to a few more questions and I took the research back 200 more years, into the late 1500s in England--and quite a number of juicy details. Now I see why people do this. It satisfies the lifelong need created by reading Nancy Drews.
Joseph Campbell advises: "Follow your bliss." I take that to mean being really committed to the pursuuits that are really important to me; and I've structured my life to be able to do that. But this has a sudden fire to it that says: Do this now! Don't stop! Don't eat! It's exciting. And, as of this moment, exhausting.
Have you had this experience? And did it involve chasing ancestors? I'm more measured about writing books and articles, I've been doing it so long. It's nice to feel this kind of fire. Wipe-out refreshing.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Nature Setting a Good Example
Here are a few more blossoms to remind you to spring forth with your own brilliant creations.
Even though the climate might create some obstacles.
Years ago, I said to my therapist about the market for literary novels: "you don't know what's it's like, it's working in a cage with a tiger." (Not the most apt comparison, but the basic idea is: difficult situation.)
He said: "How much good is it going to do you to spend your time watching the tiger?"
So I'm keeping an eye on the flowers, as I work.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Blooming Season
Spring is without question the boldest time of year, sending tender shoots and delicate flowers up into iffy weather. March is a bit like a writer sending out a manuscript, or anyone who's hunting for a new job in a tough economy.
As T.S. Eliot wrote in "The Waste Land" about the cruelly unpredictable and lovely April: spring does the bold work of "breeding/
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing/
Memory and desire, stirring/
Dull roots with spring rain."
If daisies and such can keep dusting off their dull roots, venturing upward and blossoming, so can we. Consider letting the flowers you see today inspire and re-encourage you. Even if the sky is overcast.
(Full disclosure: these were shot in May--in the mountains of Mexico at the spa Rancho La Puerta--but I think they still make my point.)
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Transgressive Writing
Because I (and others) consider my novel-in-progress to be a transgressive book involving transgressive sex, I was very struck when I received a comment about this sort of thing in an email conversation with my friend George. (I should mention that George, a visual artist and poet, doesn't like capital letters.)
"i consider (Updike) to be one of those who substantiate my idea that the theme for 20th century art is transgression.....perhaps it is always the operant theme....for success."
As Burger King ads have argued, "Sometimes you've gotta break the rules."
Two thoughts of my own on this subject:
*First know the rules and then break them, as needed, for good reasons. To be worthwhile the breakage must accomplish something.
*Know that there are likely to be be some costs involved.
I'm hoping that useful transgression will also be a theme of the early twenty-first century.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
"i consider (Updike) to be one of those who substantiate my idea that the theme for 20th century art is transgression.....perhaps it is always the operant theme....for success."
As Burger King ads have argued, "Sometimes you've gotta break the rules."
Two thoughts of my own on this subject:
*First know the rules and then break them, as needed, for good reasons. To be worthwhile the breakage must accomplish something.
*Know that there are likely to be be some costs involved.
I'm hoping that useful transgression will also be a theme of the early twenty-first century.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Cheeky Georgia O'Keefe and Friend
If there were ever a person who went her own way, it was the famously abrupt Georgia O'Keefe.
The Smithsonian Journeys blog has a charming story about an encounter with the painter: "The Day I Met Georgia O'Keefe."
The boldest individual involved is the author who tells of the day she approached O'Keefe's house in Abiquiu, New Mexico, carrying a handful of wilted lilacs. Many a bold individual would have dropped the lilies and run.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The Smithsonian Journeys blog has a charming story about an encounter with the painter: "The Day I Met Georgia O'Keefe."
The boldest individual involved is the author who tells of the day she approached O'Keefe's house in Abiquiu, New Mexico, carrying a handful of wilted lilacs. Many a bold individual would have dropped the lilies and run.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Show Up, Speak Out
When I started my first full-time job after college as a news reporter, I met at the NC Legislature a red-headed woman who was always there working on behalf of good causes. The League of Women Voters is the one I recall from back then, 39 years ago. Her name was Betty Ann Knudsen, and she kept on and on and on with her efforts.
This morning I saw by chance the Facebook page of documentary moviemaker Erica Rothman that a movie has been made about Knudsen: Show Up, Speak Out Perfect title, perfect person to represent that philosophy.
Here's the promo: "Betty Ann Knudsen was born six years after women gained the right to vote. Her parents were staunchly-conservative Republicans but she grew up to become a liberal Democrat, a feminist, and one of the most effective grassroots organizers in North Carolina. She was the first female head of the Wake County Commission; ran for the office of NC Secretary of State in 1984; and traveled all over North Carolina training and mentoring hundreds of women who later ran and won public office or political appointments. In 2008 she earned the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor in North Carolina, recognizing a lifetime of extraordinary service to the state. This film is a document and a tribute to her many accomplishments." www.mygalaxycinema.com
The premiere of this movie from Vivian Bowman, who teaches at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, is at Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC, on Monday, March 16,from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Brava, Betty Ann Knudsen! And those who document her accomplishments.
This morning I saw by chance the Facebook page of documentary moviemaker Erica Rothman that a movie has been made about Knudsen: Show Up, Speak Out Perfect title, perfect person to represent that philosophy.
Here's the promo: "Betty Ann Knudsen was born six years after women gained the right to vote. Her parents were staunchly-conservative Republicans but she grew up to become a liberal Democrat, a feminist, and one of the most effective grassroots organizers in North Carolina. She was the first female head of the Wake County Commission; ran for the office of NC Secretary of State in 1984; and traveled all over North Carolina training and mentoring hundreds of women who later ran and won public office or political appointments. In 2008 she earned the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor in North Carolina, recognizing a lifetime of extraordinary service to the state. This film is a document and a tribute to her many accomplishments." www.mygalaxycinema.com
The premiere of this movie from Vivian Bowman, who teaches at Duke's Center for Documentary Studies, is at Galaxy Cinema in Cary, NC, on Monday, March 16,from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Brava, Betty Ann Knudsen! And those who document her accomplishments.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Being Scared of Something Small
I went to a birthday party this weekend where the adult being so honored didn't want to come into the house and greet the waiting party. And he knew this get-together was going to happen. So he stood around in the driveway, then on the porch, for quite a while. The buffet spread was out--and he was still not in. Finally he made the leap, came through the door.
The problem was: he just doesn't like the moment of coming into a party and greeting people. Really, really doesn't like it. Once he's inside, he's fine.
My point: everybody I've ever known has had some some phobia, some oddly particular thing they're unreasonably spooked by. I don't much care for millipedes, power saws, or used bandaids. Maybe we all choose a hook or two to hang death anxiety on, or performance anxiety.
My philosophy: tolerate those quirks in myself and others. They don't constitute the whole picture; for example, this particular birthday boy is overall a pretty gutsy person. Maybe the odd and intense hangup keeps the real fear--from our precarious and finite position on the planet--handily bound up in a place where it doesn't much get in the way.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
The problem was: he just doesn't like the moment of coming into a party and greeting people. Really, really doesn't like it. Once he's inside, he's fine.
My point: everybody I've ever known has had some some phobia, some oddly particular thing they're unreasonably spooked by. I don't much care for millipedes, power saws, or used bandaids. Maybe we all choose a hook or two to hang death anxiety on, or performance anxiety.
My philosophy: tolerate those quirks in myself and others. They don't constitute the whole picture; for example, this particular birthday boy is overall a pretty gutsy person. Maybe the odd and intense hangup keeps the real fear--from our precarious and finite position on the planet--handily bound up in a place where it doesn't much get in the way.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Friday, March 06, 2009
To Twitter Boldly?
Just when I get blogging down and have ever-so-confusedly waded into Facebook, here comes the rolling thunder of Twitter. It has been around. But never so publicly and famously as in recent weeks, or so it seems to me.
Months ago I made some move to sign up for it, but have done nothing with it.
Then just in the last few weeks, I read a large feature on it in New York magazine. And someone running a boat near that miraculous New York plane crash in the Hudson saw what was happening and, of all things, tweeted about it. Legislators were twittering from the floor of Congress while they listened to Obama give a live speech in front of them. And Jon Stewart did a snarky riff, "Twitter Frenzy", on his Daily Show; seems he thinks it's dumb. "This new technology sounds adorable!...I have no idea how it works or why it is."
.
The whole idea is sorta like this: you text-message a friend list a thought that can run up to 140 characters.
But today I learned about something going on on Twitter that I want in on. But jeez, I'm tired of these time-consuming new systems cropping up. However, I may have to learn the art of tweeting. Because there's an item going around called Queryfail; agents and editors are posting bits from bad query letters they've received (w/o any names.) A lot of readers are saying that seeing these errors is teaching them how to do it right. So that's a valuable resource. And I suppose I need to jump in. See you there. I guess.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Months ago I made some move to sign up for it, but have done nothing with it.
Then just in the last few weeks, I read a large feature on it in New York magazine. And someone running a boat near that miraculous New York plane crash in the Hudson saw what was happening and, of all things, tweeted about it. Legislators were twittering from the floor of Congress while they listened to Obama give a live speech in front of them. And Jon Stewart did a snarky riff, "Twitter Frenzy", on his Daily Show; seems he thinks it's dumb. "This new technology sounds adorable!...I have no idea how it works or why it is."
.
The whole idea is sorta like this: you text-message a friend list a thought that can run up to 140 characters.
But today I learned about something going on on Twitter that I want in on. But jeez, I'm tired of these time-consuming new systems cropping up. However, I may have to learn the art of tweeting. Because there's an item going around called Queryfail; agents and editors are posting bits from bad query letters they've received (w/o any names.) A lot of readers are saying that seeing these errors is teaching them how to do it right. So that's a valuable resource. And I suppose I need to jump in. See you there. I guess.
If you like this post, please bookmark it on del.icio.us, share it on StumbleUpon, vote for it on Digg. Thanks so much.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
