Blog Manifesto

Blog Manifesto


This blog is dedicated, as the title would suggest, to the qualities of being young. We are young writers. We are playful and sensitive, fluid and changing. We are unashamed with our art. We wonder at the world, puzzle over the meanings of things and twirl in delight at images and ideas that float by, grabbing at them as they pass. We are curious and constantly inquiring and prying concepts open and taking assumptions apart. We are on the ground, close to the earth. We have bare feet and wiggle our toes into nature. We carry our blankies still and wrap up cozy and comfy with each other and tell ghost stories and shiver at creepy things. We laugh and we cry and we take a lot of naps, drained from our outings and exertions.

We write as gifts to each other, tying them up in ribbon and leaving them around for each other to find, hiding and waiting for the person to wake up and read. Surprise! We weave our stories together to create a bond. One writes, then the other. then another again. We have a shared reality that we have crafted, bit by piece by patch, by string. We write simple, honest authentic things, with our unique voices. You can tell each one of us from the other, without knowing who wrote what. Our voices are clear and gentle and original. We whisper and our personalities roar! Like children, our feelings are strong, our passion for what we write shakes us. We are moved and sometimes left breathless, by our own words or the words of each other. We cannonball into each others spaces. We fall backward into each others writing, like into a pile of leaves or a soft bed. We gobble and grin and ask for more. (footnote kudos to JC)

Then we go to bed, wake up to a new day and do it all over again!

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

tell about the last time you felt you fit in.



The last time I felt like I fit in was about 10 minutes ago sitting with Reese, Jean, Amy and JC.  I feel like I can be myself most of the time. 


If I hold my breath and watch myself very closely, I can fit in around people for a very short time.  I have to watch my mouth so closely, because I laugh easily and I have to watch out that I don't make jokes. I don't fit in to desk jobs where you have to concentrate and work a deadline.


My last volunteer position was at my son's school library.  I really had to be quiet then.  But the librarian was a wonderful woman with an acerbic wit and we got along like two ducks in a puddle.  She was bright and dedicated to teaching her students and she was opinionated and didn't put up with fools easily.  Yet she was sweet.  I worked with her for part of 6th grade and most of 7th being honestly helpful, freeing her up to work with students while I manned the desk.  I ended up learning the names of half the school's students too.  They knew me and I knew them.  Librarians are a bit like confessors.  Kids come in and blow off steam and tell you their troubles.

My writing is getting too colloquial and full of cheap metaphors.

I digress.

When I ran an infant nursery in Santa Barbara, I was fitting in perfectly to twelve families' lives.   They entrusted me with their children and we built a community from the day care.  When you run a service business, you have to either give people what they want and fit into their needs or you pick your people carefully and have them fit into yours.  I was very picky and weeded out the people who didn't fit it with my philosophy of child rearing.  It made for easier days and harmonious relationships.


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