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!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Playlist

Make a playlist, she says! Easy for you to say. Not easy for me to do. We never had a term for a bunch of music you had to have around you while you live your life. We had the radio on constantly but we had to wait for our favorites until they were broadcast.  And we bought albums we could play when we wanted to hear our favorites, on our players at home in our room (if we were lucky) or with the family listening too. So, living with my choice of music in my life constantly is a bit of a stretch for me.

Five years ago I packed up my albums, tapes, players and music and they went to my new house in Washington. Less than two weeks later my son was dead and I never unpacked the music. I-pods had just come in to general use and I remember listening to my son's favorites on the 16 hour drive home in his car with his belongings packed in, crying all the way. And that was it for me and music.

Sure, I listen to the top ten here on the radio.  It's pop rock; Mariah, Adelle, country stars (I don't even remember their names) and I enjoy them as they come to me. Or, I listen to the oldies station where the songs are familiar. I'll always love my brother's music but he passed last year so it is painful now. Last Christmas, my daughter, bless her, copied every CD from my son's collection onto an ipod for me to enjoy. His music is the music we shared when we drove around together...Green Day, Bob Marley, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Lee Hooker, Bob Marley, No Doubt, Prodigy, Weird Al and Macy Gray. It's not easy to keep the earbuds in.  They're uncomfortable.  They remind me my hearing is not what it used to be. But, then again, nothing is...what it used to be. Especially not my music, my playlist....not easy.
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2 comments:

  1. RosieMarch 17, 2012 at 1:42 PM

    oh wow, the loss hits home everywhere. even in the music...

    ReplyDelete
  2. JCMarch 17, 2012 at 2:37 PM

    mmm. that smarts. that's a loss no one should ever have to experience..

    ReplyDelete

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