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!

Monday, March 26, 2012

what? no dryer?

so it's spring
and the forsythia has burst
and the cherry is in full blossom
and the daffodils are dancing

and the smell of downy is in the air..

everyone in my neighborhood hangs their clothes out to dry
it's green
and it saves money
the dryer doesnt heat up the house unnecessarily..
and well.. it just smells so good.

so a few summers ago i had a student who lived a couple houses away and she wanted to come to my house for her lesson.  i agreed. 

first lesson at the house, she walks up the back walkway and i greet her at the deck.  my clothes and sheets are on the line and so are my neighbor's.

she says.. 'are the people in this part of the neighborhood poor?'

i look at her.. puzzled.  no, why?

'well your clothes are all out on the line.. don't you own a dryer?'

shame on me for forgetting we live in an age of technology.. where we are so used to everything being quick and easy.. and at our fingertips.  this is a kid who has never known a life with no internet or cable or cell phones and has never had to hang a load of laundry out to dry.. ever.

i smile wryly.. and usher her in for her lesson. 

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2 comments:

  1. reeseMarch 26, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    JC...
    Another great writing!!!
    Before my illness, I used to hang out all the time...I long for the fresh scent on the sheets, the crispy towels, the bee's clinging on the clothes as I fold them..OUCH, it stung me..nah...I don't miss the bee part.
    It is sad that kids are brought up with such technology now. The world is spinning too fast! What's next???

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  2. SharonMarch 26, 2012 at 9:10 PM

    Lovely, fresh writing! I could smell the air all the way through it. My neighbor hangs her clothes. When I see them flapping, I am filled with such envy of the way those sheets must smell on the bed, and the towels, like my grandmother's.

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