At first when Courtney from Everything in Between nominated me for this award, I thought perhaps I had received it because I was “scrappy.” I have always wanted to be scrappy. But instead, The Honest Scrap Award is – well, I don’t know what it’s for – but I am always honored (and surprised) to win anything, so woo hoo!

Here’s how it works:
1. “The Honest Scrap” award must be shared.
2. The recipient has to tell 10 true things about themselves that no one else knows.
3. The recipient has to pass along the award to 10 more bloggers.
4. Those 10 bloggers all have to be notified they have been given this award.
5. Those 10 bloggers should link back to the blog that awarded them.

I, like Courtney, am not sure there are ten things about me that no one knows, so I may have to modify this a bit and make this list of ten things that most people don’t know, or ten things that people on the web probably don’t know. As a nonfiction writer, I’ve laid a lot of life out there, so I hope you will forgive this slight modification. So without further hedging, here is my list.

1. I really want a black eye. Yep, the real thing with bruising and swelling and all. I keep trying to get Dave to give me one, but he has this pesky principle about not punching the woman he’s dating. Maybe I”ll get hit by a rogue softball one day.

2. I once started to cry after seeing a performance of Peter Pan when I was eight or so because the lead actor, Casey Gallagher, in all of his 13 or 14 year or old glory signed my program and smiled at me.

3. I hate taking pictures of natural scenes – like fields or mountain scapes – and getting power lines in the shot. When human creation intrudes on my vision of nature, I get grumpy.

4. I used to eat chalk.

5. I would scream like a little girl if I ever met Bono. Really, high pitched shrieking, foot stamping, tears – think Beatles a la 1965 and you will think of me.

6. I really enjoy noticing what images come to mind as I write or tutor or teach. This morning, I see the upper gateway in my childhood yard, where the split rail fence opened up onto the top part of the loop that formed our neighborhood block. I can still see the shadowed plants and the mulch walkway, the mossy wood of the fence; maybe if I work on it, I can even smell that place. I always wonder what brings up certain images on certain days.

7. When I think of my day or my week ahead, I picture the parts where I am doing something as blocks of darkness and the places where I am free of obligation as blocks of lightness.

8. Nothing brings me more peace than the sound of the wind in the trees on a fall day in the mountains.

9. I really want a herd of big dogs that I can name after slow movements like Mosey, Saunter, Waddle (that one will be a Basset Hound), and Pokey.

10. My favorite Biblical name is Mechelzidek, but I don’t think I can name any future children that.

So now for the nominees,

1. The Literate Kitten

2. Word Lily

3. Third Storey Window

4. Fizzy Thoughts

5. Oh! Books . . . Paper . . . Real Life

6. Ready When You Are, C.B.

7. Stone Soup

8. Tripping Toward Lucidity

9. Semicolon

10. Shore Acres

Enjoy these great blogs everyone. I surely do.

Filed by Andi at 5:00 am under Uncategorized
5 Comments

In six weeks or so, I will be downsizing from my townhouse to a two-bedroom apartment. And so I have begun the process of packing (and when I say that I have begun, I mean that I have packed three boxes).

For me, this is the best part of moving – the purging and cleaning out of unnecessary clutter. It’s truly stupefying how much stuff one woman can accumulate in three and a half years. But I do love going through things and getting rid of what I don’t need. I like to give “gifts” to people who might appreciate that special clock (or not); I like to donate things to good organizations; I like to sell what I can at yard sales; and I even love just throwing things away (recycling what I can of course). There’s just something really gratifying about paring down the material representations of my life.

Of course, I can get borderline obsessive at this point in the moving process. I try to “use” my shampoo faster so I don’t have to pack it. I consider what books I need – like those textbooks I teach from, are they necessary? I even begin to think about what food I need to eat through and how quickly. I’m sure there’s a little mental illness in here, but still, I love it.

I am off to clean out the bathroom – who knew one girl could have so many shades of nail polish when she bites her fingernails?

Filed by Andi at 6:01 am under Teaching Triumphs and Travails, Uncategorized
No Comments

Last night, I dragged Dave and Kathy to see Fame. I will readily admit that the movie wasn’t unbelievable – trying to do too much in one film, I think – but honestly, I loved it. You see, I used to watch Fame on TV when I was a kid, and in some way that I never would have realized if they hadn’t redone the movie, that show really influenced how I looked at life. To see people pursuing their dreams and to see those dreams be things in the arts, well, I think this show may have been where my parents’ lessons about being who you are and being true t yourself got reinforced for me.

So, today, I find myself wanting so much to move forward in my writing dreams and yet, I am tired and distracted and really at a loss. I want to want to write, but I really can’t fathom sitting at the screen and typing away. Part of me knows I need to simply be disciplined; part of me knows I need replenishment. And part of me just has a lot to do with packing and moving and teaching.

Thus, I am blogging it all out – trying to put some words on the page in an act of discipline and a way of making sense. I find that when I write, even a little blog entry or just some random thoughts, I find myself more at ease with where I am. Perhaps if I could just recall this feeling when I’m not having it, I would drive myself to the page more often.

For now, though, I must be with what I am – frustrated, tired, immensely happy with life, and really wanting to pursue those dreams that Fame so makes live in me.

Filed by Andi at 8:59 am under Teaching Triumphs and Travails, Written and Wrought
1 Comment

Today, all, for my Friday book giveaway, I am offering W. B. Yeats’ collection Irish Folk Stories and Fairy Tales. These are Yeats’ renditions of these tales, and therefore, they are gorgeous and stunning, like his poetry.

I find myself liking fairy tales and folklore more and more. There’s something quintessentially true about these stories, something that doesn’t often appear – at least not in the same form – in novels or contemporary short stories. Perhaps it’s the simplicity of the plot or the sincerity of the characters. Or maybe it’s just that these stories ring of nostalgic and times gone by where life seems simpler, from my 21st century perspective.

If you are a fairy tale fan or if you love Yeats, this book is a great addition to your collection. So leave a comment for a chance to win, and spread the word – Twitter, Facebook, your own blog – to get more entries.

And last week’s winner of the David Lodge combo is OldUvai – Congratulations!

– Irish Folk Stories and Fairy Tales by W. B. Yeats (Note – the cover of my edition is different, and my copy is older (but in perfect condition), published when books were $.95.

Filed by Andi at 5:06 am under Uncategorized
4 Comments

Lately, I’ve been coming back to lots of questions of peace and pacifism, questions I have not explored deeply since I left the Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project. While researching Dr. King’s life, I came upon questions of pacifism all the time because that was one of the central tenets of his way in life – to confront evil with good. As I read his words, I found my path steadied in the way of peace.

But since then, I haven’t thought much about it. I call myself a pacifist; occasionally I consider what is the nonviolent way of responding to a situation. But mostly, I go about my business in the usual way, often seeing conflict avoidance as some misshapen way of peace. I’m glad I’m returning to these questions.

For many years, I read the work of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who is still, by far, the greatest spiritual influence on my life beyond the Bible. His book Passion for Peace really probes questions of violence – both personal and national – and takes on, especially, nuclear proliferation. Here, I have no problem – we should not have any nuclear weapons on the earth – that is my belief. (And yes, I understand the political challenges and international complications of this position. As I said, this I have thought through.)

In the smaller questions – how not to do violence of any kind to a person who is intent on doing violence to you; how to not support violence with my work or with my money; how to actively live out a way of peace every day – I find my dilemmas. And sometimes these questions get bigger – how do I show love to my students and friends who are in the military when I do not and will not support their work? How do I justify paying my taxes when such a large portion of them goes to the military-industrial complex?

Yesterday, in the June issue of The Sun Magazine, I read an interview with Father John Dear, a Jesuit priest who actively seeks to live out his pacifism because he believes it is the central tenet of Jesus’ way on earth. He has been arrested, lost his job, and suffered other consequences for his activism. I have suffered nothing for my pacifism beyond the sometimes scornful looks or words from people in conversation.

I still am at a loss on most of these questions, but if there is one thing I have learned in the past few months it’s that there is time and space for these questions to be worked out in me. He who began a good work will finish it. I must live the questions, to quote Rilke, and trust that the answers will become clear.

Meanwhile, what are your questions about pacifism or nonviolence? What struggles do you have with peace? How do we bring it more to earth? Where are you on this path? I’d honestly like to hear your thoughts, no matter your beliefs. One of the ways to live the questions is to be open to the answers, wherever they may come from, so please do share. Thansk.

Filed by Andi at 4:55 am under Book Recommendations
3 Comments