I don’t know how to write in public like this, have a public profile. I do it sometimes, and badly. I haven’t learned the lessons of personal branding. Some people have titles for themselves like, “Jane Smith, ‘The Pastry Lady’” or Bob White, ‘The Poet Extraordinaire.’” I have never felt my self expressed in a title. I have struggled with this for 30 years- wanting to want to belong to something but not wanting it. Wanting only to belong to my self, and by self, not my small, human-sized spaceship but the Source of Self. It is not marketable in the least. If you talk about it at work (which I don’t), they (the people who pay you) might chafe at your lack of devotion to the common cause. If you talk about it with friends or family (which I mostly don’t), they might roll their eyes and your lack of focus or immaturity. I have been waiting a long time to grow up and get a grip. At this point, it is becoming apparent that this way of being/thinking isn’t due to lack of commitment or knowledge or willingness to live in reality. The reality is that nothing sticks. We do this work, we do that work, we have this relationship, we birth, we bury, we lift, we put down, ashes to ashes. If I say I am this or that profession, how do I feel about the box I’m in? Does it explain me? Recently I had some conversations with people who work in Narrative Medicine and as I described some things I do, one person said the word “multivalent.” I said that sounds better than “scattered,” but he was not fooled by my hat tip to Culture (that tells me I am less-than for being interested in more-than). Everything is connected, it’s so plain to see. I have only ever been interested in this one thing.
I get you. I suppose we are researchers. I wrote about art as research during my MFA. Since I believe life is art I imagine we are artists observing our lives, testing ideas, feeling our way through the dark, and making our marks as scribbles on the path.
“They advocated for the imagination in which we can all create stories of each other and for each other without having lived them first”
This quote made me think of the fun I have in Tailspinning. Tailspinning opened a door in my imagination to “spin a tale” that whirled out of my mind with no forethought. When I write down a tale, I go into an unfamiliar/familiar space that has no ceiling.
I love this Gretchen! I'm also thinking how we allow visual artists to imagine anything fictitious and don't worry if they've lived it first. It's funny how in writing there is that emphasis on the author to have the lived experience to be able to write about it. I know what you mean about Tailspinning. It's such an incredible feeling when a tale starts to unveil itself one word and image at a time and suddenly there are characters and scenes in your mind that you've never seen before! Pure magic!!!
I don’t know how to write in public like this, have a public profile. I do it sometimes, and badly. I haven’t learned the lessons of personal branding. Some people have titles for themselves like, “Jane Smith, ‘The Pastry Lady’” or Bob White, ‘The Poet Extraordinaire.’” I have never felt my self expressed in a title. I have struggled with this for 30 years- wanting to want to belong to something but not wanting it. Wanting only to belong to my self, and by self, not my small, human-sized spaceship but the Source of Self. It is not marketable in the least. If you talk about it at work (which I don’t), they (the people who pay you) might chafe at your lack of devotion to the common cause. If you talk about it with friends or family (which I mostly don’t), they might roll their eyes and your lack of focus or immaturity. I have been waiting a long time to grow up and get a grip. At this point, it is becoming apparent that this way of being/thinking isn’t due to lack of commitment or knowledge or willingness to live in reality. The reality is that nothing sticks. We do this work, we do that work, we have this relationship, we birth, we bury, we lift, we put down, ashes to ashes. If I say I am this or that profession, how do I feel about the box I’m in? Does it explain me? Recently I had some conversations with people who work in Narrative Medicine and as I described some things I do, one person said the word “multivalent.” I said that sounds better than “scattered,” but he was not fooled by my hat tip to Culture (that tells me I am less-than for being interested in more-than). Everything is connected, it’s so plain to see. I have only ever been interested in this one thing.
I get you. I suppose we are researchers. I wrote about art as research during my MFA. Since I believe life is art I imagine we are artists observing our lives, testing ideas, feeling our way through the dark, and making our marks as scribbles on the path.
Nor is there a word good enough to describe a mother who’s lost a child…and I wonder…would one word even begin to describe me now?? Or, you 🫶🏼
“They advocated for the imagination in which we can all create stories of each other and for each other without having lived them first”
This quote made me think of the fun I have in Tailspinning. Tailspinning opened a door in my imagination to “spin a tale” that whirled out of my mind with no forethought. When I write down a tale, I go into an unfamiliar/familiar space that has no ceiling.
I love this Gretchen! I'm also thinking how we allow visual artists to imagine anything fictitious and don't worry if they've lived it first. It's funny how in writing there is that emphasis on the author to have the lived experience to be able to write about it. I know what you mean about Tailspinning. It's such an incredible feeling when a tale starts to unveil itself one word and image at a time and suddenly there are characters and scenes in your mind that you've never seen before! Pure magic!!!
Thank you 🙏🏽❤️
xoxox