during the wake
we all gathered inside
close together
to talk, eat, laugh, cry, listen to music, tell stories, remember
celebrate a life
the children from 4-10
all played together
went outside
chalk in hand
wrote a beautiful welcome to all who would come
and loving tributes to the one who had left.
“tears are words that need to be written.”
-paul coelho
ten years ago
this surprise postcard
appeared in my mailbox
from a former student
now far away
addressed to peaches
my affectionate nickname
sent to me
when she was seven not yet eight
her only message
a beautiful poem
summed up
life
in three lines
love is love
life is life
there is nothing else to it.
i knew way back when
she was just four not yet five
learning
how to hold a pencil to write
she was a beat poet and roller derby queen of adventure.
—
“one should write because one loves the shape of stories and sentences
and the creation of different words on a page.”
-annie proulx
[MAWN-dər]
part of speech: verb
origin: unknown, early 17th century
1.talk in a rambling manner.
2.move or act in a dreamy or idle manner.
“don’t get beth started on her favorite movies, or she will maunder forever.”
“the blooming trees inspired me to maunder all afternoon in the woods.”
—
image credit: freepik
“drawing on my fine command of the English language, i said nothing.”
-robert benchley
—
book source credit: Disaster Inc. by Caimh McDonnell
—
“buono come il pane.”
this Italian idiom refers to someone who is “as good as bread.”
that is, someone who is caring and loving and a person of the heart.
—
i really, really love this phrase and am definitely going to start using it. such the perfect words.
Probably too recently, say the faculty of Lake Superior State University, the Michigan college that releases an annual list of words that they say deserve to be “banished” from our vocabularies over “misuse, overuse and uselessness.”
“Our nominators insisted, and our Arts and Letters faculty judges concurred, that to decree the Banished Words List 2023 as the GOAT is tantamount to gaslighting. Does that make sense?” said Rodney S. Hanley, the university’s president. “Irregardless, moving forward, it is what it is: an absolutely amazing inflection point of purposeless and ineptitude that overtakes so many mouths and fingers,” Hanley added.
Here’s the full list of the school’s banished words for this year:
Out of over 1,500 nominations — from people across the U.S. and as far afield as New Zealand and Namibia — judges declared that this year’s top offender was “GOAT,” the acronym for “greatest of all time.”
Nominators and faculty alike found the term objectionable due both to its impossibility – how can anyone declare a single best of all time when another may come along in the future – and the liberal way the title is dispensed these days.
“The singularity of ‘greatest of all time’ cannot happen, no way, no how. And instead of being selectively administered, it’s readily conferred,” said Peter Szatmary, a spokesperson for Lake State.
Lake State’s faculty judges would likely argue that was too many people (and non-people) described as “the greatest of all time.” “Words and terms matter. Or at least they should,” Szatmary said.
Joining “GOAT” in banishment are nine other words and phrases that nominators and judges complained were used so often that they had become disconnected from their literal meanings – like “amazing,” which nominators fretted no longer meant “dazzling” or “awe-inspiring.”
“Not everything is amazing; and when you think about it, very little is,” one nominator noted.
Frequently targeted are of-the-moment phrases like “in these uncertain times” (as so many COVID-related messages began in 2020), “information superhighway” (banished in 1995) and “filmed before a live studio audience” (such a vice it was banished twice, first in 1987 then again in 1990).
—
“the flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment.
the lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say;
but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work.
-voltaire
—
credits: npr, becky sullivan, image, christopher furlong, getty images
what a wonderful 90 minutes
spent (online) with one of my all-time favorite authors
*fredrik backman.
public libraries in 37 states hosted this live chat with fredrik
as he continued on a worldwide book tour
for his latest work, ‘the winners.’
he spoke openly about his struggles with anxiety
being on the autism spectrum
the pressures of a success which he never expected
his wife as his partner and support in all things
her important roles
organizing his promotional side of being an author
helping him to stay grounded
encouraging him taking as many breaks as needed.
i first became acquainted with his writing with the arrival of his book (and later, film),
‘a man called ove’
and there was no going back.
when he was asked about his writing process in today’s chat,
i found that we have a somewhat similar process.
his reply:
“my process is just chaos. all of these ideas are just in my head, like horses in a burning barn, trying to get out. my brain is always working, hearing a bit of conversation, crossing paths with a stranger, a place i happen into, anything is fair game, and i think, i would love to include those words or that person in my writing. i am always observing, listening, taking it all in, my brain never stops. i have to write an idea down on whatever i can find, an envelope, a scrap of paper, a receipt….then 3 weeks later i’ll make my family insane by asking, “where is that envelope i wrote my idea on a few weeks ago?” i have to scour our whole apartment looking for it and make everyone crazy. i suppose that is my process.”
amazing.
“words are not small things.”
-fredrik backman, beartown
—
*Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and Anxious People, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter @BackmanLand or on Instagram @BackmanSK.
anyone who works with me, is related to me, or friends with me
knows i love writing my ideas/notes/lists
on any random found piece of paper
all makes perfect sense to me
interesting to look back at later
when out of context and a bit of time has gone by.
—
“but those who cannot write, and those who can, all rhyme, and scrawl, and scribble to a man.”
-alexander pope
—
note: (photo above is an “S” page ( S is for: scribbles, scraps and scrawls)
from a work-in progress – my memoir,
done in a large-format, alphabet book style,
using a bajillion collage pieces cut from everywhere – the best way i know to tell my story.)
on this special day
i brought out
an old treasured story
written by
my former student, nicole
who i taught for grades k-2
(in a school where we were known by our first names)
a story about me sharing stories
made me cry happy tears to read
how much she enjoyed the stories
what ginormous heaps of praise
from a fellow roald dahl fan.
—
happy roald dahl story day!!
—
“words are our most inexhaustible source of magic.”
-albus dumbledore (j.k. rowling, harry potter series)
I didn't have my glasses on.... 