WRITING A BLOG, OR ANYTHING

It seems appropriate that I talk a little about writing.  For years I have been significantly intimidated when it comes to writing.  I think it comes from the classes I spent in my freshman year at Duke.  I am sure some of you remember the trek via bus, foot or begged ride, from West to East and the walk to the classroom.  Usually I was significantly tired  and it took me a while to get acclimated to the seat.  We never seemed to have enough time to get to class on East. 

I did well in my senior year at Greensboro Senior High School with Louise Smith^.  She was a jewel as I later found out. Seems I did not appreciate her enough until I got to Duke and I know I never told her how I felt.  She had a huge pile of books in the back of our classroom.  They were certainly musky enough.  I was somehow sure that she bought them as first publication even though they were all the classics.  She seemed so old then, but she taught another twenty or so years after I left...maybe more.  Many of you remember her.  She truly got us ready for college.  It would have been unheard of today, but she required a composition each week.  Somewhere between 250 and 500 words.  Oh my!  Kids today would die.  As I said, I did well at Duke with A's because of her.   Her first quote in class was.....

"GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day

To-morrow will be dying.

My goodness she was a smart one!  That poem means a lot more today.

Back to my intimidation.  It is all about grammar.  I had to be so careful and somehow it takes away the spontaneous nature of writing.  I am not good at detail.  That is one reason.  The other is that through my life I have done lots of writing but.... it was technical in nature and that is a whole different set of rules, and when I wrote for articles and contributions for books I had wonderful staff and editors.  

Now I am just putting words down in this Blog.  The purpose is different.  I am sharing my life, my memories, my thoughts and whatever else.  I don't really care about the grammar,if you can read it. Some of you will cringe at the rules I ignore, and some of you wont even know the difference. I know that some things I say will be so misinterpreted, and some of you will think it is foolish... many will love and enjoy.  Hope you never feel it is pointed at you.   If it is ever published I am sure some lovely editor will take care of the grammar.

“Writing is one way of discovering sequence in experience . . . connections slowly emerge. Like distant landmarks you are approaching, cause and effect begin to align themselves . . . experiences . . . connect and are identified as a larger shape.”

Eudora Welty


*For those who may be interested, in the Duke Archives, Louise Smith is interviewed in the Oral History of Civil Rights.... http://library.uncg.edu/dp/crg/oralhistitem.aspx?i=677