At the end of the summer I will be teaching a blogging workshop. This is the first one I will be doing, and the theme of the class is The Mind and Body. As you can imagine, I have been rummaging through blogs of note that deal with fitness, health and wellness, cooking, veganism, and all this content is getting to be a bit much...and is making me more willing to take lunch a bit earlier! That said, feel free to comment and suggest any health and wellness blogs you may follow.
Thinking about what I actually want to share with the students I will be "teaching" how to blog (I use the word teach loosely here because they must indeed develop their own creative endeavors) I have realized that most people have a theme to their blogs...and I ummm...do not! However, I think about it more and more these days and I have decided that for now it's OK to be themeless. The reason to remain without an agenda--much the same as all my logic from younger years...I will not conform! (I just giggled as i wrote those familiar words)
While sifting through all the offerings on food prepared gluten-free, and meditation habits that help calm us city-folk the hell down, I have realized that when I write something that seems like its about to be all over the place, I actually end up with something coherent in the end. So for now, themelessness is not a problem. Starting out as a young writer who did not have anything but assignments to complete, it was easier to stick to a topic, or make my point in 500 words or so. However, no one assigns these blogging rants, and although people do often say, "Hey you should write about..." it is not as often that I take their advice.
Thinking in this same vein, I realize I finally have something concrete to build upon...I have an assignment again! I never thought I would feel so grateful for getting homework, but I am. Lately I've been contemplating going back to school--either for a PhD or a second Masters, and have thought about all the various times that I have changed my ideas of what I want to be when I grow up. Decision: I don't want to be labeled and I will not conform! (teehee always evokes fond memories when I say that) And actually, school is just too much money right now. As reality smacks me yet again...
This also (ironically but maybe not as funny) brings to mind a memory of my mom (in her 40s at the time) driving me to school one day. I leaned my nine year old self over the back of her red, convertible, 1971 Ford Mustang driver's seat and said, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" This of course was funny on so many levels. First of all, at that point she was a stay at home mom; it was of course the eighties, and stating the obvious: she had pretty much grown up...and in fact had a career previous to being a stay at home mom.
This brings me to the next question (of my own that is) and please understand--I'm not a mom so smack me with a wet noodle, or comment if I am off base please! Is being a stay at home mom not a career in itself? I think about all the work I see my friends with offspring doing every day and it makes me exhausted...literally. I watch them scurry around with literal luggage that aparrently comes with babies and I feel like I want to sleep. So my blog is not specifically about food, fitness, or motherhood. There are things that all may be future endeavors in my life and at some point may appear--or have appeared already in my writing. (See previous post about that Fkn Clock) and that's fine...but is it really ok to be themeless?
Looking at the slight bit of info that goes on the profile page of a blog, we don't exactly give our readers a full-bio and life history. However the basics are there. You can see I'm female (at least I hope my pics are that decent) and that I teach, write and edit...and from a quick look, you can learn my location and a bit about what I do as a writer. Beyond that, however, I think there is maybe less than might appear on my book jacket (whence it comes) and therefore I feel an openness that is afforded to me. Call it creative licence, or artistic freedom. I call it my ability to be blunt and obscure whenever necessary.
Sometimes we need blunt and obscure instead of feeling bogged down with details. I had a friend recently say I was a streaming consciousness freak...which I totally think was a compliment . Thus, I avoided a label again-hooray! For example, my recent endeavors include: this blog, a short narrative piece about my father submitted to an essay contest, a woman's health topic article that has appeared on the kick-ass women's website PRG (http://www.powderroomgraffiti.com/feel-it/exercising-my-womanhood.html) and an ever evolving development of two books...simultaneously. hey I always said variety is the spice of life.
Based on all the mixed up themes and topics, and locations of my work, I will have to agree with my earlier thought that it's 100% OK to be themeless. After all, who wants only one genre to be listed under. Having worked in publishing--I know for a fact that you sell less books if that's your situation. I knew all that knowledge would be useful to my own work one day-AHA! And if you asked just now...did she just say she's agreed with herself...YES! And I will not conform! That means's I've said what I have said and I'm sticking to it. I think we know what that's all about by now...
Back to the idea of themes however, I have to wonder if there is something to be said for those who do not jump around as much as I do...literally and figuratively. I feel sometimes like I spend my life in a car, on bridges, trains, between city and suburbs, between different towns needed to travel to for work, or even just having taken a vacation for 9 days to Cape Cod and upstate NY...I am often displaced. This my friends, may just be the theme for me. No matter where I am or what I happen to be doing at the moment, I have yet to feel like I belong 100% to that place and time. Yes, displacement may be my theme...but I'm ok with that because nobody will shelve my work under: DISPLACED in the dusty, unexplored corner of Barnes &; Noble. If they do it's probably because they know me personally and just aren't so secure themselves...just kidding...or am I?
On that note--into the heat I go to get a gluten free muffin, take deep meditative breaths and a walk for ten minutes.
Viva la summer and thank goodness for airconditioned faculty rooms!
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