In and Out of My Comfort Zone
Last Sunday afternoon I met with a group of writers at the Hutch library. Jim P. from the Master Gardener class had invited me. When a conflict arose, and he couldn't attend, he kindly introduced me to the informal group leader, Marilyn, and said I would be coming. Marilyn has taught writing classes on the university level. She's well into retirement now.
The group has been meeting for more than 50 years, at Ann's initiative. Ann is well into her eighties, and still attends. She writes really good poetry, Jim tells me. Indeed, the poem she read at the meeting was very nice.
One woman who arrived late (the earliest she can make it), said, "Oh, I know you" when I was introduced. When I learned her last name I remembered that we had gotten acquainted while both of us were hosting an exchange student from Japan. Kay is a prolific writer--not an easy feat, I suppose, while mothering her five children. Her husband owns Cliff's Tree Care, a service I would recommend to anyone who needs such a service. Cassie came with Kay. I don't know much about Cassie and her writing.
Reggie was the only male in the group, in Jim's absence. He is newly married. I don't know much else about him, except that his writing hints at his being a person of faith. While no one would be likely to assume that he and I have much in common, based on appearances, we did indeed find common ground very quickly. He's quite knowledgeable about Japanese culture, and even knows a bit of the language. He also recognized my first name as a Hebrew name. He seems gentle and thoughtful.
I think I'll find it stretching to associate regularly with this group--in a good way, but not always in a comfortable way, I'm afraid. I had to write spur-of-the-moment fiction during our 20-minute impromptu writing exercise on this topic: Your main character is arrested. We were to spin a yarn including that detail.
Fiction is not really my cup of tea, but I dutifully wrote as much as I could in that time period. Everyone read their writing aloud after the time was up. Marilyn had a complete and coherent story that left everyone barely breathing at the end. Her character had unknowingly hit and killed a motorcycle driver. Most of the rest of us had gotten something less memorable written.
I was impressed too with how Marilyn could respond so confidently to the writing of others after hearing it only once. I can't begin to do that. I need to read it, probably multiple times, in order to feel confident enough that I understand what's being said to respond helpfully.
This sabbatical is moving along my learning in ways I did not foresee at all when I began the sabbatical. I take it to be the Lord's orchestration of opportunities I could never have thought to arrange, and I'm grateful.
In Master Gardener class and in the writing group, I am a student--all the way--not a teacher or a master of anything, and I love it. In MG class I take notes madly and study hard before the quizzes. Last week I did what students often regret doing--changing an answer from right to wrong, after second-guessing the first answer. Hate when that happens. It all helps shift my perspective again to the student version of a classroom environment.
In MG class, I'm in a very sweet spot of learning a great deal about things that interest me a great deal. I'm not sure what to do about it, but I pity students who are often obliged to spend many hours learning about things that don't even slightly interest them. They have to do it because someone decided it was good for them.
I heard one person last week lament that we were getting waaaaay too much information. I honestly could have sat for another spell of the same kind of information on trees--with pleasure.
The presenter informed us at the beginning of the day that he usually gets louder and talks faster as the day progresses. He did both. During a break I overheard him say that he always had behavior problems in school. Now his wife is a teacher, and he told her that he probably would have been an ADD kid if people had known what that was when he was in school. He reported that his wife said, "No. You would have been an ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] kid." I could "see" it all. His fertile, active mind and restless limbs felt trapped inside the classroom. Bored in that environment, he caused his teachers a lot of trouble. When his interests and learning opportunities coincided later in life, he was off and away--becoming ever-so-knowledgeable and loving it all the while.
Without any notes he talked for most of five hours on trees, prompted by pictures on a slide show, mostly, but also by the woody examples he brought along. He is the state forester for the south-central region of Kansas. I'm not sure of his exact relationship with the John Pair Center, but he does a lot of work there as well. Tim McConnell has a store of information that anyone in the SC Kansas region can benefit from if they need help with selecting and growing trees.
He says people from other states sometimes laugh at the notion that Kansas needs anyone in forestry service. Tim points out that eastern Kansas does have native forests, and most cities have quite a few trees. Part of his job is to help city officials be successful with their tree programs.
It's a real privilege to learn from people who are passionate about things that also interest me.
The group has been meeting for more than 50 years, at Ann's initiative. Ann is well into her eighties, and still attends. She writes really good poetry, Jim tells me. Indeed, the poem she read at the meeting was very nice.
One woman who arrived late (the earliest she can make it), said, "Oh, I know you" when I was introduced. When I learned her last name I remembered that we had gotten acquainted while both of us were hosting an exchange student from Japan. Kay is a prolific writer--not an easy feat, I suppose, while mothering her five children. Her husband owns Cliff's Tree Care, a service I would recommend to anyone who needs such a service. Cassie came with Kay. I don't know much about Cassie and her writing.
Reggie was the only male in the group, in Jim's absence. He is newly married. I don't know much else about him, except that his writing hints at his being a person of faith. While no one would be likely to assume that he and I have much in common, based on appearances, we did indeed find common ground very quickly. He's quite knowledgeable about Japanese culture, and even knows a bit of the language. He also recognized my first name as a Hebrew name. He seems gentle and thoughtful.
I think I'll find it stretching to associate regularly with this group--in a good way, but not always in a comfortable way, I'm afraid. I had to write spur-of-the-moment fiction during our 20-minute impromptu writing exercise on this topic: Your main character is arrested. We were to spin a yarn including that detail.
Fiction is not really my cup of tea, but I dutifully wrote as much as I could in that time period. Everyone read their writing aloud after the time was up. Marilyn had a complete and coherent story that left everyone barely breathing at the end. Her character had unknowingly hit and killed a motorcycle driver. Most of the rest of us had gotten something less memorable written.
I was impressed too with how Marilyn could respond so confidently to the writing of others after hearing it only once. I can't begin to do that. I need to read it, probably multiple times, in order to feel confident enough that I understand what's being said to respond helpfully.
This sabbatical is moving along my learning in ways I did not foresee at all when I began the sabbatical. I take it to be the Lord's orchestration of opportunities I could never have thought to arrange, and I'm grateful.
In Master Gardener class and in the writing group, I am a student--all the way--not a teacher or a master of anything, and I love it. In MG class I take notes madly and study hard before the quizzes. Last week I did what students often regret doing--changing an answer from right to wrong, after second-guessing the first answer. Hate when that happens. It all helps shift my perspective again to the student version of a classroom environment.
In MG class, I'm in a very sweet spot of learning a great deal about things that interest me a great deal. I'm not sure what to do about it, but I pity students who are often obliged to spend many hours learning about things that don't even slightly interest them. They have to do it because someone decided it was good for them.
I heard one person last week lament that we were getting waaaaay too much information. I honestly could have sat for another spell of the same kind of information on trees--with pleasure.
The presenter informed us at the beginning of the day that he usually gets louder and talks faster as the day progresses. He did both. During a break I overheard him say that he always had behavior problems in school. Now his wife is a teacher, and he told her that he probably would have been an ADD kid if people had known what that was when he was in school. He reported that his wife said, "No. You would have been an ADHD [attention deficit hyperactivity disorder] kid." I could "see" it all. His fertile, active mind and restless limbs felt trapped inside the classroom. Bored in that environment, he caused his teachers a lot of trouble. When his interests and learning opportunities coincided later in life, he was off and away--becoming ever-so-knowledgeable and loving it all the while.
Without any notes he talked for most of five hours on trees, prompted by pictures on a slide show, mostly, but also by the woody examples he brought along. He is the state forester for the south-central region of Kansas. I'm not sure of his exact relationship with the John Pair Center, but he does a lot of work there as well. Tim McConnell has a store of information that anyone in the SC Kansas region can benefit from if they need help with selecting and growing trees.
He says people from other states sometimes laugh at the notion that Kansas needs anyone in forestry service. Tim points out that eastern Kansas does have native forests, and most cities have quite a few trees. Part of his job is to help city officials be successful with their tree programs.
It's a real privilege to learn from people who are passionate about things that also interest me.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
9:02 PM
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