Getting Started

I've had this blog for a couple of months now but, aside from a New Yorker cartoon, I haven't posted anything--as you can see. I've thought of lots of post ideas, have even composed sentences, entire entries, in my head. But I haven't until this minute actually sat down to do it.

I didn't know how to post and had to learn from my husband. That was one stumbling block. I was convinced that learning how would take a lot of time--and I have no patience for computer learning. That was another stumbling block. The time just never seemed "right." That was another stumbling block.

For the umpteenth time, my husband said to me, "Just let me show you how. It will take two minutes. I promise."
"But I have a client later this morning and I have a class to prepare."
"Two minutes," he said.

"But, but . . ."

I sounded just like my students who say: "I don't have time to write." or "I don't MAKE time to write." or "What I have to say isn't important so I don't say anything." or "I just can't. Not now. It's not the right time. Later." or "I really really want to write about my mother but I don't know where to begin."

And how do I respond to these folks? "Just do it," I say. "Put pen to paper, fingers to keys. Writing doesn't happen without writing. Writing is thinking. Meaning grows on the page."

Sometimes we teach what we need to learn.

So, voila! An entry! Yes, I know, blog freaks will say, "Well duh, blogging is already ancient history. Where have you been?"

But something else I tell my students is this: you have to start from where you are. Comparisons are odious. Let those voices yammer in your head at you--scold you, censor you, laugh at you. A woman in a class last week said she hears this, her mother's voice, in her head, all the time. "Who do you think you are, young lady?"

But start anyway. Talk back. Give 'em hell.

So, hello. I've started!