Today was my writing lab. I didn't have any papers to correct - but boy do I now, none of my students wanted to talk to me, so I wrote a little something that has to do with my attitude about creative pursuits. Here goes:
I sit in class awaiting inspiration.

Where is it? I've looked for it in

several places. I've searched my

memory for remarkable events of my

past or future life. I've stared intently at the

top of my writing table, searching for words

that might suddenly appear. I've gazed out the

window at a windy, gray day hoping thoughts

would swirl in my mind and come out my pen.

I've even examined the faces of my students

hoping to find an expression of hope or doubt,

intention or delight, humor or sadness that will

inspire some words from my pen.

Alas, there are none. So, I think, there will be no

writing today. There is nothing to say,

nothing I have to offer.

I shuffle through my papers one more time,

find a blank page to write on, take out my pen

and lo, words begin to appear. Words I did not know

were there. Words that arrange themselves in neat

ideas. I don't like all these words. There must be

different ones out there somewhere. I'll search and

see if I can find them .... later.



I read that to my class at the end of class time. I believe they liked it.

I also wrote:

"I don't have an assignment today. I get to write about what I want to write about. I am lucky, but I have also paid my dues. I've sat through myh share of boring classes, done my share of boring home work and spent my share of years at boring jobs. So now I get to write what I want. I don't have to take assignments from others and find the words to fit them. So it's good I've had my share of interesting classes, of worthwhile assignments, of interesting jobs, or all there would be from me would be boring words on boring subjects; boring characters with boring lives. Thankfully, this is not the case. I am in China after all. How could that be boring? Maybe only if I were Chinese would it not be tremendously exciting to live in China."

That is all you get to read of what I wrote in class today.

One of my students told me a few days ago and I want it written somewhere so I'll write it here that she didn't really like pictures of herself because they did not show her as beautiful as she imagined herself to be. What a great statement. She is smart enough not to trust pictures and to know that beauty is something that cannot always be captured on film or pixels, but it is something that she was very confident that she had. I was very moved by her sentiment which I had never heard before. I think in the west we tend to believe what an image portrays.



As you can probably tell from all this that it has been a quiet week in Tianjin, China to paraphrase Garrison Keilor (sp?). I also have not had much inspriration for writing this week.
For those of you that write us and tell us what you think of our writing and give us some of what is going on in your life, we thank you. You know who you are; mothers with small children, teachers with too much to do, people with new jobs and lots more responsibility, family members, people with busy lives who find a moment to share a bit of it with us. We thank you, it means so much to us. For those of you that don't write, we understand that life gets busy, you fear that what you have to say is not interesting, you lack the will to write, that's ok. We remember all our friends and family fondly. Know that we don't think most of what we write is all that interesting either. But we do it anyway, partly as a record of our journey, partly as a way to let others know what our lives are like now. If you can find it in yourself to write us an email know that it will be read eagerly at this end. If you don't write us we will still love you when we see you again. That is the truth.