Tuesday Slice of Life : May 24, 2016.
At three o’clock this morning as I shoved last minute items into my carry-on, I reached for one of my favorite books for travel reading and squeezed it in beside my work already packed. I’ve read and re-read every page in that book, and still I choose it over others. I guess I do because I find the stories intoxicating, stories of men and women on David McCullough’s Brave Companions list: Agassiz, the Roeblings, Humboldt, the Lindberghs, Teddy Roosevelt, Remington, Miriam Rothschild–to name a few. And as I read their stories, something deep inside me rises up, and I hear myself saying, I can do it!
So at 37,000 feet, somewhere between Dallas and New York City, I was again inspired by “The Unexpected Mrs. Stowe.” Today, it was by the conditions under which she, a mother of seven, wrote:
“She worked at the kitchen table, confusion all around, a baby in a clothes basket at her feet. She couldn’t spell very well, and her punctuation would always be a puzzle for her publishers. She dreamed, she said in a letter to Calvin [her husband], of a place to work without ‘the constant falling of soot and coal dust on everything in the room.'” (David McCullough. Brave Companions. p. 41)
She once said, “If there had been a grand preparatory blast of trumpets or had it been announced that Mrs. Stowe would do this or that, I think it likely I could not have written; but nobody expected anything . . . and so I wrote freely.”
This evening, I’m sprawled out in a comfortable hotel room, typing on my Mac… writing this skinny slice of my life because of Harriet Beecher Stowe. You see, in this Tuesday Slice of Life, nobody expects anything… and so I write freely.
Join Two Writing Teachers for Slice of Life Tuesdays
You hit a winner with your last line quote. It seems I’m not the only one that enjoys writing ‘freely because nobody expects anything!” I’m going to look for that book to read also. Enjoy Texas!
Thank you. This week I am working in Brooklyn. Had the jet lag, time zone syndrome this morning. I think I will have students put “Write freely” on their journal covers… Thinking to replace “Free write” with it…
You should read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s all about creativity and doing what you love because you love it.
Thank you for your book share. Loving what you do makes the doing a joy. I’m so thankful I’m able to do each day what I love.
I like this. Freedom and context…that is a keep quotation.
Thank you. I agree with you.
I read your post because your teaser seemed like I could have been the author! Isn’t it hard to get back into the habit? And yet, this Tuesday writing is so great. Just as you conclude, “nobody expects anything… and so I write freely.” Loved this! To many more words!!
I smiled as I read your comment. It is hard to find… or make… the time to write. One of the things that makes Tuesdays writing so appealing is the sharing with each other through our comments. … And as I write that, I know that is a component that needs to be strongly supported in our class writing. Thanks for sharing.
I love the quote: “nobody expected anything…so I wrote freely.” What a powerful statement! Thank you for sharing this. I haven’t read this particular book, so it’s definitely going on my reading list!
Funny how those words stood out today when I read the chapter… I think I need to write that quote in the front of my journal.