MUCH TO BE THANKFUL FOR


It's almost noon on Thanksgiving Day where I live (in an eastern state of the USA). It's that time when we start to get really sentimental. At least I do and, at this time of year, I don't feel that I have to apologize for it. In the US, Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season with a day devoted to sharing a meal with the people we love most. It's unique in that its main purpose is to say out loud how thankful we are for the things we take for granted most of the time.

Like a lot of people, the things I'm most thankful for are the things I take most for granted: my family, friends, good health, a comfortable home, plenty to eat. During this season, and particularly on this day, I actually express my gratitude. Part of that gratitude means I remember and acknowledge that the majority of people on this planet do not share these blessings. That I am thankful for my good fortune is a given. It is also a given that I hope some day, somehow, it will be available to everyone.

On a more personal level, I remember that, in addition to the obvious blessings, there is another whole tier of bounty. I am truly grateful that I have a voice as a writer and that I live in a country and a culture that allows, even encourages, me to say what I want through my writing. I'm grateful that Avalon Books exists and that they want to publish the kind of books I want to write. I know plenty of immensely talented writers who have not (at least not yet) found that outlet. The fact that Avalon sells directly is libraries is an added bonus. Even the fact that libraries exist and that I have easy access to a wonderful one is something to be thankful for. These precious institutions have always held a special place in my heart. I love being within their walls, walking through the shelves that hold the books of writers I admire so much and, perhaps even more, the challenge of exploring the works of writers with whom I am not yet familiar.

Another blessing I take for granted most of the time is this blog and the whole world of the Internet, which allows people to communicate freely beyond distances that until recently made contact impossible except to a privileged few. Through this medium, I've met (well, sort of) people from places that I will probably never be able to visit and I've been exposed to thoughts that have opened whole new realms of ideas for me. Even beyond all this, who knows what the future holds? More blessings? More challenges? Surely, yes to both - and, I am confident, by wise use of the communication avenues that increase almost daily, we will find ways to make the first outweigh the second.

Happy Holidays all - whatever holidays you may celebrate!

Blue Jello and Salsa

In the September 21, 2009, issue of TIME magazine, Nancy Gibbs wrote this:
Every fall, the professors at Beloit College publish their Mindset List, a dictionary of all the deeply ingrained cultural references that will make to sense to students of the incoming class. This year’s freshmen were typically born in 1991. That means, the authors explain, they have never used a card catalog to find a book; salsa has always outsold ketchup; women have always outnumbered men in college; there has always been blue Jell-O.

I remember hours spent going through card catalogs when I was in college. And, when I was in college, men outnumbered women three-to-one. Of course, that did little for me, a humanities major, because most of these guys majored in agriculture or engineering, fields pretty much closed to women way back then.

Think of the phrases students today don’t really understand: both dial and hang up the phone, a broken record. In the future, it may be these will be explained in books that tells us what “the whole nine yards” means.

My husband has a Kindle and will not return to reading real books. He also uses salsa on his scrambled eggs. He’s obviously moving ahead faster than I because I refuse to give up holding a book in my hands and turning the pages plus I’m an egg purist. No salsa or ketchup for me.

And I prefer red Jello although I’ll eat any color of M&Ms.

What changes do you see around you? What do you remember that today’s kids know nothing about? I’d love to hear from you.

Fountain Pens

As some of you know, I spend my days surrounded by fountain pens because that's my day job. As I've worked with "nice" writing instruments pretty much all of my working life, I pay a lot of attention to the pen I use. I enjoy to touch them; I enjoy to write with them; and I don't like to use cheap throw-away ballpens you can get at every corner. I ban them from my house, much to the chagrin of my husband who hardly ever notices what he's writing with. Recently, I got a particularly nice fountain pen for my birthday. Its barrel shows autumn leaves as my birthday is in autumn, it has gorgous colors that make me happy even if the weather is so bland it brings me down, and it writes like a dream. I filled it with brown ink as the finishing touch - and now I enjoy taking notes more than ever.

Beside my fountain pen, I love pencils. They are so . . . forgiving. And flexible. I like that concept of erasing things and starting again. If you look at the tools a writer has to have, a keyboard is certainly more important than a pen . . . but we all take notes whereever we go; we all love to have pen and paper within reach to make sure our darting ideas don't escape before we catch them. How about you? Do you write with fountain pens at all? Do you prefer rollerballs or ball pens? Or even pencils? Do you have a much-loved pen that you never want to lose? Or it it all the same to you as long as the thing writes?