If this newsletter has made meaningful impact on your life, been an influence on your parenting, daughtering, neighboring, befriending—would you consider paying for it?
I have thought of this subject, or list, at several levels. There are the big influences on me of whom I might have a tangible physical reminder, purposely placed. I have, for example, a clay sculpture of two women, an older and a younger, in the center of my work area. If I could be said to have a role model, that older was she. She is dead now over thirty years.
There are books read long ago with oversized influence.
Then I had recently, now misplaced, I notice, a bubble drawing of people I am reading or following now, some of whom regularly say things that answer something I am working on. I cannot truly call them friends, as they don't know me. I hear their voices, read their voices, but they cannot hear mine. If I sent them a thank you, it would only be lost in their mail.
Then there are those in my life in a reciprocal way now.
I agree it is a valuable exercise to know who these people are and to hold our thanks in our hearts of not convey them in person.
So intrigued by this: "Then I had recently, now misplaced, I notice, a bubble drawing of people I am reading or following now, some of whom regularly say things that answer something I am working on. I cannot truly call them friends, as they don't know me. I hear their voices, read their voices, but they cannot hear mine. If I sent them a thank you, it would only be lost in their mail." I have developed a practice with a friend of sending fan letters to people (we send one another our letters, too) and it feels so good. I bet some of your people would be overjoyed to hear from you.
Thank you Courtney. I love the practice of naming the "noble friendships" and knowing that we are not alone - the beautiful tapestry. Such wise and soothing words today!
SO intrigued by the map idea, and thinking of our lives as beautiful tapestries and networks of connection. It just reminded me that back in 4th grade (like, 100 years ago!) I LOVED drawing and writing FLOW CHARTS. I was obsessed with flow charts for awhile; they made so much sense to me and helped me to organize my thoughts, feelings, and goals. Ah, 4th grade.
Aw, me too, Courtney! I loved having that memory today. :) Hmm, don't think I have any of my school work saved from those years, but if I come across anything I sure will! I really like the images you shared in this post of your maps/noble friendships. -Kay
If you love graphic ways of organizing information, do a search for 'graphic organizers.'
While I don't remember having been taught graphic options for organizing information when I was in school, once I taught in k12, it was something we taught explicitly.
graphic options for organizing - love this term. I'm definitely into anything visual that can help me conceptualize my goals/organize my ideas! Thanks!
I really love this. I think my favourite example of this practice might be Ross Gay’s own in his book BE HOLDING. The best way to explain is to quote a review: “ the phrase “Bound in gratitude” begins the dedication and ends the acknowledgments. This gratitude encompasses a list of writers without whom, Gay insists in the dedication, “The poem does not exist”—Saidiya Hartman, Fred Moten, Christina Sharpe, and Susan Sontag, among others. Most of these names are repeated in the acknowledgments, which Gay begins with a thesis of sorts: “Nothing I write I write by myself: Everything I write, by which I mean everything, I write with and for and from others, which is a way of saying, always, debt. Which is a way of saying, always, gratitude. A way of saying, always, I am beholden.” Gay goes on to name dozens of influences, in some cases quoting lines that showcase his beholden-ness, which extend into a rich “lineage”: poets June Jordan and Amiri Baraka, ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, artist Carrie Mae Weems, theologian J. Cameron Carter, the inimitable Toni Morrison, and many other writers, artists, students, friends, family members, and “everyone I’ve ever talked about trees with” as well as “every tree that’s ever held me or listened to me or cared for me or fed me or cooled me or would.”
Gay situates this overflow of gratitude in explicit contrast to “the world-destroying horseshit capitalist nightmare fantasy of the individual” that pushes writers to imagine their selfhood as dependent on independent making, not the gifts of others. He situates community—“the lab of care and making”—as the opposite of this toxic capitalist individualism. In this way, highlighting all this poetic debt is a direct refusal of the anxiety of influence, a theory fomented by literary critic Harold Bloom in 1973, the year before Gay was born, which insists that writers inevitably compete with their literary ancestors to assert their own originality. Gay briefly admits to the prevailing expectation of individuality and originality but ultimately rejects it, concluding, “Oh shit, it’s all been given to me. It’s all been given to me. Oh. O. Thank you.” Whereupon follows nine pages of further acknowledgments.”
I have thought of this subject, or list, at several levels. There are the big influences on me of whom I might have a tangible physical reminder, purposely placed. I have, for example, a clay sculpture of two women, an older and a younger, in the center of my work area. If I could be said to have a role model, that older was she. She is dead now over thirty years.
There are books read long ago with oversized influence.
Then I had recently, now misplaced, I notice, a bubble drawing of people I am reading or following now, some of whom regularly say things that answer something I am working on. I cannot truly call them friends, as they don't know me. I hear their voices, read their voices, but they cannot hear mine. If I sent them a thank you, it would only be lost in their mail.
Then there are those in my life in a reciprocal way now.
I agree it is a valuable exercise to know who these people are and to hold our thanks in our hearts of not convey them in person.
So intrigued by this: "Then I had recently, now misplaced, I notice, a bubble drawing of people I am reading or following now, some of whom regularly say things that answer something I am working on. I cannot truly call them friends, as they don't know me. I hear their voices, read their voices, but they cannot hear mine. If I sent them a thank you, it would only be lost in their mail." I have developed a practice with a friend of sending fan letters to people (we send one another our letters, too) and it feels so good. I bet some of your people would be overjoyed to hear from you.
Thank you Courtney. I love the practice of naming the "noble friendships" and knowing that we are not alone - the beautiful tapestry. Such wise and soothing words today!
Not alone = not lonely. Peace, Maurice
SO intrigued by the map idea, and thinking of our lives as beautiful tapestries and networks of connection. It just reminded me that back in 4th grade (like, 100 years ago!) I LOVED drawing and writing FLOW CHARTS. I was obsessed with flow charts for awhile; they made so much sense to me and helped me to organize my thoughts, feelings, and goals. Ah, 4th grade.
I love reuniting you with your 4th grade self! Please share any maps or flow charts in chat if you do that sort of thing.
Aw, me too, Courtney! I loved having that memory today. :) Hmm, don't think I have any of my school work saved from those years, but if I come across anything I sure will! I really like the images you shared in this post of your maps/noble friendships. -Kay
If you love graphic ways of organizing information, do a search for 'graphic organizers.'
While I don't remember having been taught graphic options for organizing information when I was in school, once I taught in k12, it was something we taught explicitly.
graphic options for organizing - love this term. I'm definitely into anything visual that can help me conceptualize my goals/organize my ideas! Thanks!
Layer cakes of wisdom, a Guru in ever slice, share and enjoy
I really love this. I think my favourite example of this practice might be Ross Gay’s own in his book BE HOLDING. The best way to explain is to quote a review: “ the phrase “Bound in gratitude” begins the dedication and ends the acknowledgments. This gratitude encompasses a list of writers without whom, Gay insists in the dedication, “The poem does not exist”—Saidiya Hartman, Fred Moten, Christina Sharpe, and Susan Sontag, among others. Most of these names are repeated in the acknowledgments, which Gay begins with a thesis of sorts: “Nothing I write I write by myself: Everything I write, by which I mean everything, I write with and for and from others, which is a way of saying, always, debt. Which is a way of saying, always, gratitude. A way of saying, always, I am beholden.” Gay goes on to name dozens of influences, in some cases quoting lines that showcase his beholden-ness, which extend into a rich “lineage”: poets June Jordan and Amiri Baraka, ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer, artist Carrie Mae Weems, theologian J. Cameron Carter, the inimitable Toni Morrison, and many other writers, artists, students, friends, family members, and “everyone I’ve ever talked about trees with” as well as “every tree that’s ever held me or listened to me or cared for me or fed me or cooled me or would.”
Gay situates this overflow of gratitude in explicit contrast to “the world-destroying horseshit capitalist nightmare fantasy of the individual” that pushes writers to imagine their selfhood as dependent on independent making, not the gifts of others. He situates community—“the lab of care and making”—as the opposite of this toxic capitalist individualism. In this way, highlighting all this poetic debt is a direct refusal of the anxiety of influence, a theory fomented by literary critic Harold Bloom in 1973, the year before Gay was born, which insists that writers inevitably compete with their literary ancestors to assert their own originality. Gay briefly admits to the prevailing expectation of individuality and originality but ultimately rejects it, concluding, “Oh shit, it’s all been given to me. It’s all been given to me. Oh. O. Thank you.” Whereupon follows nine pages of further acknowledgments.”
What a gift.
(Ha. To be clear, it’s MY review—I’m not trying to elide my sources!)