Caravanserai. Heard this word in Hitch-22, by Christopher
Hitchens. Sounded intriguing. Defined as a place of shelter and
hospitality. Southern hospitality? Yep, I'm from the south. I just
like how the word conjure's up images of traveling and tents and
since I'm disabled, this is going to happen pretty much in my mind.
This blog got fuel from my local Independent Living Center's
counselor asking me, "What's your definition of independence?"
What's an independent living center, you may ask? If you have a
disability, you can find counselors (also with disabilities) to
get support and ideas about any problems you may be having.
For instance, when I was thinking about going for a college degree.
"Injustice in the end produces independence"~Voltaire. Suffice it
to say I needed to leave a marriage gone bad. After three years, I
have a two year degree in Human Services as a Generalist.
Reading and college got me out of a very miry place. On the way,
I traveled along a spectrum from very religious to being secular. I
suspect it's somewhere on the scale before nihilist, and I don't plan
on going there.
This will be a blog about my process. My memoir. I'll write about
my interests like reading. I'll post about living with my disability,
muscular dystrophy. I read somewhere there are about 200
varieties. I happen to have FSHD. Faschio-scapular-humeral-
dystrophy. I was diagnosed about 15 yrs ago, have no clue to
where I got this DNA. It must have skipped 3-4 generations.
So, now I'm ready to pack up and get the Caravan moving again 'til
next stop.
Friday, September 4, 2015
Where A New Writer Learns The Way To Go
I'm a beginning blogger and just found out the
"save" button is a little mysterious. I'll have to
read "getting started" stuff.(While editing five years
later, I still haven't.) I didn't have a computer or
internet until I was over forty. This amateur blog is
my process of teaching myself to write.
I got my love for writing from reading. I finished
Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens' memoir. How to do
him justice? He's a personal hero because that man
could argue expertly and reasonably. He always
knew the right history for the debate, (American &
World) and he despised ignorance that kept political
and religious leaders in power. He was a foreign
correspondent and saw totalitarianism in Sarajevo
and Iraq among other places. He made writing look
easy. He loved the United States most of all
countries. He was a lover of true words.
I've also read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar
Nafisi who was an professor of English Literature in
Iran. She and seven women met in her home
once a week for two years, 1995-1997, to study life
from fiction. She taught at university over time from
open culture to extreme religious restricted
conditions. Women were required to be in full, dark
head and body covering with only the oval of
their face and hands showing. Women policing them
in the street could look through their handbags for
cosmetics, no lipstick allowed. In the first thirty
pages or so Ms. Nafisi describes how she came
to her decision to study and which books, her
apartment where they met and the women who
came to the first meeting.
At that time, I read online about the Syrian
refugees desperate to get away from the war that
was blanketing the region. I saw young children
washed up dead on a beach in Greece. I just don't
understand.
I write from my dining room table in a trailer
behind a mom & pop store that belonged to my
maternal grandparents. I can sit and look out my
kitchen window and see Live-Oak leaves from an
ancient tree waving at me.
I want to write about about living with a
disability, facial scapular dystrophy which is a form
of muscular dystrophy, religion, food, gardening,
music, art, pets, being a mother of six adult children
my past and writing.
(Original blog 2015-2016 edited, updated, 2020)
"save" button is a little mysterious. I'll have to
read "getting started" stuff.(While editing five years
later, I still haven't.) I didn't have a computer or
internet until I was over forty. This amateur blog is
my process of teaching myself to write.
I got my love for writing from reading. I finished
Hitch-22, Christopher Hitchens' memoir. How to do
him justice? He's a personal hero because that man
could argue expertly and reasonably. He always
knew the right history for the debate, (American &
World) and he despised ignorance that kept political
and religious leaders in power. He was a foreign
correspondent and saw totalitarianism in Sarajevo
and Iraq among other places. He made writing look
easy. He loved the United States most of all
countries. He was a lover of true words.
I've also read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar
Nafisi who was an professor of English Literature in
Iran. She and seven women met in her home
once a week for two years, 1995-1997, to study life
from fiction. She taught at university over time from
open culture to extreme religious restricted
conditions. Women were required to be in full, dark
head and body covering with only the oval of
their face and hands showing. Women policing them
in the street could look through their handbags for
cosmetics, no lipstick allowed. In the first thirty
pages or so Ms. Nafisi describes how she came
to her decision to study and which books, her
apartment where they met and the women who
came to the first meeting.
At that time, I read online about the Syrian
refugees desperate to get away from the war that
was blanketing the region. I saw young children
washed up dead on a beach in Greece. I just don't
understand.
I write from my dining room table in a trailer
behind a mom & pop store that belonged to my
maternal grandparents. I can sit and look out my
kitchen window and see Live-Oak leaves from an
ancient tree waving at me.
I want to write about about living with a
disability, facial scapular dystrophy which is a form
of muscular dystrophy, religion, food, gardening,
music, art, pets, being a mother of six adult children
my past and writing.
(Original blog 2015-2016 edited, updated, 2020)
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