Normalcy--or what passes for normalcy to me--seems to be settling in now, heading toward the end of January. The classes I teach have begun: two art appreciation sections and an intro to lit, and feel solid, promising. I've already had several good student discussions and look forward to many more. And the material always stimulates me anew. No matter how often I repeat the studies, the visual and literary works always yield more and fresh discoveries and interpretations. It's why I love to teach even after thirty-eight years or so.
I tried staying out of the classroom last spring seeking my muse, and she was more mum than ever. She speaks in whispers, my muse does, and only stirs faintly my innermost thoughts. But she speaks more frequently, I think, when I teach than when I do not.
I am very fortunate to be able to retire and still stay active doing part-time what I most enjoy: working with art, literature, and ideas and discussing them with others. It makes the dearth of my own ideas and output more tolerable. Some of us were not meant to create, but to study and appreciate what others make. I'll always wish I was the author my students last read, but I have a great pleasure in bringing them into the discovery of things their real author suggested, as well. It's not a bad consolation prize to be the teacher rather than the author. In fact, its rewards are probably greater in many cases, truth be told.
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5 comments:
Come on. You can do better than that! "Some of us were not meant to create"? Give me a break!
You can fly. I know you can. I've seen your writing, and your writing is graceful and fluent, and you write with a sense of humor and a warmth that is enjoyable to read. Even if you can't quite bring yourself to share your writing with others yet, release yourself to the calling of the writing. Let it take you on a magic-carpet ride.
Let the writing take you for 1000 words a day. That's really not all that much, just a few paragraphs. Just do 1000 words that nobody else in the universe ever has to see.
Fly!
You touch the lives of so many. You may be their first introduction into the arts and literature. For some, it may be their only exposure and for others, it opens a whole new world.
You are very fortunate to have a career you love.
PS: and also an awesome family :)
Writing is writing.... plan and simple. Making a living at writing requires much more marketing than creativity.
Here's the deal! What to be published?.... check out Lulu.com. You can get anything you want published in paperback, hardback, you name it. Want one copy?.... no problem. Want to sell copies on Amazon?.... You can do that too. It really is a self-publishing enterprise that unlocks potential.
I might also add, if you haven't already done so, get a copy of Frank McCourt's latest book, Teacher Man. In teaching, especially at the community college level, you do touch many souls who need your touch.
But that's no excuse to abandon writing. Even if you never market what you write, if you stop writing, you lose a piece of yourself.
Thanks for your comments, carol anne, r the great, and big penguin! I didn't intend to fish for encouragement, but I suppose it sounds like it. Incidentally, any day I fail to write more than a thousand words,I was under general anesthesia. Ask my family, among whom are Big Penguin and r the great, both blogging away now bigtime and loving it, as well as Iris Blue and Underwear Ninja. I feel like Abraham, a progenitor. It's great.
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