Once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart...

I am itching to write today. I have fun plans tonight. I'm going to A bar-b-que, and I would rather stay home and type. That seems both inspired and pathetic. I've been reading Cohlo's book "Eleven Minutes" a rather scandalous read about love and feminine sexuality, and I was inspired to write about my own (quite different) experiences with romance. I need a title: I keep coming up with cheesy 80's songs: Your love is like a roller coaster baby baby etc. It needs work.

Today I published some stuff and kept revising. That is such a tedious part of the writing process. I wish I was smart enough just to write something good the first time. But I'm glad people are willing to help me make stuff better.

I saw again the power of writing and sharing today as my writing group shared work and stories. We find, as we go deeper, beyond our surface level differences, that underneath it all we are much the same. And where it really counts, we can understand one another.

Young writer's camp was fun today. Sarah and I were talking to the 3 girls in our group, enjoying their writing. As we left, I said, "Wow, that is different." And Sarah replied, "It seems just the same." These little girls struck me as much like I remember being in middle school. They lit up when I asked about their brothers and sisters, their favorite field trips, and their summer plans. The students I teach are just as sweet, interesting, and fun. They just would have written completely differnt types of writing. They would talk about life in a very different way. I'm not explaining the differences well, I know, because I'm not sure of them. But I want to think on that. I think the difference is that upon meeting my students for the first time, they have very little to say. They don't have summer plans, their brother and sister situation is usually too confusing to tell a stranger. They would talk about TV. I need to find ways to expose my students to more ideas and experiences that make them light up like the kids at camp.