Tags
Abigail Thomas, Fiddler on the Subway, The Drudge Report, The Happiness Project, The Reverb Project, The Story Corps Project NPR, Thinking About Memoir, Tu Scendi dalle Stella
Our writing group met at my house today. It was absolutely frigid outside, so we had to devour hot roasted butternut squash soup and then sit in front of the wood stove. To say our topics ranged wildly would be to put it, well, mildly. Here’s a list:
Ronnie and Toni learned Tu Scendi dalle Stella in their Catholic upbringing days. In between soup sips they sang a duet of the first two verses. This led to Toni recounting how she, two vocalists and the chaperon nun would give performances of this lovely piece. (Much of our time together consists of following threads of conversation and POP! discovering a connection that sits us back on our heels. What happened with Tu Scendi is typical.) Ronnie told how she was telling John about how her mother sang this song to her family and had the whole family join her. Every time Ronnie hears or sings it, Mom memories flood back and bring on the tears. While explaining this to John, Ronnie suddenly hears the piano giving forth with a grand rendition of this same, dear song. Carmen, the all-round fixer of everything at the nursing home, had heard her story, gone to the piano and, since he can play anything by ear, knocked out a respectable version with flourishes and chords to please Ronnie’s tender heart.
LUCIANO PAVAROTTI – Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle
We’ve finished Abigail’s Thinking About Memoir. (Thanks, Ms Thomas for a good read; it generated lots of talk, story, and, yes!, writing. The last paragraph reminds me that I’ve evolved through many different selves and writing helps us sort through, enjoy, savor, get to like that litter of old selves, as Stanley Koonitz liked to say. We talked a bit about how writing can help you stay steady and, yes, get happy because it lets you put on paper a thing that’s become a burden. Once this thing’s on paper, it’s not Just Yours anymore. Helpful. And because it’s helpful? Fun and energizing.
We talked about what our next shared book might be. I told them that Jack bought The Fiddler on the Subway by Gene Weingarten, one of the best nonfiction writers in the business today. He gave it to me and said, I think the group might like this. We decide to read it as a source of inspiration. This will be a departure from our usual read-something-that-teaches-explicitly-how-to-write selection. It’s because we’re fascinated with the power of stories. We’re always talking about our stories and finding that it’s the story that keeps us tuned. This Gene W. is a master at “finding a story that nobody else would have thought to pursue, rearching it doggedly, and telling it in such a riveting way that you feel as though you’re reading a terrific novel.” 
I read a draft of a letter that I’d already sent to my family and friends about the Heifer Arc project we’re all involved with. Sure enough, right there at the end I find, darn it all, a typo. And I’d read it over and over before printing the letters on fancy snowflake paper. Goes to show, right? Proof-reading is a bear. Forgive me dear family; I’m only human. (I needed Mary to give it her eagle eye. Mary is absent today. Hi, Mary!)
We decided that it would be fun to have the Chef and Writer Mix It Up project that I’m doing with Cousin Margaret be on a Foodie Page. Margaret’s the master cook; I’m the writer of the family stories connected to the food. Stay tuned for that. Margaret will be the Occasional Guest Participant.
And then we talked about happiness and how you find it and then keep it warm and alive. Our sense is that it’s tied into and around story. So! We’re going to visit and sort of keep track of the following: The Reverb Project at http://www.reverb.org/projects. The Happiness Project at http://www.happiness-project.com/. The Story Corps Project at tp://storycorps.org/. And finally The Drudge Report at http://www.drudgereport.com/. If in our writing we need models, then on some of these web sites and blogs we’re going to find models for how stories help yank us into happiness. More on this.
For next time: Ronnie’s going to write the Carmen at the piano story. I’m working on a how my mom taught me to cut butternut squash story (it goes with this yummy roasted squash soup we’re eating), Toni’s got mischief of one kind or another up her sleeve and is keeping us delighted with her own happiness project, and Mary’s keeping a notebook every day and pulling up more Beach Street Memoir. Hurrah.
Next week: Thursday at 9:30 at Panera Bread.
Patty 12/10/10
