A little thought

Spanish 2 with Senorita M. Ever since every time I try and speak Spanish the words just refuse to roll out of my mouth, it takes extreme effort and force to make those words come out. Now my Spanish ear wasn’t affected by this stroke, it can understand to a functional degree. David Sedaris and I share something in common when it comes to language. Sure he was learning French and I Spanish but the struggle is one in the same. We were both ignorant of our foreign language short comings but boy oh boy did our teachers point them out. In Me Talk Pretty One Day, Sedaris states, “My only comfort was in knowing I was not alone,” this is true for many students attempting to learn to speak in another language. There’s nothing like a common strife to bring people together.

            Sure I took Spanish One freshman year but I’m going to be honest with you and let you in on a little secret, I’m surprised I left that class being able to count in Spanish and tell people what my name was. However I walked into Spanish Two with some confidence, thinking to myself, “Ahh yes, this is going to be good. I’m totally going to do well.” This confidence was short lived at best. I knew I sounded beyond white when I spoke but somehow I overlooked that in the spirit of learning. Not for long though, not for long.

Don’t Just B.S. You’re Way Through

Not only must you know what you want to say, you must also believe in what you are saying. Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird states that “the core, ethical concepts in which you most passionately believe are the language in which you are writing” (103). If a writer doesn’t have a clear view of what they themselves are saying then guess what? The reader isn’t going to know what they are saying either. The language will flip and flop back and forth confusing the writer on what he or she is trying to actually say and ultimately losing readers. Andrea Lunsford in The Everyday Writer writes in her section on sentence grammar how important stringing the right words together is. Writers should strive to create clear writing by using proper grammar and mechanics so that readers can understand and even enjoy what is being said.

Anne Lamott in Bird by Bird tells perspective writers that no matter what they’re writing, fiction, non-fiction, essay, that their job “…is to present clearly your viewpoint, your line of vision”( 97). This is vital to creating entertaining and even educational writing, no one wants to read a piece of work where there is no point; because that’s what happens when a writer does not present a clear viewpoint, they offer no main point, no reason to have their work read. On top of offering a clear vision, Lamott writes that it is equally important for writers to believe in what they are saying. When a writer doesn’t believe in what they are putting out a reader can feel it, they know that the work is forced and contrived. Lunsford states that one way for a writer to engage their audience better is to use more vivid and specific verbs; “When used skillfully, verbs can be the heartbeat of prose, moving it along, enlivening it, carrying its action” (279). She doesn’t let writers off so easily though, following up that statement with a long reminder of correct verb usage among many other sentence grammar no-no’s. Without proper sentence grammar meanings can be lost, viewpoints not understood, and no one wanting to read the rest of the writers work. Lunsford reminds writers of the many irregular verbs that exist in abyss of the English language waiting for unsuspecting victims to try and use them so that they may trip them up and make them sound as if they were from the Ozarks. Lamott writes that “to be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind,” this is what writers should strive to do. Grab the reader and take them for a ride, the world today looks for shiny lights and loud noises to accompany them on roller coasters and so writers must include those in their pieces. They should use exciting verbs to help them create the ultimate ride because as Lunsford says, “verbs are among the most important words because they move the meanings of sentences along” (263.)

Take your blinders off

Darwin’s theory in its most basic form professes that in order for an organism to survive it must evolve. We human beings are not above this theory as we well know, but how well do we all know that? Our minds and bodies have changed drastically over the millennia from the fickle atoms Bill Bryson writes about in How You Became You; to the complex millions of atoms we are today (Bryson 94). Scientists and people in general must look at more than the big picture; we must look at how each puzzle piece fits to create the big picture. Chris Carlsson in Nowtopia notes how important it is to observe “the gamut of human-nature relationships through time, while still embracing the tenets of modern science,” these relationships include one cell organisms to humans, men to women, cities to country-sides, humans to Earth (Carlsson 58). Sharing a similar belief as Carlsson, Natalie Angier writes in her essay Men, Women, Sex, and Darwin of how misleading it can be to believe that one single theory holds all the answers.

Much like the scientists Carlsson mentions, who believe that their own specific branch of science holds the golden knowledge and all the answers, so do the evolutionary psychologists that Angier writes about. “Hardcore evolutionary psychology types go to extremes. Ringing confirmation for their theories even in the face of feeble and amusingly contradictory data,” Angier disputes their “feeble” data over and over again in her essay citing evidence from statistics, university studies, all the way to animal observations (Angier 30). Angier, Carlsson, and Bryson contend that biological evolutions happen constantly and if we don’t change accordingly then the world will become increasingly harder to live it; whether that difficulty arises from lack of environmental resources or understanding, communication and true equality between men and women.

Carlsson believes until professionals take off their blinders they will never be able to make a real difference in the eroding environment because they are too absorbed in their own field to see how everything fits in the big picture (Carlsson 62, 75). We must be prepared to evolve and change perhaps everything about ourselves, not just our actions but our thoughts as well because as Bryson states, “survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business…we come from a planet that is very good at promoting life but even better at extinguishing it” (Bryson 95).

National Day of Writing.

Today is National Day of Writing and as author Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird, “writing brings with it so joy, so much challenge,” so what a better day to work on your writing than the National Day of Writing? Anne Lamott has been encouraging me along all semester reminding me that my opinions do count and that first drafts are supposed to be shitty. Shockingly that little reminder that first drafts are supposed to be shitty really helps me, I share it with everyone now.

Did you know?

Bet you didn’t know that orange Fanta was created during World War Two because Coca Cola wanted to continue selling soda in Germany. Gotta love that capitalist drive. Go Coke! Or not. Here is a link to a documentary all about the horrors of corporation. Watch with a friend, it can get pretty scary.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FA50FBC214A6CE87

It’s unfortunate that so many things in our world are tainted by greediness of some human beings. I appreciate Chris Carlsson’s book Nowtopia for pointing out that there are thousands of conscious people out there trying to make a difference.

Take Action: Tell the U.S. it’s Time to Act on Climate Change

Being new to blogging it seems that the best step to do is dive right in so here we go. Tomorrow is World Blogg Action Day 2009 here’s what its all about:

More than any other country, action taken by the United States to limit greenhouse gases and build a clean energy economy is needed to achieve a sustainable solution to our global climate crisis.

This December world leaders will gather in Copenhagen to negotiate a global response to climate change. As a world leader in greenhouse gas pollution as well as clean energy technology, the United States needs to take bold action by implementing comprehensive clean energy policies to curb emissions.

Nobel Peace Prize Winner and President Barack Obama has said that climate change is an urgent threat, and now is the time for him to lead the United States in confronting the climate crisis.

This is a chance for people around the world and in the United States to join together in telling President Obama that we want him to lead the United States in taking bold and significant action to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Time is running out, and our planet can’t afford to wait