mostcontroversialpost

The Categories

• My most beautiful post 
•  My most popular post
•  My most controversial post
•  My most helpful post
•  My post whose success surprised me
•  My post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
•  My post of which I am most proud

Most Controversial Post:  Kids These Days…

This was an easy choice for me.  I posted this and was immediately bombarded with comments and not a few private hate mail messages.  It seems that the teachers and administrators that read this post took great offense with what I had to say.  After re-reading it, I must tell you, my opinion hasn’t changed, and is, indeed, more solid than before.  After spending the spring semester as a substitute in various schools around my area, I found great cause for concern in the way our children are being educated, not the least of which was an English unit plan revolving around The Jersey Shore.  Certainly, there are good teachers out there, and not just a couple.  But to ignore the larger problem and stand only on an insistence that one is an exception to this rule helps no one.  Vive l’controverse!

mostpopularpost

My 7 Links

The Categories

• My most beautiful post 
•  My most popular post
•  My most controversial post
•  My most helpful post
•  My post whose success surprised me
•  My post I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved
•  My post of which I am most proud

My Most Popular Post:

 On Babies; The First Installment

When I wrote this post, I’d just returned from a trip to see friends wherein I’d heard, secondhand, about some comments made regarding my reproductive choices.  It wasn’t the first or last time someone would question my path.  In fact, many times, the words of judgement rarely wait until I’m out of earshot before flinging themselves from mouths formerly considered friendly.  I was hurt, indignant and angry.  It turns out, I’m not the only one.

mostbeautifulpost

A few days ago–well, probably closer to a week, you must forgive me, being jobless makes it hard to keep track of slipping time–I was surprised and honored to be mentioned by @ourladybeth in an initiative for bloggers.  (If you go and see her new blog HERE, you’ll understand almost immediately why I continue to read her words and why it made me feel good inside that I was on her list.)  I decided to participate for a number of different reasons, but mostly, because my writing has stalled of late and I find myself in desperate need of a jumpstart.

The official rules can be found HERE.  There doesn’t seem to be a general purpose or goal, but I myself am hoping to be able to look back on what I’ve written in order to find a clear path forward.  I think listing all links at once might be a bit messy and cumbersome, so, to clean up the process a bit, I’ll be posting one or two links per week until I’ve made it through all of them.  Take a look.  Let me know if you remember them.  Leave your feedback and your suggestions.  Let me know if you think a different post would have been a better fit in any particular category.  Help me power through the muck so that I can make you laugh again.

Here goes nothing:

1.  My most beautiful post:

Core Story:  written as a participant in the Reverb10 challenge last December.  Original date: 31 December 2010

I do this odd thing, sometimes, when I’m writing:  I obsessively DEFINE.  Sometimes it’s a moment, others it’s a location or a feeling.  Regardless of the subject, I grasp and strangle to DEFINE it perfectly.  When I’m lucky, these descriptive lists work AND sound pretty at the same time.  This was one such post.

 

2.  Those I nominate are as follows:

@kimsamsin writing at The Deep Old Desk.  I admire her wordplay and the pictures she paints.

@smallstate writing at Letters From A Small State.

@uncletypewriter writing at Uncletypewriter.  If I have to explain why, it’s clear that you just haven’t read her yet, which was your first mistake.

@kayewaterhouse writing at Design Fits.  I always find two things on her blog:  Something Beautiful/Visually Interesting and Something Funny.

I’m supremely interested in seeing what each person values in her own writing.

Requiem In Sulpher

I was a firecracker,

way back when,

in the days before I knew what kind of stretch I was looking at.

I used to talk to cab drivers

and smile for no reason

and count my friends in pecks and bushels and bunches.

I tempted fate

and danced all night

and made the first move with my eyes.

I was all

flying tissue streamers

and

“Catch-Me-If-You-Can”

and

“Yeah?-You-Wanna-Bet?”

But there are things you should know

about firecrackers, right?

like,

they only have one fuze

and,

they’re impatient,

and,

in the end,

what you’re left with,

after waiting out the dusk with a lit match,

Is a pile of tissue streamer ash

and the smell of burning.