ALMOST FAMOUS

I had a journalism professor who told us not to use the word “famous” in our stories. He reasoned that if someone is famous then the readers will know who he or she is. Certainly we know Bernie Sanders, Abe Lincoln and Johnny Depp are famous. No need to say so.

But famous is not all that easy to define when it comes to many other individuals.

I came from a small Northern Michigan town, and my family took our pets to a veterinarian, Dr. David Reath, who was indeed world famous. Visitors came from Australia and Japan to visit huge peony farm. Dr. Reath had even developed new strands of peonies which is why he was - famous.

Dr. Reath owned more property than Ben Cartwright the patriarch on “Bonanza,” the popular television program of that time. In fact, I used to call Reath’s farms the Ponderosa.

Now Dr. Reath was famous, but not everyone knew that. Maybe even some of his friends and clients didn’t know how famous he was. I went to college in a city distant from the Reath farms, but one classmate came from a family that owned a florist shop. She, of course, knew who Dr. Reath was.

Anyway I thought about Dr. Reath and that journalism professor as I was reading “Almost Famous Women.” It’s a collection of short stories about interesting women who were sort of famous.

Remember Butterly McQueen, one of the stars of “Gone With the Wind.” There’s a chapter about her. Allegra Byron, Lord Byron daughter, died while still a child, but the children of famous people have some claim to fame themselves. One story is a retelling of the “The Lottery,” a short story by another almost famous woman, Shirley Jackson, a writer, and maybe some of you have heard of her.

What does almost famous mean? It means we are known beyond our small communities. Fame has its degrees. As much as I loved my journalism professor. I do use the word “famous in my writing.

UNSCHOOLING OR BETTER SCHOOLING

Some couples unschool their children because they feel school is too much about meaningless facts. What is a meaningless fact? I know math and grammar are important. But so is literature, history and psychology.

In mythology, the story of Persephone is more than about why the seasons change, it’s relationships and the need for change in life.

Oedipus Rex had a modern psychology term named after him. In fact, literature and psychology borrow consistently from each other.

And what about politics? Are the names of U.S. presidents irrelevant. Memorizing their names is a step in learning more about their presidencies. Benjamin Harrison’, our 23rd president’s, mistake in short changing the American Indians, is a repeated mistake as minorities still live in poverty. It is true that that those who don’t read and study history are doomed to repeat it. Is it irrelevant to expect people to understand economic and political terms like Socialist, Conservative, and Liberal?

I love the idea of unschooling. I myself would have been a great candidate for it. I used to skip school and go to the library.

But for most youngsters, learning must be structured. Let’s face it most of today’s young won’t go to the library. They won’t read history like I did. Look what the “social pass” did to our education system. If teachers couldn’t fail the student, the student didn’t have to show up. They didn’t have to do the work. Many students cheated themselves when given a free pass, and today as adults, they pay the price.

But structured learning outside the school environment is not something new It’s home schooling and it has been around for a time.

What’s wrong with schools? They are like jailhouses, that keep students locked into small desks, smaller than a cell.

Their approach to learning is boring and unnatural.

Tests feel threatening.

Socialization is prison-like instead of community-like. Bullies threaten, steal, insult and assault.

Instead of unschooling, lets work together and build a better school

ODDS AND ENDS, JOURNAL FUN

There is a Jewish tradition to leave stones at grave sites. Just a pile of stones.

Witches bury stones and crystals as gifts for the fairy earth people.

In “Burning Man” by Alan Russell, the main character Michael Gideon interviews Dinah, a high school girl who has been bullied. He says to her,”You seem like a smart girl. Why did you let yourself be a victim?” Becoming a victim has nothing to do with being smart or dumb. It isn’t even about weakness, except for the bully’s weakness. I have been told that the German word for bully, translates to “half person.” Bullies are immature, and are usually themselves cowards. What could the girl in this book have done to make fellow students stop bullying her?

Social media sites that focus on books and authors: Goodreads, Shelfari and LibraryThing. There is also Writer’s cafe.

What was Perry Mason like as a student? Dr. Kildare? Think about a person whose smarts you admire. What was that person like as a student?

Arms up or out for a better attitude and mood. Here is a tip from my winter sojourn instructor. Feeling resistance? Spread your arms out. Let your body form a capital “T”.

Abe Lincoln was an unschooler. Where Lincoln did his best was in reading books. They were his teachers. I live in a wildlife refuge. There’s a frog in my throat; dust bunnies under my desk; a FOX on television; dear in my letters.

Bullycide: a term for bullying that is so bad it leads to suicide or a suicide attempt.

It is a kid thing to do. Bullies are immature. Adults try to bully each other too. Bosses try to bully; police and teachers. They try to say it is for their victim’s good.

Dog breeds: Toto in “Wizard of Oz was a cairn terrier.

Chauffeur: The word is French for stoker. Early cars ran on steam or battery power.

PRESIDENTS, KENT MCCORD AND COMEBACKS

Learn about a president each day for a month. Presidents 1-31 were George Washington to Herbert Hoover. On the 1st look up Washington in a good encyclopedia. On the second of the month look up John Adams. keep going. What about presidents 32-44? That would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama. The 22nd and the 24th would be Grover Cleveland who was president twice. On the 24th look up a president who came after Herbert Hoover. You might also want to skip number nine, William Henry Harrison, because he was only president for one month and he was sick for all of that time. He was, however, an interesting historical character, the victor at the battle of Tippecanoe. After you have done this for a month, on the second month look up the presidents who came after Hoover. That would be 13 names. After you have looked up all the presidents up to President Obama and whoever comes after him, go back and look up some presidents that you think had interesting terms.

For next month look up the Roman emperors or the kings and queens of England. You might start on the popes, or famous scientists or explorers. There are 365 days in a year. That’s 365 interesting people to learn about. When you study, be a kid again. We lost the joy of learning back when we were in school. Let’s get it back.

In “Burning Man” by Alan Russell, actor Kent McCord, tells the following joke: “So this man has to work late, and when he’s driving home he gets pulled over for speeding. Now the cop notices the driver has these tired looking eyes, so he says to him, ‘Sir, I can’t help but notice your eyes are bloodshot. Have you been drinking?’ The driver isn’t happy with the insinuation, so he says to the cop., ‘Officer, I can’t help but notice your eyes are glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?’ “ Page 8.

Come backs: My dog doesn’t need a muzzle; my tongue does. Alan Russell. “Burning Man.”

HOW TO START WRITING A BOOK

Question: I want to write a book, but I have too many ideas, and I can’t settle on one genre. What should I do?

Writers are interesting people. We love to read. We love ideas. We have many interests. It’s amazing that any of us can settle on one topic long enough to finish a whole book.

Think about personal experiences. Most of us have had many painful experiences in our lives. Start from there. Write about a time in your life when something happened that changed you. Write about how you are different. Personal experiences are a great place to start.

Keep a journal. Natalie Goldberg tells her students not to start writing a book until they have kept a personal journal for at least two years. Then she tells them to read the journal, pick out entries to be developed into longer pieces, and go from there. I didn’t think I could write a memoir because I had so much hurt. (I’m autistic. When I grew up in the 1950’s we were considered different and sometimes even delinquent. My mother and two grade school teachers tried to beat the autism out of me.) I found a beginning for writing about this in my journal entries.

As a college study skills teacher, I discovered many fun ways to learn. I’ve discovered in the notes I wrote for teaching college classes, a possible book. If I hadn’t put these ideas in study plans, they could have gone into my journal.

My advice is start writing in your journal about some of your ideas. Then after a year or two start rereading those journals. Pull out similar entries and start a manuscript.

While Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron suggest writing a journal longhand, I have a computer journal. I can cut and paste entries into new documents that become articles.

Keep journaling. I hope this helps it works for me, and i have a similar problem.

HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY ESSAY WRITING SKILLS?

How can I improve my essay writing skills?

Read lots of very good essays. A good place to find these essays is in “Best American Essays.” A new edition is published each year. I seldom buy the latest edition because they tend to be expensive. I wait until a past year’s edition is down to one cent plus postage in amazon.com.

Op ed (Opposite the editorial) pages in newspapers are a good place to find some great short essays. I like to read articles by Leonard Pitts jr. and David Brooks. Pitts won the Pulitzer for his op ed articles. I was assigning him to my writing classes before he won the Pulitzer for commentary in 2004.

These writers often use personal experiences in their columns.

Think about things that have happened to you and what they mean. How are these universal themes? We have all lost good friends and pets. We’ve suffered unfairness. Write about an incident in your life that changed you in some way. What challenges have you faced?

Practice writing essays in a notebook or a journal. Keep practicing. Know the importance of revision. Reread and rework your essays until they are as good as you can make them.

HOW TO RESEARCH POLITICAL CANDIDATES

Who are the presidential candidates this year and what have they done for you?

I often wonder why voters vote against their best interests. It’s because they don’t pay enough attention. They may not even know who is representing them in Washington or in their state capitals.

Let’s look at some easy ways to research political candidates on all levels of government. First let’s find our state congressmen and women. To do this I google “(name of state) state congress representatives.”

For instance, I live in Michigan, so I google “Michigan state congress representatives.” I notice there are sites for both the Michigan senate and the Michigan House of Representatives. Let’s start with the House of Representatives. The first thing I notice when I go to house.michigan.gov is a picture of the Michigan Speaker of the House, Kevin Cotter. This is an important contact because the Speaker decides which bills are voted on and when. So I copy his information. I also found an organizational chart with extra phone numbers. Now I know who the Democrat and Republican leaders in my state are.

Don’t get overwhelmed by all the information. Most of us don’t have the time to follow everything that happens in our state or national government. Right now we just want to know who represents us, and how to contact him or her.

There is a link on the Michigan House page “Find your Representative.” I click on this link, and then put in my zip code. My representative is Jim Townsend. I not only get his name, but a link to his website. I can look up Congressman’s Townsend’s voting record and I can easily see a list of issues that affect Michiganders and Congressman’s Townsend’s stand on those issues.

Besides having a representative in the Michigan house, I also have a senator representing me in the state capital. I go to senate.michigan.gov and I notice a link called “Find Your Senator.” I put in my zip code. My state senator is Marty Knollenberg. There’s a link to his web page. Most congressmen send emails to their constituents. It’s easy to get on their lists.

I don’t always have time to read newsletters when they come to my inbox, but I try to always scroll down and read at least a few lines of each paragraph.

Now that I know who represents me in my state, I can go to congres.gov, and find out who represents me in Washington, D.C.

When elections happen, I am likely to visit their web sites and study their records.

If you have any questions, please email me.