white noise

My heart felt a bit like lead yesterday when Marni called to say she was discontinuing the Teen Writers’ group. I could think of a hundred arguments, all selfish, of course, as to why this is a bad idea. Why walk away from something in its infancy when it hasn’t had the opportunity to be?

But I know the answer to that question. How do I argue against that? I don’t. I can’t and I shouldn’t. Although, I’d be happy to pick up where she’s leaving off. Not sure how much energy I’d have to throw into such a project, especially with it being so far away, but I do see it as a worthwhile endeavor.

Not if you’re miserable doing it, though. If there’s no satisfaction, no reward, and there’s nothing in it to keep one moving forward, I can see why it’s easy to want to focus that energy elsewhere.

Kids can be amazing creatures, though, you know? I’m impressed with Nora’s drive to write, but also at how much time and effort her parents (her mother?) have put into her home-schooling. I think I’m quite envious; if my parents had shown that much enthusiasm towards my education, hell, I’d be a rocket scientist (not really)!

More and more people I talk to homeschool their children. This growing trend in home-schooling does seem to have a better influence on these kids, too. They aren’t necessarily smarter, but they’re certainly getting the attention to detail they need. Any more, public schools are falling into pits of “broken curriculum” and become little more than free baby-sitting services for absentee parenting. It makes me wonder … do we need more stay-at-home mothers or fathers? In some cases, we need better teachers; in others, we need less red tape. And, in all cases, we need more parents engaged and interested in their children’s lives AND educations (says she who is childless by choice). :)

On the writing side of life, I now have 3 or 4 poems that are likely candidates for submission. I poke and prod at them almost daily right now, but I’m happy even with the small tweaks I make. Sooner or later, however, I’ll need to get back on the horse and actually submit them. I think I’m happy that many places still won’t take electronic submissions. The feeling that I’ve traveled with these submissions makes it seem more of an accomplishment somehow. Yes, I know, strange. I’m considering a rewrite of Ghost Rider after having a clearer, more detailed vision of how my clans are arranged.

I’m enthralled by mythology lately, especially mythology and death. The whole notion of death being a bad thing disturbs me. Death isn’t evil. It’s a very sad thing, especially when it happens to young folks, but we project ourselves on the dead, thinking they’ve been robbed of something because we’ve been robbed of them — of people we love. This hurts us, but I tend to doubt very seriously they care much about us beyond death. Not that they stop loving or caring in the sense that we cease to exist, although I do wonder about this often, too. But, we dwell on the misery of death and we can’t accept that death is as natural as life.