Watering the Family Tree

Most of us know something about our family tree, our genealogy. Many of us are proud of our antecedents and some have spent considerable time and money researching our roots. But what of the future?

In these early years of the twenty-first century, with the increasing concern over climate changes, dying polar bears, diminishing species, what is our individual responsibility to be good stewards of the earth? Will our actions make those in our families who come after us, proud? Or will we carelessly contribute to difficulties they might encounter because today’s population (that’s you and me, folks) is made up of people who are too lazy or too self-centered?

Do you tell yourself that letting the water run in the yard, the kitchen or bathroom sink doesn't matter? Or that flushing the toilet after dropping in a piece of tissue is insignificant? It most certainly is significant, and as time passes it becomes more and more so.

Some may find this graphic comment distasteful, but many years ago when I was living in Eugene, Oregon there was a water shortage in that part of the country. The motto all across the state was, "It's mellow if it's yellow, if it's brown, flush it down."

My research has informed me that the highest average water use in the world is in the US, where the average person uses 150 gallons of water per day. Do the math… multiply the number of people in your household times the average amount of water a person uses in one day and multiply that again just by the number of households in your family. If you keep on going, it becomes astronomical.

So what’s the point of my harangue? Well, here in Georgia we’re in the middle of a drought. There’s a water ban in effect (are you paying attention yet?) and like it or not every one of us is responsible for keeping our usage to a fair and reasonable level.

As water continues to become a critical concern for everyone I thought I would pass along information on the websites below. One is for the latest watering ban information in our local area, four more include water saving tips, the fifth is about water facts, and the last one is for a small but possibly important solution... information on rain barrel cisterns.

Here you will find ban information: http://www.northgeorgiawater.com/html/305.htm; here you’ll find some great downloadable tips to save water: http://www.wateruseitwisely.com/.
Want more information on water use? See: http://www.wssc.dst.md.us/INFO/tips.cfm, www.caes.uga.edu, www.watersmart.net, and
http://www.water.org/resources/waterfacts.htm
And last, to find out more about rain barrel cisterns for collecting rainwater, go to: http://www.SavingWithRain.com.

Every household, whether in a drought area or not, ought to review the information on water, water conservation, watering bans and why it is an increasing problem.

And while I’m berating you, are you recycling? (Paper, aluminum, glass...) It’s every bit as important as saving water. Please help me to help your great grandchildren and mine to a healthy planet. Let’s not have them remember us as being selfish and lazy, or worse, make it impossible for some of them to survive at all.

Mother’s Day Matchmaker

As we sat in IHOP laughing and talking and enjoying Miss Elsa’s antics, Michelle, Teryn and I noticed a gentleman seated at a table across the aisle from us. He was waving to Miss Elsa and laughing, too. Finally, he could contain himself no longer as she flirted in her one-year old way, and he spoke up. As he watched her nibble on the puffs her mother had supplied, while we ate crepes and other grownup foods, he assured her that he would be happy to cook just for her.

Our Mother’s Day breakfast progressed and Michelle, (more like her mother than she realizes) engaged our breakfasting neighbor in conversation. After a few pleasantries she asked him where he was from and as both Michelle and I already knew the answer due to his accent, we weren’t surprised when he said “Italy, I am from Rome.”

Encouraged, as his willingness for conversation continued, Michelle explained that we are four first (and only) daughters. The gentleman, whose name we later discovered is Romolo, told us that he has four grown daughters, all independent from his care, and that his wife passed away from breast cancer five years ago.

I’m certain it was in that moment that Michelle made her decision. Continuing in breakfast table conversation across the aisle, she managed to tell Romolo that I speak (or rather used to speak) Italian, and she also managed to pique his further interest by conveying to him in a subtle manner that I might be interested in making a new friend.

He was interested. Romolo and I discovered that we live nearby one another. He mentioned that he has a very nice home and I said, “So do I.” Michelle, now playing matchmaker to the hilt, mentioned that I prepare wonderful Italian dishes, whereupon Romolo assured her that I wouldn’t have to cook, that he’d take me out. As his enthusiasm gained momentum he mentioned that a trip to Italy for we two was possibly in the cards for next year and I decided it was time to leave the restaurant, before I found myself engaged to be married.

When we stood to leave he asked if I’d care to have him call. I asked for his card but as he had none I gave him mine. In the best tradition of the continental gentleman he took my hand and kissed it, and looked deep into my eyes.

On the way out my daughter, completely tickled with herself, told me more than once how sweet a man she thought he was, and I could tell from that sparkle in her eyes that she had visions of a happy forever after for me, in her loving heart. We are a family of romantics but from my point of view, that's a bit of a reach.

Thanks, Miss Elsa, you little flirt!

A New Writing Task

Over the past few days I've been working on what is one of the toughest writing tasks I've ever attempted. For some this might be easy but for me it is a genuine (and welcome) learning experience.

I was recently contacted by a company that prepares writing tests on fluency and comprehension for Departments of Education over elementary school children in four Southeastern states. They asked for short "stories" of from 100 to a maximum of 175 words, depending on the grade level. I was provided with an online tool to check the reading level of what I would write and I got to work. I began by rewriting a couple of stories I had written in the past just to see how to "downwrite," restructure my writing to a far lower grade level than the one the story had been written for originally. After numerous tries I finally began to get the hang of it but single syllable words don't always get the point across.

I was really surprised when pasting the stories into the program to learn which words scored as difficult. Contractions such as "can't" or "wouldn't" were highlighted for 4th and 5th grade readers. Words such as "feisty" or "territorial" received the same warning score for 6th grade readers. No wonder this country has so many literacy problems! It seems that our children aren't being taught the sort of written language skills needed to comprehend the world around them. Yet I know they hear these words and many more sophisticated ones on TV and in the movies. So what is one to think?

In the meantime I've begun writing new little stories. I think about our daily lives and about things that might interest or inform youngsters, then I craft a lttle story around these things. I'm getting better. Pretty soon I'll be churning them out so fast it might even work out to be worth my while.

Motherhood in the 21st Century

Last Thursday I received an invitation from the AJC Gwinnett Opinions page, sent to those of us on the Voice of Gwinnett panelist list to comment on Motherhood in 2007, posed as follows:

Question:
What are the qualities, character and skills needed to be a good mother in 2007? Are they timeless, the same as in generations past? Or have they adapted and evolved as society has changed?
My response:

I know I'm not unique, but it hardly seems possible to me that only yesterday I was a very young mother and today I am a great grandmother. I have much to reflect upon. Motherhood? Though the care required and the skills needed to raise a child from infancy upward remain basically the same, we know there are far greater challenges in 2007 than there were in 1952.

Safety and health, nourishment, love, play, instruction and discipline are as much in the mix as they ever were. But as the world has changed, become so much more complicated and now offers the very young choices not even imagined in the past, a mother must remain far more discerning regarding the physical, cultural, moral and intellectual development of her children. Whether threats come from the street or from information filtering into the home from television and the internet, a mother's task is to choose wisely what is simply a matter of cultural change or is insidious and harmful. Nothing, however, can take the place of love, bedtime stories and being the anchor of the home.

I sent along the photo of myself and Miss Elsa, taken in November, which you can see right here.

It seems my comments were appreciated and will be published in Sunday's paper.

Georgia Writers Association's 11th Annual Spring Festival

Yesterday was Georgia Writers Association's 11th Annual Spring Festival of Writers Workshops. As usual it was an event loaded with information for both wannabees (thank goodness they keep surfacing) and those who are nearly ready, ready to publish, or already published and seeking marketing tips and information. You can see the lineup on Georgia Writers website if you're curious. It is http://www.georgiawriters.org/Festival-2007.htm.

Each year, usually starting in December or January, I have put this event together. Many of the presenters have been "regulars" with new ones added each year. If I do it again, and I might, the next one will be different. Of course there are a few I will always ask to participate as they're mainstays, people with information for writers that is solid and timeless. But I'm thinking it's time for a possibly fresh approach.

Quite a few of the writers attending signed up for In The Company of Writers' mailing list. I'm hoping that nearly all of them will want to sign up for the next Webinar. Valerie Clark will be presenting What Agents Are Looking For on June 9 and it promises to be well worthwhile for anyone at the point of needing an agent in their writing efforts. If this fits you, go back to the ITCW website and click on "Coming Up!"

A Poem to Outgrow A War

I've been wondering what I'd say on my next post... I don't have to wonder any more. This just came into my email from ARTNEWS, a listserve of artists, poets, writers and other loveable (and sometimes not so loveable) creative types. Thanks be.

Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal

by Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours,
I heard the announcement:
If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any
Arabic,
Please come to the gate immediately
Well -- one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own
gate. I went there.
An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress,
Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor,
wailing loudly.
Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her.
What is her
Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four
hours late and she
Did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly.
Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway,
min fadlick,
Sho bit se-wee?

The minute she heard any words she knew -- however
poorly used -
She stopped crying.

She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely.
She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical
treatment the
Following day. I said no, no, we're fine, you'll get
there, just late,

Who is picking you up? Let's call him and tell him.
We called her son and I spoke with him in English.
I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on
the plane and
Would ride next to her -- southwest.

She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just
for the fun of it.

Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while
in Arabic and
Found out of course they had ten shared friends.

Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call
some Palestinian
Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took
up about 2 hours.

She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her
life. Answering
Questions.


She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies --
little powderedSugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts --
out of her bag --
And was offering them to all the women at the gate.

To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It
was like a
Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler
from California,
The lovely woman from Laredo -- we were all covered
with the same
Powdered sugar. And smiling. There is no better
cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from
huge coolers --
Non-alcoholic -- and the two little girls for our
flight, one African

American, one Mexican American -- ran around serving
us all apple juice
And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar
too.


And I noticed my new best friend -- by now we were holding hands --

Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some

medicinal thing,

With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling
tradition. Always
Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones
and thought,
This is the world I want to live in. The shared world.
Not a single person in this gate -- once the crying of
confusion stopped
-- has seemed apprehensive about any other person.

They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other
women too.
This can still happen anywhere.

Not everything is lost.