Teacher Notes: Preparing for Workshop

The day has arrived!  The day where all the days of teaching Composition finally pay off.  I am teaching a fiction workshop this summer at PCC, and I couldn't be happier about it.  I've had the opportunity to teach workshops before at PCC, but this summer feels like serendipity, a coincidence of the fates that conspired to allow me to dive into craft at a moment when I am feeling a creative resurgence.

For me, workshop is a divine space, a space of unadulterated creativity, where writers are allowed to stretch their craft, to dabble, to experiment, to try things they might not have the chance to try when writing in isolation.  In order to model this for my students, I write with them.  I try to show them that the exercises I've produced for them are not just for the "new" writer, but, like any exercise physical or mental, an opportunity to try and try again, to hone and battle, to dive headlong against a task in order to become stronger, more lithe and flexible, to remake ourselves in ways that might be surprising after multiple repetitions.

More than anything, workshop is a chance to write and write a lot.  My workshop classes are full of prompts, of freewrites, of imitations and modeling.  It is a time to read from great works, and then to try our hand at creating our own.  Today is the first day, and I feel like it is the opening of a grand adventure.

Coincidentally, today is also the day I will return to Pacific University's Low-Residency MFA for a faculty reading.  This is the space where I was taught the art of the workshop, the knack of the craft talk, and the unending passion for honing the written word.  The line up for tonight?

Pete Fromm:

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Hopefully reading from his forthcoming novel If Not for This:

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Craig Lesley:

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I'm hoping for new material, but he could read from his nonfiction Burning Fence...

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Or some of his fiction, like Storm Riders...

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The final author is a new one to me: Eduardo Corral

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While unknown to me, a quick search brings the edge of excitement even closer as his poetry promises to ignite me with inspiration.  If he dazzles, then I'll be picking up his collection Slow Lightning.

In preparation for this day full of excitement?  Double barreled coffee.

Promise-ary Note: Party Time!

My last promise found me escaping my own neuroses by positioning myself inside an elemental force of nature in the form of Wahclella Falls, but I was soon to have an encounter with another natural force: thirty seven-year-olds.

The end of the school year has arrived, and first grade has come and gone quicker than I would like.  As such, the end of the school year party for my daughter landed on Wednesday.  The parents had met and decided that Rivercrest Park in Oregon City would provide the perfect space for thirty free-wheeling kids.  With a shady forested section, playground, and waterpark rolled into one, the park came equipped with so many built-in activities that we didn't have to worry about filling every moment with games, prizes, etc.

The day began a little crazy as I overslept a bit, so Tracy was a spark plug of nervous energy.  We left the house about 30 minutes late, and when we arrived at the park, the kids had already arrived.  We were in charge of some of the decorations and the lunch, so it wasn't too bad of a faux pax.  

After slapping some decorations up around the covered picnic area, it was time for the festivities to begin.  Most of the children were immediately enchanted by the balloon artist one of the parents hired, and the line for his services extended into the double digits.  While the kids held it together for the most part, I found myself mitigating a couple of "cutting" conflicts and holding places in line so that each of the students could help finish the teachers' gifts by planting a gooey, paint-covered thumbprint on a ceramic flowerpot.  

I'll admit that this promise was meant as an attempt to get outside my own life and out into the broader community, but time was tight at the end of the term and volunteerism is volunteerism, right?

The reason I chose "Volunteer" as a promise is because I oftentimes find myself navigating only the narrow confines of family and work life.  As such, I too often become consumed with an entirely selfish regard toward my own problems and stresses.  I am a writer, and if there is one thing a writer must be, it is engaged.  Volunteerism is one way of engaging with the broader community, with the world around me.

So, while I volunteered at Shea's school and got to spend the day with my wife and daughter, I also got to spend the day with 29 other 7-year-olds and a slew of parents who I don't see often.  I got to play in the sun, and feed some tiny bellies.  I got to help the kids, to nurture them in a small way.

One thing I have noticed about these functions is that there are almost no fathers there.  The volunteers are almost always made up entirely of mothers.  This day was no exception, and there was only one other father there to help out.  As a result, I find that the boys gravitate toward the men when they are there.  Unconsciously they are looking toward male role models, and I often find a young man standing before me with a soccer ball, or a beach ball, or some other kind of toy, and there is a devilish little glint in their eye as they challenge me to a game of "keep away" or an impromptu soccer scrimmage.

I don't often get to meet the young men of Shea's class, so these events allow me a look inside the wider makeup of her school.  I can see the dynamics at work within their little social circles, and I'm pleased to say that there are many pleasant and well-mannered young men in her class.

Volunteering served its function for me.  It allowed me outside the confines of routine.  It pushed me out into the world and allowed me to have some play time while giving toward the needs of others who were not me or my direct family.  In that way, I feel the promise was well-executed.  Plus, water park...'nough said.

My next promise is another effort to reach outside the confines of routine.

Teacher's Note: End of Term

The last two days have been a whirlwind of essays, late assignments, grades, rubrics, spreadsheets, and exhaustion.  Even in the wee hours of Father's Day, I found myself at the screen, responding to emails, grading online assignments, and drying out my eyeballs.

But...

It is done!  Grades were submitted this afternoon and the term has been put to rest.  As a treat, I allowed myself a meal on the couch as I watched an independent film, Hump Day, by Lynn Shelton and starring Mark Duplass, who is an actor I've come to trust and follow.  Some of you may recognize him from his work on The League.

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I've already cracked the book Ron Carlson Writes a Story and I've started a cursory rewrite of a piece of flash fiction that I wrote a couple of months back.  Every term starts this same way for me.  After I fulfill my obligations to my students, I burst forth in a frenzy of ambition to read, to write, to hike, to spend time with family.  The week after term is often one of my most creative periods as my desk is cleared of essays and grading.  

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I'm looking forward to what the week will serve me.  Ah, the life of a teacher!

Promise-ary Note: Kyle "Falls" into Personal Time

The last promise I drew was to find 3 hours to spend with myself.  It's hard as a father, husband, teacher, and bartender to carve out these little niches of time, so I had to drop everything on Tuesday and rush out of the house in order to get it in.  This meant leaving stacks of grading left ungraded in my bag and rushing out in order to be back in time to get my daughter, but I got it done.

Thanks to a little help from the internet, I was able to find a hike that suited my time frame. I wanted to get out of town, to explore a section of Oregon I had never encountered before, to scout a hike my wife and I could do alongside our daughter, and I found it in Wahclella Falls just outside of Cascade Locks.  Portlandhikersfieldguide.org provides a nice write up of the trail, so I knew what I was getting into. 

It'd been a long time since I'd gone to the Columbia Gorge, either through traveling through it or to explore it, so when the Gorge opened up in front of me past Troutdale, I made sure to soak in scene as I drove.  Some of you might remember my earlier post about my love affair with driving.  I decided to use my block of time to satiate my desire for the road, for open air, for new vistas, and the Gorge did not disappoint.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and I was hellbent on using it.

Just short of Cascade Lakes is Bonneville Dam.  From Highway 84 eastbound, one simply needs to take this exit (Exit 40) and drive south of the freeway.  The road splits east and west, and a sign points the westward way to Wahclella.  The trail is an easy one, one mile in and one mile out in a lollipop formation.  While there is a rise in elevation on the trail, it isn't anything too extreme.  

Since I was pushing time, I huffed it down the trail, quickly working up a sweat once I hit the inclines.  As it was a Tuesday, the trail was almost completely deserted, only a few families and couples appeared along the way.

I don't know what it is about waterfalls, but I'm drawn to them and the landscapes they create.  There is something about the mix of elements that immediately appeals to me.  The intersection of water misting the air in its descent elevates my spirit as I breathe deep the cascading rumble like the sustenance of sound.  As water crashes into earth, my imagination drives forward like an elemental force, and I find inspiration in the violent energies unleashed in the collision.

While I took a lot of pictures of the falls while I was there, I made sure to leave the electronics alone and to perch myself upon a rock inside the plume of mist.  This communion with nature felt like a baptism, a dip into a holy fount.  I reveled in the strain of the hike as I settled into a melting pleasure of idleness.  The goal having been achieved, I rested and I rested well.

Oregon is full of magical nooks and crannies that can transport us outside ourselves while centering us inside ourselves.  Positioning oneself inside external majesty is a great way to provide the essential insignificance of a life.  I find it important to remind myself of my own immateriality, to beat back my ego, and to remind myself that I am small in all the best ways possible.  

We all occupy the space of our own lives, sometimes even eclipsing the lives of those around us, but encounters with the wider, even wilder, world serve as a sometimes gentle reminder that we are not as important as we think we are.

All in all, the trip was a success.  I spent the drive home blasting the radio, driving with the window down, and recounting the multiple ways my life is a blessing.  Not a bad way to spend three hours if I do say so myself.

The next promise I pulled is also an exercise is getting outside myself.

Father Notes: Play Time

I've been feeling a bit disconnected from Shea lately, like I've been working too much and not having enough unstructured time with her.  Unstructured time is the cornerstone of our relationship.  With so much always going on with the family, I've always taken it upon myself to make sure to spend those aimless afternoons with her without an agenda.  Tonight, I found some of that time and I can't even explain how much I missed it.

After I picked Shea up from my mother's house, we came home to find only the dog waiting for us.  We'd beaten Tracy home.  As we came into the house, I asked Shea if she wanted to change out of her school clothes and get into something more comfortable.  She looked a bit sweaty.  She asked if I wanted to come upstairs and make sure she picked out something that was "appropriate" (her words).  She instantly pulled out a purple sundress, and I said, "Why not?"

After she changed her clothes, she asked if she could show me something.  I agreed and she led me out to the backyard.  On the way out the door, I grabbed my wife's camera on a whim.  When we got outside, Shea stood on the tiny paved path between the lower yard and upper yard and simply gestured at the strawberry plants around her.

She wound her way amongst the bushes, careful to not step on any of the ripened, or unripened fruit, until she had collected a good handful.  She offered me up a couple of strawberries like they were the greatest candied confection one could find. Which is kind of true, as strawberries from one's own yard, warm from a late Spring day, dance along the tongue like few things can.

After our quick after school snack.  Shea led me on a walk around the yard, warning me to watch out for dog poop as we walked.  We simply strolled around the yard, looking at the spot where the old play structure used to be.  We talked about maybe setting up garden boxes in its place, and Shea wanted to make sure she would have some say as to what we planted.

Shea then asked me if I wanted to play a game.  Here are the rules as I understand them:

1. I stand in a patch of dandelions while she stands in a patch of dandelions across from me.
2. When she says go, I am supposed to reach her dandelion patch while simultaneously preventing her from reaching mine.  We are on opposing teams.
3. I can't tag her right after she tags me, although the tag element and what it meant to be "it" still eludes me.

This game basically involved the two of us running past each other and standing in the opposing teams dandelions for about 10 minutes.  Somehow she won, and then I attacked her and the whole thing devolved into a tickle fight.  Afterwards, she shoved flowers into her toes and presented them to me as flower flip-flops.

Once she regained her wits and grew bored of the flower flip-flops, she spied a hula hoop left forgotten on the grass from a couple of days previous.  She lit up with an idea.  "Watch me, daddy," she cried from the middle of the lawn.

She spun that hula hoop better than I remembered.  She actually kept the thing afloat for a couple of seconds, which is a grand improvement from where she began.  After she got tired of the hula hoop around the waist, it was around the arm.  When she got tired of trying to swing it around her arm?  We concocted a game to see how many ways we could throw the hula hoop to each other from across the lawn.  She rolled it.

Threw it overhand.

Tossed it like a frisbee (not a resounding success).

Two-handed-over-the-head-axe-toss.  Look at the intensity of the preparation!  This was serious business, people.

At this point, I've lost many people to the overly sentimental musings of a father, but there is a point to all of this.  The point is this.  We had an amazing evening with Shea that night.  She came inside, did all of her chores, ate her dinner, obeyed everything we said, and was in a good mood the entire time.

Our children crave our attention and our time, and most of the parents I know give it to them, but we don't always do it in the free-associating, agenda-free format that kids prefer.  Shea loved careening from one activity to another to another with no sense of a plan.  She wanted to be free of restriction.  She wanted her mind to dance and play from one pleasurable moment to the next without me saying, "Five more minutes," or, "You can play with that after you do this, that, and the other."

The whole endeavor probably took 30 minutes, an instant, an eye blink, a mere pittance of time, but it made all the difference.  I could keep this blog post focused on Shea and how it did great things for her behavior and temperament, but I think the real winner in this situation was me.  The two of us played in the grass together, barefoot.  We ate sun-kissed strawberries and played a game that had almost no rules and no real objective.  Then, we played catch back and forth with a hula hoop.  All of those things, every one, was like an aloe to my often stress-burned heart.  I came inside after playing with Shea, kissed my wife, made a fresh dinner by her side, had a snuggle before Shea went to bed, and simply found myself connecting with my wife.  Talking, at ease, and decompressed from the day.  Play time is important.  Not just for Shea, but for Tracy and I too.  I got a dose today, and I think I'm already jonesing for more.

Thanks, Shea.  You did good, girl.

Man Notes: Yard Work

Electric hedge trimmers, sledgehammer, power drill, the dump, demolition.  These are just some of the things I encountered yesterday while working around my house.  After I woke up and got going, my wife asked if we could spend the day trimming the 10 foot hedges that border our backyard.  I groaned as I didn't want to work away the afternoon in the yard, but it turned out that I was ready for it.

Tracy and I tackled the hedge immediately, trimming the huge shrubs back from the fences and topping them off into a neat line.  Ladder work while holding an electric hedge clipper is one way for me to get the blood pressure up.  After trimming two-thirds of the hedge tops, my arms were killing me from one-arm swinging that trimmer up and over the hedge while holding a straight line.  I came down off the ladder and asked Tracy if she could take over for a little bit.  My wife is no stranger to hard work, so she grabbed up the trimmer and up the ladder she went.

As I stood watching Tracy for a moment, I started looking at Shea's play structure and how truly aged the thing had become in the years since we installed it.  The wood was rotting, ladder rungs were warping, and a couple of bolts didn't look very secure to me at all, including those holding the swings.  

Shea's sunshine Lego time under the umbrella

I marched over to Shea, who was playing with her Legos in the shade of a patio umbrella.  "I'm thinking of taking down your play structure.  You want to come and play on it one last time?"

Shea didn't even mope or whine at all about it.  She considered the play structure in the distance, decided to go down the slide one last time, and went back to playing with her Legos.  After that, the demolition project was ON.

I quickly unbolted all the plastic pieces from the structure, taking down the slide, the "rock" stairs, and the swing.  Panel by panel, I disassembled the roost at the top of the structure, and then the heavy work started.  The remaining portions of the structure were solid posts and beams, some with new screws from when I installed it in my back yard, and some original screws, which were part of the original installation in my next door neighbor's yard.  Not one of the old screws would budge.  The ones I installed reversed out without difficulty.  

So, I got as far as I could with "civilized tools" like power drills and socket wrenches for as long as I could, but it eventually came down to the sledgehammer.  There's something thrilling about swinging a sledgehammer and watching the damage it inflicts.  The play structure soon lay in manageable pieces on my lawn and I stood above it sweating and panting, but satisfied.  While I was playing Johnny Deconstructer, my wife and her mother had taken the hedge clippings and the first parts of the play structure to the dump.  When they returned, we loaded up the remainder and I hauled it all away to the dump.  

For me, there is something infinitely satisfying about the dump (even while I marvel at some of the wastefulness I see at the dump).  I unloaded the wood, plastic slide, swing, paid my dues and came home.  When I returned, the back yard had a whole new feel to it, bigger, wider, less cluttered.

The negative space where the play structure used to stand

I was reluctant to get out in the yard, but I wound up going above and beyond my wife's expectations for the day.  I didn't call it a day until 6:30 that night, but I could feel the day residing in the ache of my back, the sore arm from swinging the trimmer, and the satisfaction at accomplishing more than I set out to do.  

I'm not always the first one to jump at the chance for home improvement, but I often like the days I get to spend with power tools and plain labor.  When I finally sat down at the end of the day, I was treated to this:

Putting down a shandy after a day's work

And this:

Traeger-smoked Lamb and Cauliflower with Roasted Potatoes

Not bad, y'all.  Not bad.

Personal Notes: Pulling Threads

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The illustration above evokes a project I'm working on right now.  It is an illustration of an exercise to limber up the fingers for a pianist, but it speaks to what I'm working on in interesting ways.  Much in the same way a pianist must exercise in order to better their craft, I must "limber up" if I am to improve in my art as well.  My hands are an instrument of my art, dancing over the keyboard in an attempt at making music of another sort, and so I was drawn to this illustration.

I've been "pulling threads" over the last couple of days.  I've had an interesting email exchange with my aunt who dropped a picture on me that I wasn't prepared for.  It's called to the surface a set of questions, a mindfulness, I wasn't prepared for in terms of how I think about myself.  It is a simple picture, a picture of my grandfather, which lead me to exchange additional emails with my aunt, and then my father.  The picture opened a door to a subject I had never considered, like the muse dropping inspiration on the unwitting artist.

My grandfather and his first wife

This is the picture that started this process.  It led to other pictures and other questions.  I debated creating a blog post about the subject, but I'm realizing that the material this picture opened for me is more of a long form essay, something that needs to be developed in the longer, more formal rough draft, revision, new draft, revision process that is typical of the work I try to publish in literary magazines and other venues.

Sometimes the past feels like a closed book to us, chapters that are completed and spent.  Other times, the past comes alive for us, a place to be explored, a darkened room in which we stumble around and grope at the walls for a switch that will light the darkness.  This picture feels like the latter, or a doorway to the latter.

I'm excited to explore the subject in detail.  One never knows where inspiration is going to strike, but we must all remain open to it.

Writer Notes: Digital Storytelling

I recently had the opportunity to attend a session at Lewis and Clark College titled "Digital Storytelling."  It was hosted by the incomparable Kim Stafford and was a session designed to give a quick overview to a new brand of storytelling that has arisen in this age of new, cheaper technologies.

Digital Storytelling is basically a combination of video editing and flash fiction/nonfiction.  It combines the power of image and text in a way that is new and exciting.  With movie and music editing software becoming more affordable and user-friendly, artists like myself and any other person interested in the pursuit are able to package their words in slick new ways.  Here's an example:

This is a powerful personal memoir by Leroy Moore called "The Gift of Nonviolence" that deals with a childhood of abuse and how the author managed to navigate it.  The three minute video shows the power of the medium.

Here's another example that focuses on the idea of identity by Rob Kershaw.  It is titled "Camaro Boy".

The format excites me and I have a few ideas for new pieces that could use this kind of treatment.  The Digital Storytelling session contained multiple freewrite prompts that yielded interesting results, and I've an idea for a family archive project that I think could work well.

Continuing education is a gift from my employer Portland Community College.  They allowed me to attend the session for free.  As a result, I've gained new inspiration for a format of writing that also combines my love of the relationship between image and text (don't forget my love of comics).

If this format intrigues you too, then you might be interested in visiting the site for the Center for Digital Storytelling at Berkeley. After school gets out and finals are graded, expect to see my first attempt at using this new medium here.

Man Notes: Re-purposing

This last year has taught me a lot about promises, about commitment to a life desired, and my ability to work my way around the things I want in life.  I've made some bad decisions since the new year, decisions that had implications I couldn't see in the moment, but that will have lasting effects on the rest of the year.  The thing I've learned about all of this is that I need a bit of re-purposing, a bit of re-direction, or re-commitment, and a myriad other "re" words.

The promise post has gotten me blogging again, which has gotten me writing again, which has rekindled the fire in me to create, to live a life that is purposeful, intentional, and self-directed.  The problem, as I see it, is that I've done a backslide into a way of life that is not exactly conducive to what I want.  Thus, I need to redirect myself.  Here's how I see it.

I do not read enough.

I do not write enough.

I do not spend enough quality time with my family.

I work too much.

I spend too many off hours thinking about work.

I spend too many off hours thinking about work and not engaging in action that will allow me to stop thinking about work in my off hours.

I am not living as healthy of a lifestyle as I want.

I spend my time engaged in activities that cause me to feel guilt.

I feel guilty about how I spend my time, which causes me to further ignore the things I want.

This is a simple list, but an honest one.  It is a list I'm ashamed of if I'm going to be truly honest with myself.  So I come to solutions.  To me there is only one: choose.  I must choose what it is I want from my life and actively choose it every day.

This is where the promise project comes into play.  I've chosen to commit myself to my promises.  I've chosen to dedicate myself to fulfilling a promise I made mostly to only myself.  So why are the other things any different?  They are not.  So this leaves me with a new purpose, a re-purpose of my earlier self.  

I am committing the next three months to actively choosing to live the life I want to live.  I need to be better.  I need to be better for me.  I need to be better for my family.  I need to be better for my students and co-workers, for my friends, but, mostly, just for me.  I'm tired of choosing to do things that bring me active shame.  I'm tired of not living up to my potential.  I'm going to revisit my remaining promises in the bowl and I might just do a new batch.  I'm facing a new set of challenges that are deeply personal and potentially life-altering, so I must engage with them while the energy is high. 

The energy is high right now, and it is imperative that I seize the moment.  I've had a series of truly honest conversations with my loved ones recently, and I want to live up to the promise of those conversations.  Wish me luck, you'll probably be hearing more about this in the coming days/weeks/months.

Promise-ary Note: Playing Catch-up

It's been radio silence here at WTF for too long.  I've been swamped lately with the end of the term approaching, family birthdays, holiday weekends, bar work, and other such madness, but I've been missing the blog tremendously.  I've sat in front of my computer a couple of times and simply stared at the screen, wondering what to write.  In the end, I abandoned my commitment there, which made me feel awful, but I am here now, and I will be here again tomorrow, or the next day.  The writer's life demands forgiveness when one steps away.  So, I've forgiven myself and I'm ready to march on.

For those of you who don't remember, my last promise posted was:

After a trip to several Long Beach, Washington, bars in search of live music that weekend, my wife and I had to call it quits.  We weren't going to find any music for the dancing.  So, my wife has offered me a rain check.  She isn't getting away from me though.  She hasn't offered me an out, but simply a rain check.  I'll make sure to document our "swinging" times when we get a night out.

The next promise I pulled was:

On the same beach trip, my family and I got the chance to sit down and play some good old fashioned "Uno."  For those of you unfamiliar with the card game, check it out here.  It's a game my family and I used to play when I was a child, and Shea is catching on quick.  She played card-shark to her mother and I a couple of times, and now she has found a new favorite.  Like any kid, Shea loves it when she gets to beat the grown-ups at something.  Tic-Tac-Toe and Uno seem to be where she's finding the best success.  Although she has plenty of choices.

Sitting around a dining room table with your family while playing a game is, for me, the quintessential experience.  I remember playing all kinds of board/card games with my family when I was little.  I remember feeling embraced by them when we played, even if the banter was less than affectionate and a little competitive.  The dinner table and the game table were often the only times my family slowed down enough to all sit in the same place.

I want Shea to have that same experience as she grows up.  I want her to look back fondly and remember the times we shared engaged in play, in fun, in a pursuit that had no other purpose than to provide us with some pleasure.  It's hard to find that time sometimes with two working parents, school, family commitments, etc.  I'll never regret it though, so I need to make a greater effort to find that time.

The next promise is an easy one (if I can find the time as we approach the end of term):

I have a tendency to give all my time to other people: to the family, to my students, to my coworkers, my employers, etc.  I have to remember that sometimes its important for Kyle to do whats best for Kyle.  My mental wheels are already aspinnin' as I think of how I could use this time.  I have a feeling it will be something simple.

Until next time, y'all.  I've missed writing to you and writing FOR me.