Volume IX, Issue 22
May 27, 2020
Word of the Week: graduate
Dear ,
If you have a 2020 graduate in your life, or happen to be one, congratulations!
What a year to graduate! And yet, even in the midst of the novel coronavirus, commencements have, well, commenced, in some form or other —in kitchens, in front yards (can anyone say "drive-by"), and, of course, online. While it must be so hard to have to give up all the customary "pomp and circumstance," it is pretty cool to have Oprah
Winfrey as your commencement speaker!
This year, at graduation time, immersed as I am in writing my cookbook memoir, How She Fed Us: Reflections on the Recipes of a Perfectly Imperfect Mother, I thought I'd share a piece centered around the time of her graduation from high school.
My sweet husband, Richard, scanned this photo of her from the 1941 Maryvue Annual, published by the senior class of Marymount high school in Garfield Heights, Ohio. (Next to the photo was her "aim"—"to read all the books
in the school library." I am discovering, as I write, that I am much more like my mother than I'd thought!
I hope you enjoy this featured writing. As a bonus, I've pulled seven prompts from it to share with you—one for every day of the week.
Love and light,
Maureen
These two books are for anyone who is grieving the loss of a loved one—whether the loss is
impending, recent, or in the past. (The holiday season, for all its overt merriment, is often a time we struggle the most with grief.)
The contemplative exercises within are a guide through the “many waters” of grief (from Madeleine L'Engle's A Two-Part Invention), including "treasuring" and "keeping" as well as regret and sadness.
What is grief, after all, but a sign of the depth of our love? On the far shore is always gratefulness, for, as the French proverb says, “Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” Those who enjoy writing will likely also find poems, essays, and/or stories emerging as they make their way through these
pages.
I created the process shared in these two books in June of 2002, shortly after my mother died, as a way to mindfully mourn this loss—and celebrate her life. I shared it with a beloved friend, the Reverend Rebecca Taylor, when she lost her father, and she encouraged me to make it available to others. Here it is, in two versions, both of which offer quotes, reflections, prompts, and space to write about your loved one, as well as beautiful photographs by Wendy H. Gill that enhance each part of the process. Either
version makes a thoughtful condolence gift for a friend or family member.
How Do I Say Goodbye? is for those of any faith, with quotes from many different sources to accompany the process. It can be purchased on Amazon here.
Praying You Goodbye is specifically for Christians, with accompanying quotes from Scripture chosen by Reverend Rebecca Taylor. It can be purchased on Amazon here.
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION: YOUR WRITING
(Fulfilling Writing Dreams & Goals;
Revising & Polishing Your Writing)
Special offering! If you'd like to try out a class like the one Featured Writer Kathy Brown speaks of below, there are a few spots available in WordPlay's short summer
sessions. I'd love to talk with you to discuss if the class is right for you. Email info@wordplaynow.com for more information.
This class is designed to fulfill your writing dreams and projects. You’ll set goals and support structures and watch your writing flow! You’ll also get feedback on your
work (any genre) and learn revision tools and methods. Through examples of accomplished writers, you’ll learn techniques to aid you right where you are in the process.
* For the benefit of participants, an audio recording of the class will be made each week so that participants are able to listen to classes they miss and/or review material
covered at any convenient time and place. These recordings are available throughout the class session, along with all handouts, in a shared Dropbox folder.
WHERE: ZOOM from your own
home
WHEN: Wednesday mornings from 10:00 a.m. – noon
(Other class time/day of week may be available. Email info@wordplaynow.com for more information.)
COST: $35 for one
session
TO REGISTER: Please email info@wordplaynow.com to start the registration process by filling out a short “Clarity Tool” to share your writing dreams and goals and where you are in the process. (Anywhere you are is a perfect place to begin.)
Featured Writing
An Excerpt from
the upcoming cookbook memoir
How She Fed Us:
Reflections on the Recipes
of a Perfectly Imperfect Mother
by
Maureen Ryan Griffin
THE ONE ABOUT MOTHER’S COLLEGE—
AND GRANDPA’S CORN
Like many couples in the 1920s and 30s, my mothers’ parents had a very traditional marriage. Grandpa earned the money at his job working for the city and, at home, did the outdoor work, including the tending of his greenhouse and garden; Grandma did the inside work: cooking, cleaning, laundry, canning and jam-making… and cutting corn off all the ears Grandpa grew
and storing it in their big freezer chest, ready for winter.
Grandma and Grandpa expected their children, my mother and my uncle John, to follow in their footsteps. (Here's a photo of my mother and her brother, John, circa 1929.)
Well, with one major exception. Though my grandfather had not gone to college, my grandparents wanted their son to have this opportunity and saved money for this purpose. He was a male and, thus, should go. Their daughter, on the other hand, was going to get married, have children, and take care of a household. What did she need college for?
My mother had different ideas. I’d been inspired—and angered—by the story Mother had told me about how she wound up going to college. Near the time of her high school graduation, I’d learned, a letter had arrived congratulating Patricia Brachowski on winning a full scholarship to Ursuline College—a Catholic, all-female school in Cleveland, Ohio, where Mother lived.
But my mother never saw that letter, or knew of its existence, because her parents saw it first and threw it away. From their perspective, it made perfect sense. Why in the world should Patsy waste her time going to college?
Fortunately for my mother’s future, someone from Ursuline College called the week before classes started. They’d never heard back about what Patricia planned to do. Would she be attending?
As fate would have it, Patricia herself had picked up the phone, and, yes, she most certainly would be attending!
I would love to have heard the conversation my then eighteen-year-old mother had with her mother and father afterward. I’m guessing it was heated. Mother got her strong will, and her temper, honestly, from both her parents. But their daughter won that argument and off to college she went.
Many years later, I heard another, earlier college story of Mother’s through my brother Tim. On one of his visits with her when her memory was still fairly intact, Tim happened to ask how she’d decided she wanted to go to college.
Mother’s face lit up. When she was in high school, she told him, she often finished her work before the other students. When that happened, she’d go over to the classroom bookshelf and choose something to read. One day, she happened to pick out a book from a series about a girl named Betty Wales who went to college. Mother made up her mind then and there—so would she.
As for Tim and me, and our three siblings, none of us decided we wanted to go to college. No, we—her sons and her daughters—were born to go. I don’t think any of us ever considered not going. It was only a question of where. Tim, who chose Bowdoin College, in Maine, went the furthest. But Mother made all of us our favorite foods when we came home on
our breaks.
On Tim’s list were Cream of Corn Soup, a Friday night mainstay Mother always served with Apple Pancakes, and Corn Fritters, and any meal that included corn on the cob.
The weeks he and our brother Mike spent with Mother's parents each summer may have contributed to Tim’s fondness for corn. One of the highlights of these visits, he told me, was the contest to see who could eat the most ears of Grandpa Brack’s homegrown corn on the cob. What a break from Mother’s portion control! She was the most anti “all-you-can-eat” person I’ve ever met.
There are so many ways to be in this world, aren’t there? And more than one side to every story. I’ve lost my righteous indignation about Mother’s parents throwing away her college scholarship letter without telling her about it. They were as much a product of their time, and their experiences, as I am of mine and Mother was of hers.
Thank goodness one of my mother’s experiences was finishing her schoolwork ahead of her classmates and picking out a book to read. Without the inspiration of a story about a girl named Betty Wales, would she have decided to go to college? Would she have defied her parents to do so?
I wonder. That one decision led to a rich, rewarding career she loved. And to meeting her husband at a Catholic club for college students. And to all that followed, to Mary and Mike and Tim and John, to me.
~ Maureen Ryan Griffin
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's “graduate.”
PROMPT: Here's a whole week's worth of prompts for you, all inspired by this week's featured writing.
PROMPT 1: Write about a decision about the future
made as a direct result of something read or said.
PROMPT 2: Write about a letter that was never received.
PROMPT 3: Write about a phone call that changed a life.
PROMPT 4: Write about going—or not going—to college.
PROMPT 5: Write about someone’s favorite food(s).
PROMPT 6: Write about a shift in perspective in the way someone
views another person he/she once thought harshly of.
PROMPT 7: Write about a graduate or a graduation.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide to the Craft of
Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water.
She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, “We are meant to midwife dreams for one another.” Maureen also believes that serious “word
work” requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best
learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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