Volume IX, Issue 36
September 2,2020
Dear ,
Yay! This week I am sharing an essay with you that has it all—love, food, conflict, drama, and even a word game! Add to that a fire (well, at least a lit match) and it is one fabulous read. It's called "Paris Match" and written by the
incomparable Ann Patchett, and it's the story of a meal at a Paris restaurant named Taillevent with a guy named Karl with whom she was recently in love.
It holds the line, "We hadn’t been together long enough to know that we shouldn’t talk about old lovers. We probably hadn’t been together long enough to go to Paris. No two people are ever together long enough to enjoy word games."
This is a line I love, despite the fact that my love, Richard, and I have talked about old lovers and lived to tell of it, enjoy word games, and had been together long enough by the time we went to Paris. Twenty-five years to be exact. We are a good match.
I went through all my photos of our time there in 2009, and I couldn't find any photos of our eating together at a Paris restaurant, but I did find this photo of me taken by Richard in le Café de la Paix.
This year, of course, very few people are traveling to Paris, or anywhere, for that matter. I can promise you, though, that reading "Paris Match" will not make you feel sad about not being in Paris right now—unless, perhaps, you have eaten at Taillevent and can't wait to go back.
WordPlay
Opportunities
Shaping Our Lives by Shaping Our Words:
Through the Pandemic and Beyond
What benefits can writing provide—physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually? We know now that the words we use and the stories we tell shape our daily experiences. Learn to shape words that bring out the best in you—and others. In this class incorporating Dr. James Pennebaker’s ground-breaking work, you’ll practice holistic, whole brain writing approaches that
broaden your perspectives and deepen your compassion. And, if you’re interested, you’ll create new poetry, creative nonfiction, and/or fiction.
WHERE: Online via Zoom
WHEN: Coming this fall
COST: TBA
INFORMATION: I am having a wonderful time teaching this class this week through Chautauqua Institution! And a number of people have emailed to ask if I'd consider offering it again via Zoom in a once-a-week format. I'd love to! If you are interested please email me at info@wordplaynow.com.
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TAG, I'M IT!
SALE! SALE! SALE!
The year-length TAG, I'M
IT!, normally $17, is on sale for $14.50, and the three-month TAG, I'M IT!, normally $9.99, is on sale for $7.99 through next Monday, September 7th (Labor Day).
They each offer—in no more than five to fifteen minutes—a simple way to recap and celebrate the very best of each day of your life. The practice of writing out your “T’s” (things you’re thankful for), “A’s” (actions you can acknowledge yourself for), and “G’s” (gifts
you’re grateful for) is a transformative one, especially combined with the final step, I’M IT!, in which you intentionally choose three do-able, most-important-to-you actions you’ll take the next day.
The TAG, I'M IT! journal grounds you in two important habits: keeping your focus on appreciating and celebrating the good in your life and intentionally accomplishing what matters most to you. You’ll also create a record of
your most meaningful, happiest events and experiences.
Start your journal—or restart, if needed—whenever you like. (Though a new year is a perfect time!)
An introduction with tips and ideas will help you make this practice your own. Soon, you’ll notice that you’re living your days with more joy, presence, purpose, and intention.
Thank you to Maureen Ryan Griffin for creating TAG I’M IT.
TAG, I’M IT is my new best friend. It’s a guided writing journal that helps me sort through the mental travels of my day. And it helps me zero in on the special moments by reflecting, acknowledging, and saying
thank you for the invisible gifts collected in my daily journey.
“TAG” gives me joy. And it gives me a sense of peace. It helps me discover the small and large wonders around me.
“TAG” sits on my nightstand – it’s my last conversation of the day. And I feel satisfied when I turn off the light. When I write in my TAG, I’M IT journal, I’m giving myself a gift. What a treasure!
~ T. D. Taegel
More WordPlay opportunities coming soon.
Stay posted!
The Paris Match
by
Ann Patchett
There are things people do when they are first in love: they surprise each other with trips to Paris; they make reservations at impossibly expensive restaurants; they have conversations about former lovers while they eat. All of these things can happen after years of marriage as well, but the chances are infinitely smaller.
Karl and I had been together a little more than a year. He arranged the trip, and I made the reservations for a very late lunch. I can’t remember how it all got started, but as we sat in Taillevent, at such a beautiful table right in the center of the room, the conversation somehow turned to Mark. My relationship with Mark had been an amicable one that had come to a mostly amicable end. Karl asked if we fought
a lot. Or maybe I asked Karl if he fought with his ex-wife, and so in return he asked me about Mark.
The waiter came and handed me a wine list the size of a tombstone. I turned the pages for a moment, the way I might have turned the pages of a calculus exam, with some interest and not a single spark of comprehension. “White,” I said, and Karl, who doesn’t drink, just shook his head.
“The worst fight we ever had wasn’t exactly a fight,” I said. “We were playing a word game. When he told me about it, I said I wanted to play, but then I couldn’t figure out the answer, and he wouldn’t stop. He just kept playing it and playing it and, I don’t know —”
The waiter came to take our orders. We ordered something. Some food.
“What?” Karl asked after the waiter had gone.
I remembered the fight very clearly. We were in the car, and Mark was driving, and when we got to a red light I opened the door and got out. I walked through the traffic to the curb, something I have never done before or since. “I thought I was going to kill him.”
“So what’s the game?” he asked.
“It isn’t hard. That’s what’s so awful about it. Once I actually got it, it was simple.”
Karl sat back. He was beautiful in the rich light, beautiful between the damask draperies and the thick white tablecloth. He rested his fingers against the heavy fork beside his plate. “Tell me how to play. I’m good at these sorts of things.”
We hadn’t been together long enough to know that we shouldn’t talk about old lovers. We probably hadn’t been together long enough to go to Paris. No two people are ever together long enough to enjoy word games.
Read the rest of Ann Patchett's "The Paris Match" here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/magazine/26food.html
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 “match.”
PROMPT 1: "Match" is such an interesting word, isn't it? A verb as well as a noun, with, according to
Merriam-Webster, 3 entries, 11 sub-entries, and 16 sub-sub-entries. In "A Paris Match," Ann Patchett weaves in several of these meanings. This week, try a Sprawl to find your own matchless piece of writing, beginning with the word "match."
How to Sprawl
• Put the word "match" in the middle of a blank sheet of paper.
• Moving out from that center, free associate words and phrases for ten
minutes, letting one lead to another. When one strand of your Sprawl runs out, come on back to the center and go out in a different direction. You may want to circle your center word, or all your words. You may want to connect your words and phrases with lines. Experiment.
• Look over your Sprawl. Pick the most evocative idea, and Sprint until you have explored it as fully as you can.
• Craft your Sprint into a piece of writing.
Vary this process to suit yourself and your words. I tend to Sprawl when I know what I want to write about. I often start to see the finished piece taking shape in my mind as I jot down words and phrases, so I’m prone to move right into a draft, with my Sprawl propped alongside to refer to every few paragraphs. If ideas for what will go into an essay, poem, or story, are coming fast and furious, a Sprawl is just the ticket. It's also a great way to find a subject, as in this exercise of
beginning with a single word.
PROMPT 2: Write about the worst fight two people ever had.
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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