Confirmation

As 2006 ended, I received two emails from writing students. One from George, whom I have had the pleasure of plumbing the depths of the writing craft for more than a decade and one from Rob, who only recently attended a class I was teaching at Anne Arundel Community College.

I love teaching writing courses. Although "teaching" is a wholly inaccurate term. I don't believe you can teach someone to write; the artists discovers writing and is already an artist long before I come on the scene. But working with other artists has always helped my work. I suppose what amazed me though about these two recent emails is that periodically I hear from "students" and discover that I have been privileged to have had a positive impact on their lives.

George had organized an "appreciation" class for me during our December session. Unfortunately I was beset by a physical problem that prevented my participation. Following up on that, George wrote me an email:

I'm not sure that your pain at our last meeting allowed you to take in what I said to you -- something like "...you are one of the five people who have had a major positive impact on my life. If you hadn't turned me on to writing, I would have gone bananas long ago."
Apart from that, I wish the world were filled with people like you.
Which is why I end all my e-mails to you with
"Love, George."

I don't think George would mind my revealing that he has been living for eight decades and I would never have imagined that I would find myself in such rare company as one of only five people. And once more I realize that perhaps none of us know how important we are or have been in others' lives.

Around the same time, I received an email from Rob.

I want to say that I have a great deal of respect for your obvious passion for the art of writing. To me, it comes out when your entire blog is taken as a whole. Your challenge to each of us to simply “write it down”, all of it, without over analyzing before hand is always on my mind and I am trying to do that everyday. And I want to say thank you for all that you gave me in the class. “All” is the big word here because there is no doubt in my mind that I will be discovering what the “all” is for some time to come!
The seed you planted has grown into a small bush through our group, which continues to meet, and is valued by each of us.

The class that Rob attended developed a writer's group when the class ended and that group has continued to support and push one another to more effective works. I hadn't really considered how exposed I am in my blog because most of the time I assume that no one reads it beyond my daughter and Susan and occasionally another writer (like George or Rob). But it would not change what I write, no matter who was going to read it.

More than imagination, more than perfect grammer, more than an extended vocabulary, a writer must possess courage. Nothing is more powerful, evocative, and beautiful than the truth. I am not the first to say so or think so. Was it Eleanor Roosevelt who said "The thing you fear you cannot do is the thing you must do." (Please write me if you have the accurate quote.)

I am working on a piece of writing right now and have written most of it, save for one bit, the part I cannot write. So I know that that is what I must write. My writing friends bolster my courage to do so and watching the leap that every class has been willing to take with me strengthens my resolve to keep moving into deeper crevices, even when the walls seem insurmountable.

Thank you: Susan, Jon, Wendy, Joe, Rob, D, Heather, Steve, Vicki, George, Vivian, John, and others but first and foremost, Anna Kirby Ward.