It's my anno

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Blog-anno that is. Celebrating one year of writing ... the good, decent and nonsensical. For my anno, I think it's a good idea to rehash my commitment to this blog. For those of my readers that ask, "what's your shtick?"  I can't claim to be an expert on anything exclusively, I think some people have the ability to be social influencers on the specific. You have your relationship bloggers that some people use their words as bible, your athletic blogs, which tell you the same things over and over about diet, nutrition and their daily exercise routine, etc. And those blogs are great - if you're looking for something specific. From my perspective you read for pleasure; running, relationships and even food can't always deliver. But if you combine them all and have the ability to pick and choose - you get what I'm doing; blogging for pleasure. I offer some creative insights, opinions and stories; from me to you, unfiltered, non-committal. I just ask that if you enjoy it, you share it! 

Another question: "What keeps you committed to your blog?" This one is easy. I love to write, I have a few big wigs to impress and I have an ambitious goal to reach multitudes of people. I know the publishing industry is experiencing a mini-crisis right now, but I think it's because people aren't enjoying what they read. Everything is being recycled, reused and re-purposed. My posts,  thoughts/opinions I hope are interesting enough to not be considered as lackluster as this year's super bowl ads. Now, I'm not committing that I will write the next great American novel, but I seek to entertain, give a break in the mundane and get a few things off my chest every now and then.

And now a note of importance in history: Remember the week before you went back to school, your parents took you back to school shopping for notebooks, pens, pencils etc? If you were like my parents, who waited until Sunday night and all the stuff was picked over, the only notebooks that were left in stock were those expensive Five-Star multi-subject notebooks. So that's what I started with every school year, organizing five subjects into those sectioned tabs (color coded of course). Years later, I figured what better way to start my writing career than with another notebook - a multi-subject one filled with a multitude of characters, stories, opinions, hopes and dreams.

So here we are, one year under the belt. Thanks to all the my dear readers, dedicated over the last year - I hope you continue to read, comment and share, trust me there are more interesting, embarrassing and just plain happening things to come. Happy Anno!!!

Write a little, run a little

My first post of the new year... Well, this holiday, I spent the season with my boyfriend and his family in Arizona. Oh yea, 70 degree weather! While I was there, Harriet the Spy came on, which is by far my favorite movie - even to this day. The concept is simple she writes because, she wants to remember everything and know everything. This thinking also lead to her espionage, but nonetheless - it's true. Is it possible this movie I watched when I was nine took this many years to figure out what it all really means?
2010 was a year to pick up the pieces, but in the end I figured out a few things. I write because I believe writers understand a truth that not all can see and real writers are able to make this truth beautiful;  "beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know" - John Keats.
I run because I like the sound that my anxiety and negative thoughts make chasing behind me consistently slower than my own pace. When I run, all my affirmations, day dreams and counting over power so nothing but steady breathing and progression happen in the span of a run.

Get it yet? Two things. Truth and beauty, for me writing and running. At least now I know what I can do to get me through the year.

The Social Word

I'm pretty sure I was probably the last person of my generation to see "Social Network" so I hope I'm not spoiling it for any of you with this post. This was one of the most memorable movies I have seen in a long time... thought-provoking, intellectually stimulating and completely accurate in regards to understanding our generation. The movie centers around the idea of this social revolution, brought on by Mark Zuckerberg, which curtailed business values into what they are today. One of the happy coincidences of this movement has been the appreciation of language.
His story and the founding of facebook outlines our new business model and objectives that my generation has inherited. The movie mentions that there was a code of ethics inherently in business and that MZ was breaking all of these rules to create his company. Means and opportunity trump networking and impressing the big wigs. The thing about the good ol' boys is they can't  fathom reaching outside of their circle, now we're forming an entirely new circle or intricate web that is inherently social. Additionally, exclusivity has died. The importance lies in the amount of people you know and the depth of your network. And, we're forced to make more and more friends, while reading about people through the Internet without the commitment of actually getting to know them. What more do you need to know, their status on facebook or Twitter says all... Here's an example, the other day I found out my best friend from home just welcomed her nephew home, I texted her a congratulations with three exclamation points, because clearly the repeat punctuation means more. While this position might sound negative, it makes me happy that we are growing closer and closer to the English language and making sure we text what we mean and mean what we text.

Thankfully, this movement will finally show people why I've decided to commit my life to writing. The use of the language has never been more powerful. It has become incredibly transparent and as explicit as the 18th century novel. We're welcoming back a form of writing that connected people through the most distant circumstances. This writing is a way to understand the human connection in an era where we are all strangely connected.

So keep writing, texting and making nonsensical tweets ... as always, I'll write to you soon.

Tracing outside the lines

I read a review in the New York Times for Ntozake Shange's newest novel "Some Sing, Some Cry". If you haven't read Shange's work, you should. She's a celebrated playwright, whose scripts are also fascinating and intriguing novels. Her newest novel, which I'll report back once I read, is a story through 7 generations of Black women. The critic from the Times explains in her review that the voices of the women become merged together and this complied with what she calls "soap-opera drama" takes away from this critical exploratory of the Black woman's life through history... We'll see, if this is true.

I'm very excited to read this novel because it's a topic that I've always enjoyed to read and write about. I have read many novels that are written for/about/ and by Black women. In many novels the reader can feel a tension in the narrative through the character's need to define themselves as a woman and as a person of color. Often this is reflective of the author's struggle and balance to be viewed as a voice in the literary canon as well as maintain authenticity to the Black community.

Authors create characters that can exist in both worlds, but the identity of the Black character, becomes generalized in an innate bias lens the reader has with Black novels. Since the Black community is viewed as a whole, anytime you read a book or novel about them the identity markers disappear and the individual character is lost. It's interesting because when you read books like: "Eat, Pray, Love" or one of Emily Giffin's series,  as a reader you don't gather the characteristics of the heroine and make a general list that would explain the Caucasian race, so why do readers do this with Black novels?

One idea that I've considered is that the Black woman is diverse in personality, vitality and spirit, but  Black women hurt from the same pain. It's consequences and life situations that bores this burden of being so unique, yet so categorically similar. This ties back to Shange's novel that traces through generations one underlining pain that feels so different in each woman. This could cause a blur of identities. Some might say, "aren't all women like this? Don't we all have the same hurt?" I can definitively tell you, NO.

Black women deal with an internal struggle -- accepting the self with a stake in two worlds; essentially, she has to trace a picture of herself outside lines that are already drawn. The structure looks similar, but can exist on its own with just enough space to be different.