Judy Blume, the children’s author, who wrote
“Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret”
was talking on NPR Morning Edition the other day. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98706074
She was talking about being a mom in New Jersey
trying to figure out what to do with her life,
making felt hangings to sell, and being able
to remember vividly what it was like to be a kid,
and writing from that viewpoint.
I began to smell the Emmaus Public Library
when it was all books and very, very quiet,
a little house sitting on the downtown “Triangle,”
with two older women who watched over it.
It’s funny the places you feel safe and alive
or the places you remember feeling that.
We keep being surprised by what kind of stories
and videos Matteo likes and doesn’t like.
At almost 4, he’s way into the Solar System,
and will watch nonstop DVD’s about the planets.
I need to make up stories about them, with Venus
being Mar’s sister, and papa Jupiter
and mama Juno (not a planet, sadly)
trying to keep the family from killing each other.
Mercury’s the best friend, very fast runner,
and Uranus is very slow... Neptune, quite the swimmer.
Not quite Shakespeare, but...
He loves Mister Rogers (which has gone out of syndication
on most NPR stations, but ours is running it...)
but he’s ambivalent these days on Sesame Street,
which I don’t quite understand. I really like Elmo,
though Marin can’t stand his sweet little laugh...
Then there’s Thomas the Train, which he also seems
to be getting over. He used to cry whenever
TTT had one of their many crashes or derailments,
which seem to be ubiquitous...
Last night we tried the Curious George movie,
mostly because we like the Jack Johnson soundtrack,
but after less than 30 minutes Matteo was ready for bed.
We tried to get out of him what he didn’t like,
he said something like there were bad people in there,
people saying no (he hates “no”), opening and shutting doors,
and there was a dinosaur skeleton collapse,
noisy and cataclysmic, which he hated...
Suspense and change, these are things that don’t sit well
with his aesthetic and moral DNA...
A couple weeks ago I launched into telling him
chapters based on C. S. Lewis’ Narnia story,
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
He thought it was too long. He also stopped me
when the Witch had the Lion on the stone table,
about to “sacrifice” him. I didn’t get to redeem
the story. It ended with Lucy and Susan sad,
instead of the dance of the next morning,
and the freeing of Mr. Tumnus from the curse
of having become stone... I read those books
in the original hardcover, from Muhlenberg library.
They became a deep memory of
possibility, wonder and brilliance.
It’s funny the places you feel safe and alive.
“Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret”
was talking on NPR Morning Edition the other day. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98706074
She was talking about being a mom in New Jersey
trying to figure out what to do with her life,
making felt hangings to sell, and being able
to remember vividly what it was like to be a kid,
and writing from that viewpoint.
I began to smell the Emmaus Public Librarywhen it was all books and very, very quiet,
a little house sitting on the downtown “Triangle,”
with two older women who watched over it.
It’s funny the places you feel safe and alive
or the places you remember feeling that.
We keep being surprised by what kind of stories
and videos Matteo likes and doesn’t like.
At almost 4, he’s way into the Solar System,
and will watch nonstop DVD’s about the planets.
I need to make up stories about them, with Venus
being Mar’s sister, and papa Jupiter
and mama Juno (not a planet, sadly)
trying to keep the family from killing each other.
Mercury’s the best friend, very fast runner,
and Uranus is very slow... Neptune, quite the swimmer.
Not quite Shakespeare, but...
He loves Mister Rogers (which has gone out of syndication
on most NPR stations, but ours is running it...)
but he’s ambivalent these days on Sesame Street,
which I don’t quite understand. I really like Elmo,
though Marin can’t stand his sweet little laugh...
Then there’s Thomas the Train, which he also seems
to be getting over. He used to cry whenever
TTT had one of their many crashes or derailments,
which seem to be ubiquitous...
Last night we tried the Curious George movie,
mostly because we like the Jack Johnson soundtrack,
but after less than 30 minutes Matteo was ready for bed.
We tried to get out of him what he didn’t like,
he said something like there were bad people in there,
people saying no (he hates “no”), opening and shutting doors,
and there was a dinosaur skeleton collapse,
noisy and cataclysmic, which he hated...
Suspense and change, these are things that don’t sit well
with his aesthetic and moral DNA...
A couple weeks ago I launched into telling him
chapters based on C. S. Lewis’ Narnia story,
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
He thought it was too long. He also stopped me
when the Witch had the Lion on the stone table,
about to “sacrifice” him. I didn’t get to redeem
the story. It ended with Lucy and Susan sad,
instead of the dance of the next morning,
and the freeing of Mr. Tumnus from the curse
of having become stone... I read those books
in the original hardcover, from Muhlenberg library.
They became a deep memory of
possibility, wonder and brilliance.
It’s funny the places you feel safe and alive.
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