River Brown

I finally made it through The Story of Edgar Sawtelle which was a compellingly well-written, but heartbreaking story.  The book took my precious moments, after the house and work was settled down, when I could be propped under the covers with my Kindle, and lifted me out of my daily concerns completely.  It was as if I lived out on the farm with them in the late 50’s.  A flight from the daily humdrum.

Books end.  And this time, I’m not going to go around pathetically lost.  I’ve already pulled out my copy of Vernacular Eloquence by Peter Elbow.  I don’t know why I didn’t make it past the second chapter when I ordered it last winter.  I was elated by reading Writing with Power and Writing Without Teachers.  Mr. Elbow’s the man when it comes to expressing what’s going on during composing.  Perhaps I got too busy or got lost in his thought train?

So, the pumpkin colored cover with elegant modern script on it glows beside my desk, inviting me.  The subtitle is What Speech Can Bring to Writing.  I have a modest amount of experience with that general idea, both in my own summer writing group and leading writing workshop with EL students.

“Harnessing what’s best about speaking and bringing it to writing.”  I’m in for the ride.  Even the academic history of writing.  I know that my sense that Correct Written English (CWE) is over-valued and my gripe that it often replaces the teaching of writing in primary and elementary grades may find some vindication in this tome.

I feel like I am about to go on an adventure.  I am going to fly, not nonstop, but hop flights across the country to other places I haven’t been.  And it will all be a rest from the ceaseless reporting for SST’s.

Travel.  That always un-moors my routine mind and lets me be more alert and observant.

Departing at Gate E.