Tuesday, January 22, 2008

MP Chapters 8-10

I just finished reading section 2 in Pipher's book (more than a few hours in advance...a huge accomplishment on my part), and I am working on digesting everything she said. She certainly throws out a lot of advice in these chapters, most of which I think is common sense, but there were a few points she made that I have never really taken into consideration.

Point 1: Keep old journals and writing
I was always one of those little girls that liked to pick out cool-looking journals, write in them twice, and loose them somewhere under my bed or in a closet. On top of that, on the rare occasion that I did manage to write something meaningful in them, I would usually get the thought out of my system then crumple it up and throw it away. I found this more satisfying than reading about a hard experience later. However, it recently occurred to me that someday I am going to have children, and God forbid I have a girl who thinks like I do sometimes. She is going to want to know what I was like as a young adult, what kind of relationship problems or philosophical moments I had, and I won't have anything to tell her because my memories will be newly recycled paper by that point. When I read in Pipher's book that she often reads her own journals as a way to see how she thought about certain issues in the past and sometimes uses them during the writing process, I became even more convinced that I should go buy one more pretty journal and try again. In addition, Pipher talks about keeping old papers/poetry that can help you reflect back on situations you may have experienced. I always keep my old papers, but rarely ever do I actually read them. Perhaps in the near future I will set aside time to do that.

Point 2: Point of View
Pipher offers a lot of advise about this topic that I find helpful. I won't go into detail because if you are reading this then you have probably read the section and know what was in it. However I will say that I never really pay attention to my use of pronouns in terms of saying "we" vs. "you," and after reading her section on pronouns, I think I probably should.

Point 3: Constraints
This wasn't one of Pipher's main points, but it is the one that I liked the best in this section. She says, "We all work within constraints that define us, hinder us, and teach us what we need to know" (162). I just thought this was a comforting way to think of problems that occur during life. Basically that there is something that you personally need to learn,and the problems in your life are designed to teach you that lesson. I'm not sure I agree all the time, but it's a nice thought nonetheless.

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