Beginning

 

I created this blog almost ten years ago, in 2008. And if you take a look through its archives, you will find an assortment of essays, written by me, on numerous different topics, but a majority of them are about writing on a regular basis. Making notes on ones personal experiences, and how one can learn a great deal from engaging in such a practice.

Today, I want to do something different. I have been having some difficulty writing here. I addressed that in my last post about the long-term affects of abuse. Writing it all out did help. But then I realized a few things, as well.

First of all, I finished teaching an online, year-long class about writing ones story. A journey of tremendous undertaking. Then immediately went into a downward spiral about what should follow. And have been dithering around about that ever since. When I finally decided what it was I really wanted to address (something concerning Women’s Issues), it occurred to me that it is incredibly timely at this juncture of the human story. Should I keep it in a closed classroom with a small number of women, or open it up to a wider audience? And just how might I go about doing that?

First of all, I started making notes, a simple outline. I taught the stuff about twenty-five years ago, but it remains clearer in my mind than any other class I taught at that time, actually, any class I ever taught. However, that doesn’t make me an expert. Far from it. I had the freedom, back then, to teach whatever I chose, and it was always about my own experiences and what I had learned by reading and writing. I would always mention the books where I had gathered those ideas. So, I went looking for the one book I could clearly remember using for this topic. Couldn’t find it. I’ve moved a few times since those teaching years, and it has obviously been lost. I searched online, but again, too much time has passed, and I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

Given that reality, I realized that I couldn’t really teach the class, or so I thought. Then it occurred to me that I could just share the information here. These pages and posts are my personal opinion, nothing more. They explain how I came to know what I know, and am the creature I have become.

So, this is a beginning. The first in a series of posts (have no idea how many) about a subject I studied in great detail, simply because it interested me, but then brought me a great deal of knowledge and understanding about myself, my own experience, and that of the many women who inhabit my world. It is about myth, but a certain set of myths. It is about how myths are made, and of what they are made, and why they have such a deep effect on how we come to view our world, and our very lives, and our place in that world.

I will suggest other posts that you might want to read, perhaps even a poem or two. I enjoy comments, and will endeavor to respond to whatever thoughts or questions you, the reader, might choose to share. And that begins now. This is a post I wrote several months ago. Although it came out of my personal experience, and has a bit of political flavor, what is important here, are the thoughts about the matriarchy which held sway before the patriarchy that conquered it, and how that conquering took place. Please read it:

“When Someone…”

Thanks for reading.

Elizabeth Crawford 3/8/2018

Notes: Image is a digital painting that came about as I was playing with colors. It is titled, “Prayer At Dawn.”

I’ve been holding onto this draft, still dithering, lol, but today is International Women’s Day, and suddenly, I knew it was time.