38th and Chicago

#1 - I've been taking an online writing class with Natalie Golberg the past couple months.  We meet for 3 hours on Saturday and then mid-week there is an additional 1 hour meeting.  The mid-week meeting is a basic format that we do each week.

First we sit in silence for a few minutes.

Then we are giving a prompt and our job is to keep the pen moving, no thinking, no editing, just write.  The first prompt today was a 10 minute write with the prompt, "The rules I've broken..."

The second prompt was a 15 minute write on, "What am I trying to fix..."

Then we are split up into small groups of 4 people and we take turns reading what we've written today.  There is no commenting, no telling someone something is good or bad, no giving advice or comfort.  We are building our writing spines to read what we've written without looking for affirmation.

At the end we will often sit in silence for a few breaths.

I'm usually the last one to read as we go alphabetically.  Today, after I read I said, "Should we sit in silence for a few breaths?"

A woman came on and stated, "Ok, but could we first please say where we are writing from?"

"Sure."  There were two women in California, one in Michigan and I said, "Minneapolis."

This has been my 8th week doing this, and we have always previously shared our writing and then said thank you, made a little quiet time and good-bye.  Once in a while we will say where we are writing from, but that has never sparked a conversation.  Today the "Minneapolis" led to that woman asking, "How are things in Minneapolis?" Then another women responded for 5 minutes or so about her personal experience and her reaction to the George Floyd murder and trial.  It was a heartfelt, vulnerable and authentic sharing that all 3 of us listeners expanded on and appreciated.

 #2 - "This is the floor, this is the very basic floor of what should be done. But what led to that happening on 38th and Chicago were all the things we need to change." - Minnesota Governor Tim Walz

#3 - "I would not call today's verdict justice however, because justice implies true restoration, but it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice.  And now the cause of justice is in your hands, and when I say your hands I mean the people of the United States." MN Attorney General Keith Ellison

https://youtu.be/R1Ely0LiKcI

 #4 - "This entire system is what needs to be put on trial. This entire system is what has to be interrupted."  Brittany Cunningham

 #5 - I'm scheduled for my first vaccine shot tomorrow.  

P.S. I want to add this song I came across yesterday, I mistakenly thought a song about a slave named Harriet would be Harriet Tubman.  This is instead about Harriet Jacbos whose book I have requested from the library

"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is also one of the few existing narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel,"