F. Scott Fitzgerald: Before Gatsby: The First Twenty-Six Stories
Sarah Sentilles: A Church of Her Own: What Happens When a Woman Takes the Pulpit
Corey Moortgat: The Art of Personal Imagery: Expressing Your Life Through Collage
Rice Freeman-Zachery: Living the Creative Life: Ideas and Inspiration from Working Artists
Natalie Rogers: The Creative Connection: Expressive Arts As Healing
So I guess I'm the last to find out about this cool, fun thing (as usual).
Wordle puts any writing you do into very cool word clouds that you can then manipulate into different colors and fonts.
This is the word cloud from my Embodying the Deity article that I wrote for the Chaplaincy Institute's website.
I love the new kind of poem it creates, depending on where your eyes look. I guess you can tell that I am a lady who talks about her feelings a lot, as FELT is the biggest word you see!
I received a lot of comments on my recent posting about participating in my first Olympic-style weightlifting competition.
Here is a video, for those who would like more than photos of me clean and jerking 50 kilograms over my head, and here is a video of me snatching 36 kilograms.
I'm really glad that my words of truth and experience are inspiring to others. I really do know what it feels like to think you are the only one having these thoughts or feelings and blogland is so good for reaching out to others and realizing that I/we are not alone.
In this whole exercise/weightlifting odyssey I have been on, I have really let go of obsessing over the number on the scale. The only number I am focusing on is the weight on the bar. Muscle weighs more than fat, so already, the scale is not necessarily telling you what you think it is.
I've lived the majority of my life hating my body. It started when I was in the 2nd grade, when someone called me fat on the playground. All of a sudden, it didn't mean anything that I could always catch someone when we played tag, or that I was tetherball champion. All of a sudden I saw myself as fat and it all went downhill from there.
In this photo, I am 16 years old (20 years ago!) and in the midst of the worst of my body-hatred time. I also weighed the least I have ever weighed in my teenage/adult life (150 lbs.). This is after a summer of crash dieting in which I lost 50 pounds in 3 months. I was hungry and cold, all the time - and I was still unhappy and miserable. I had people coming up to me in school and saying, "Good job, but you aren't going to stop there are you? You should lose at least another 30 pounds." They said this because, even at my most anorexic self, I still had a big butt and big thighs - that's how my body is built. I now am grateful for that butt and those thighs, because they help me lift big weights!
I have a lot more love and respect for my body now. I still struggle with self-hatred - on a daily basis sometimes, but turning 36 years old this week has reminded me that time is short and there is no reason not to love myself right now for who I am.
I know that the scale is God for so many people, and let me tell you, it feels so good to cast down that false idol.
So I raise my glass in a toast to all the big ladies out there, getting out into the world and doing their thing, no matter what anyone has to say about it.
LIFE IS TOO SHORT - LOVE YOURSELF.
And for those who are interested in reading fat-positive blogs (there are so many out there!), here is a (very short) list to get you started on your fat positive journey:
My Dad, that's who. This is him in 1962, the coolest one in the photo, wearing shades and sporting one of his "experimental beards" according to my Mom. She thinks they are in the University at Buffalo, State University of New York English Department.
I'm sorry, but all those other dudes look kind of square (or "cakey" back in the day). The ladies look pretty hip though.
Yesterday I competed in my very first Olympic-style weightlifting competition. Those that know me know that a year ago, the idea of me competing in anything athletic was quite hard to imagine. And weightlifting? Do women over 25 even lift weights?
Thankfully, my beloved husband discovered an incredible fitness center/weightlifting gym near our home. Freddie & Niki Myles own and operate Myles Ahead and there really are no words to describe what a great and supportive environment these two amazing people have created together.
Despite my zaftig body, I have always enjoyed moving and exercising my body. I have a red belt in Tae Kwon Do and I am always the first one on the dance floor. I've found it interesting over the years to see how various people have reacted to seeing a large woman exercising or moving and enjoying her body. In the usual YMCAs, or 24-Hour Fitnesses women often (and yes, it is always women) come up to me and say "you've been on that elliptical for over an hour! Good for you!" Or, I'm out on the dance floor, losing myself in the music and dancing with my friends and someone comes up and says, "You've been dancing for hours! Good for you!" Would these women say such things to a slender person? No, they wouldn't.
With men, it is usually worse. I have had completely outraged men yell at me in dance clubs, saying I had no business being there, wearing what I was wearing and calling me the most terrible names you can imagine. On the flip side, I have had the weirdest propositions from men - all larger ladies know what I'm talking about. It's almost like because our culture is so dismissive of us as sexual beings that any man that shows interest in us sexually must have a "fetish," instead of just appreciating a curvier woman. Thankfully, my life has been full of really wonderful, appreciative men who have helped me enjoy and love my body just the way it is.
I also had terrible luck with personal trainers (before I met Freddie & Niki Myles). They always assumed that I wanted to lose weight and not much else (like getting strong, getting more flexibility, having fun and all the other reasons we exercise). And they always assumed that I was weak. So many personal trainers have been shocked by my strength and endurance.
My experience at Myles Ahead was much different. Niki & Freddie greeted me with complete respect and total understanding that all bodies are unique, and that all bodies are strong in their own way. They showed me how strong I actually am and are continuing to help me get stronger - and they do it with laughter and kindness and joy in their hearts. There really aren't words to describe what a gift these two people are to me and my life. I feel so lucky to know them.
I competed in the 2nd Annual Redwood Empire Championships in Cotati, California, yesterday. I did the snatch and the clean/jerk. I achieved a personal record of a 50kg clean/jerk (that's 110 lbs. that I jerked right over my head, people!). I also successfully lifted all six of my lifts! I even won 2nd Place in my weight level (okay, there were only two of us!).
What I was most surprised by was how much FUN it was to be up on that platform, in front of so many people. I was completely shocked by that experience.
And I continue to get stronger. The wonderful thing about weightlifting is that you can keep lifting into your 80's and beyond. How many sports can you say that about?
If you ever have a chance to do a workshop with Kaleo & Elise Ching, do it! I was lucky enough to take several classes with them at John F. Kennedy University and my art changed drastically after I learned how to make plaster body casts.
Kaleo just sent out a message to let us all know that he has posted photos of many of the pieces that have come out of his classes on his flickr page. I was surprised to see myself and my cast arms pop up!
It's delightful to see so many amazing pieces. What gift Kaleo and Elise are to the world!
Finally got a chance to watch What Would Jesus Buy? The Church of Stop Shopping is definitely a sister to the Church of Craft.
Not just at Christmas time, but at all times of the year, it is a powerful choice to not buy, but to make instead. Craftaluja!
I was reading artist Eve S. Mosher's wonderful blog Making Art Work and she was discussing all the myriad ways that artists can get the word out about their work. In this posting she was focusing on social networks, blogging and other ways of building community.
She covers all the bases from Facebook to Plurking - Plurking? Yes, it is the latest thing since Twitter my friends! She uses Ping.fm to update them all simultaneously and feels it is worth her precious time to post to all these networking sites.
I remember when Friendster first came out. I was excited - I thought it was cool and interesting and different. Then Tribe.net came around and it seemed to focus more on art and events, and I liked that as well. But by the time Facebook came around I was DONE. It's too much! I can't keep up with it all! Who has the time? How do other people do it?
And Twitter? Forget about it. That seems to have been created specifically for the ADD. But I know many people who use it whose attention spans are pretty steady - and they are over the age of 40.
I highly recommend reading Eve's post about it, as she really goes in-depth and shares an active artist's perspective on it all.
How do you use networking sites to get the word out about your work?
Well, this just sums it all for me. Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToEPFDIzhNA
(I found this via Paige Green's wonderful blog)
I am now using Technorati to track the goings-on of my blog. Do you use it? Do you like it?
Technorati ProfileVia Boing Boing - I just discovered a really interesting project. It's Caleb J. Clark's Interactive Telecommunications Program Masters Thesis. He asked the same 20 questions of children of hippies, who seem to have been born in the late 60's to the late 70's. He also answers the questions himself.
I've been listening on and off to the various self-interviews. You can watch them in any order and each piece is short and easily digestible.
Being the daughter of what many have called hippies (although they called themselves beatniks), I am always fascinated when I get to connect with someone else who grew up with that intense freedom, the way I did. Now I must say, I had an incredibly stable childhood, compared to the majority of "children of hippies" you may meet in the world. My parents were in many ways, the "parental" ones to all of their "more free" (i.e. crazier) friends. My parents owned a house, they kept food on the table and they aren't and never have been addicted to any kind of drug. So you could say, I got the best parts of being a child of hippies.
It is really interesting to listen to the interviews in this documentary project. At times, they feel almost a little too informational and choppy. I think that experience may be related to the format of going through a long list of questions and answering them by yourself with a home video camera. I would love to see a documentary where "kids of hippies" are in the same room together and talking about everything. That would feel a bit more creative and alive, which I think is the gift of growing up the way we all did. But I still find it really fascinating to listen to all of these stories and memories and I am grateful Caleb has shared them with the world.
I live a very different and interesting life and I always wonder how much is me - deep soul Tristy - and how much is the way I was raised. Are children of hippies more free? Do we have more interesting work lives? Or do many rebel and become conservative? This documentary does not make that clear, and that is just fine. It raises questions which all good art should do. Check it out.
