thinking thursday.

February 25, 2010 in Uncategorized

mind :: my brain and yours

We are now officially a nation of idiots.

Ten rules for writing fiction! I loved these! I might be in trouble with number 5! What do you think! Even if you don't read fiction, read them! They apply to writing in general! (Thanks to Michele Woodward!)

Typo of the day for librarians. I love librarians for this very reason.

body :: my place and yours

Killer whales should not be used for entertainment. End of story.

Well dang it, this is really hard to resist. And this.

A young wrestler champions gay rights. It gives me hope. (Thanks to Kaje Housman)

I could get excited about crocheting hyperbolic planes. I could.

A scary tradition of orange hair.

soul :: my heart and yours

I love this mom and son unraveling and reknitting our old sweaters into new things. (Thanks to Samantha Breland Lang)

Finding patience.

This young woman's performance at the Olympics just days after her mother's death from a heart attack touched me. She skated beautifully, and then sobbed, as we often do when faced with such a heaviness. Skate beautifully, and then sob. Her performance was a reminder, as this writer said, that "It is good to be alive. Too much of the time, we forget. We bitch about work, partners, friends, inconvenience, traffic, government. We forget to notice the goodness that is everywhere, especially in our lucky country. We don't remember the thin line between what the great Canadian rocker and writer Neil Young described, in Hey Hey, My My, as the difference between 'out of the blue and into the black,' or the finality of that: 'Once you're gone, you can never come back.'" Oh, but you do come back… you live on in the hearts of those who skate with you in their heart, evermore. You do.

A final thought :: You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. -Colette (You see? Life just calls out for exclamation points!)

[image from here]

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

2 comments to " thinking thursday. "


Jessica Gottlieb

February 27, 2010 AT 1:23AM

Thanks for the shout out. I’m guessing my new (really smart) commenters came from you. :)

Tracy Ann Mangold

February 27, 2010 AT 3:13AM

Patti, I like my exclamation points too and I am often chastised for it – most recently by someone who unfriended me on Facebook because she considered me too Pollyanna-ish as well as some other unsavory things. :(

But how else are we to illustrate our exuberance over something? Or – in some cases, our outrage? A period seems so banal and uncaring at times.

Yes, some might say it is in HOW we say something or describe it that conveys our feelings but still, when you are limited to 140 characters (Twitter) in which to say it, an exclamation point is the go-to punctuation that says, “Hey! I’m excited! I’m happy! Can you tell?”

If we replace the exclamation point with periods it looks like this: “Hey. I’m excited. I’m happy. Can you tell?” Ugh. I’m not entirely convinced that this person is happy or excited as it just doesn’t have that same “uplifting” quality to it, does it?

Pooh on the naysayers, I say! I like my exclamation points!

Okay, I’ve gone on long enough about the exclamation point. But just know, I’m right there with you. I will happily extol the virtues of an exclamation point laden piece of writing any day of the week and I shall do so with gusto!

Happy weekend!