Words Vs. Plants

May 13, 2017 / Lisa / 10 Comments

I recently joined a plant identification group while trying to identify a plant I found in the woods. There are currently, I believe, around four thousand international members of this group.

Identified by friends and local conservation district – not by the online group. Daphne mezereum

I also belong to a writer’s group, which has thousands of international members.

It’s hard to avoid comparing the two. And it’s been a bit of a shock.

Within the plant group, a person can seek all sorts of help around identification, habitat, and so on. The members consist of those who can easily list off the latin names and those who know only the common names. But wow. The rudeness. And I’m not one of those types easily offended.

Recently a person posted a photo of a plant that looked suspiciously like blueberries. She found it in a raised bed where she had planted blueberries. She thought it was one of her plants. Who wouldn’t? But when she ate a berry, she realized it was different. She sought help identifying the plant, and instead was slammed with hundreds of people belittling her for eating something she didn’t know. Many of the responses were quite cruel.

Within the writer’s group, members run the gamut from experienced journalists and novelists to raw beginners.

Recently a person posted a question about her fear switching from freelance journalism to attempting a novel. She sought help and advice. She was slammed with hundreds of people offering help, listing resources, encouraging her to try something new, and excited on her behalf.

Books on the craft of writing, waiting for tea and highlighters

Now don’t get me wrong. This isn’t one of those broad generalizations. There are rude responses in the writer’s group once in a while, and there are kind responses on the plant site. But the percentages are skewed. On the plant side, the kind responses are in a minority. It’s the opposite on the writer’s group.

This has me wondering what makes the difference. I don’t think it’s tied to ‘writing’ or ‘plants’.

Is it social media? The freedom the internet gives one to say things they wouldn’t to another’s face? That’s simplistic and an overly used excuse.

What my yard would look like without the guidance of friends

Is it art vs. science? The rude responses on the plant site seem to overwhelmingly be from those who can spout Latin names without typos. Is an artist more willing to share, and learn from sharing, where the science type leans to snobbery? I don’t believe this for an instant.

So what’s going on?

It’s the administrators. Those who do the writer’s group monitor things closely. If a comment is uncalled for, the person is called on it. I had many years as a facilitator of a writer’s group to understand the need for quick involvement. In the plant group, there are rules you agree to when you sign on, and supposedly there are administrators out there somewhere. Occasionally, like the thread about blueberries, these guys step in and put their foot down. But by the time they do, the thread has gone on way too long and the damage is done.

In other words, it seems we can’t be left alone in our play groups without our parents. Or at least some of us.

So I’m going to drop the plant group. Who needs that in our short lives? I bet there are other plant groups out there that are more professional, and that have members more like writers.

Then I’m going to go soak in the writer’s group for a while to clean off the plant group.

In case you are wondering about identification, or want to describe it in a story – it’s a daylily (hermerocallis)

In The Woods

May 1, 2017May 1, 2017 / Lisa / 5 Comments

Writers are often asked where their ideas come from. It’s such a common question that many roll their eyes. I’ve talked about that before on this blog post. For me, it’s always been the ‘what if’ question. This weekend I went for a short walk by my home and realized a lot of ideas come from the woods. Mysterious little spots that make you wonder why, and what’s on the other side, and what happened. So in case you need some story inspiration, here are some photos from that walk, and what they made me wonder.

Where did these train tracks go? How far can I follow them? Back in the 1920s there used to be houses here. They were moved away but you can still come across odd little open spaces like this. Which then make me wonder, who lived here? Is anything of them still left? Could I find old dishes or tools…or bones?

Two trees thick with moss and licorice root, that look, on this drizzly day, like a gateway. What would happen if I walked through? Would I find some secret forested world? Did they border a footpath or a doorway? Did someone watch them grow and wonder where they would be when the trees were full-grown? Or did these take root on a nurse log, the carcass of a tree that fell and gave them the nutrients they needed to survive? That would explain these two being in a straight line. So is there an old tree under them? Did it come down in a windstorm now long forgotten and did those living in the old houses hear the tree come down?

What’s on the other side? If I sit here long enough will I see a bear? Or Bigfoot? Or some old hermit coming down for water? Someone that people no longer remember, who maybe disappeared years ago, someone who refused to go when the houses were moved? What secrets are over there, where I can’t go?

And finally, a question everyone who’s ever walked a path asks: what’s at the end? What will I find? What is out there, that I can’t yet see? What stories are waiting?

Folded Between Pages

April 21, 2017April 21, 2017 / Lisa / 2 Comments

Tahereh Mafi, in Shatter Me, wrote ‘I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.’

Interwoven web of words, comprised of letters, created by sentences. So many things in that quote resonate with me. Can’t you feel that complete immersion in the story?

For those of you who love books, doesn’t this make you remember a favorite, maybe from when you were a child, that opened the world of stories for you?

And for those of you who, like me, spent so much time in the story world as a child, teenager, young woman, don’t you recognize yourself in some of her phrases? While I didn’t live with the absence of human relationships, I do realize now, looking back, how life passed by without me seeing the real world for the imaginary.

I came across this quote in Goodreads. I haven’t read Shatter Me but since Ms. Mafi just looked into my storied soul, I am going to.

Mt Baring