Yes you did and thank you very much.
Journalism / Journey of One
Fifty Years to Learn
I have often been told by several people that I should write a book! I know that’s almost funny and for some of you first time readers, we have never met and we have just shared a literary joke!
Any way the impression that I of all people should try my hand at writing probably derived from the church speeches, talks, reports and other forms of written matter that I have created for myself and friends and family over the years. Now I will be able to tell if I was just receiving “sistah church courtesy” or honestly have a tale of interst.
Now putting a written word to paper does seem to be something that I have no problem in doing, in fact I enjoy creating written information that I want others to read and experience. I always took the suggestion of my being a possible writer as a compliment but without any real consideration until I began my Journey of One through my Fifty year plus span.
I say this because I feel as if it has taken me these fifty plus years to learn just what my life and life in general is all about. At one time I figured that I would grace these pages with MARVELOUS literary prose and my children and grand children would read it (hopefully while I am still alive) and be proud, informed, educated and just plain happy to have a “verbal genius” for a Grannah. But you see there is a point in the maturity process, both physical and spiritual if you are blessed that leads you on a journey that is ordained by God. If you are attentive you will become aware of your own specific course of road way to travel.
This friend is my personal travel log. An inside look that I hope you will enjoy. Mind you no names or places are being changed to protect the innocent. For some reason the thought of my family as needing protection just struck me as funny. I guess that is because we are basically a very eclectic group of protectors and not protected. A family of notoriety and versatility as you will come to see in this journey log.
I say fifty years to learn because it wasn’t until I reached this golden age span that I really felt my personal mortality, expanded my spiritual life and began a lifestyle that I am most comfortable with no matter what anyone else thinks! (Hey that sounds really literal and prose like huh?)
All of my life I now realize has been spent in servitude, submission, protection, caring, nurturing, working and any other form of doing for everyone and anyone except for me. Not that this is a complaint or grip session for it truly is not, most or some of the tasks were my own decision or as I like to say my role as an obedient person. But there does comes a time in your life, if you are fortunate that you begin to realize you are a separate entity put here on this earth for a purpose that hopefully does not involve doing somebody else’s bidding all the time every time.
When I was very young my father told me that my job as the eldest of four girls was to look after, and protect my sisters always. This task was repeated to me many times throughout the years and knowing and loving my father the way that I did, I took this lesson very seriously. Even until this day, I feel that I am the protector of my sisters who are all grown and have families and lives of their own. Doesn’t matter, Dad told me my role and I feel that I have been obedient in this task my fifty plus years in some form or fashion!
I have the greatest group of sisters that anyone can imagine. They are all truly individuals and very interesting all in there own way. So I think it only fair for me to give you some early recollections of this life lesson journey.
Long Line of Extraordinary Women
“The women in our family live long lives and have extended perception”, said my grandmother, my mother, my aunts and any other female of the Johnson lineage. You see my grandmother; Mrs. Arizona Marie Fort was THE family historian. She was the one responsible not only for her children’s education, but her grandchildren’s education and children in the neighborhood, any of our friends that came around and in many instances the local politicians were given lessons! My grandmother lived to be ninety six years old and did maintain the essence of her sanity until the end of her earthly journey. She held many positions and mastered them all. But in the role of an educator my siblings and I were instructed on our family ancestors, their names, locations of origin and places settled. I know how my great grandparents came to settle in the Memphis area and have documented printed material of this fact as part of a project of oral history research at Memphis University.
My grandmother wanted all of her children to realize that we were indeed special and an intricate addition to the make up of our country. We were taught history, music, art, crafts, dance, sports, religion, finance, politics and a few good card games and this was our way of life at home not from the private schools that my siblings and I attended. Well rounded, I would say definitely yes. Information of any kind has always been established as a good thing and worth seeking. Besides if the women are living long lives they should be able to obtain a TON of lifetime information. Now the extended perception is another thing all together. The way that I have come to perceive or to understand this “extended perception” would best be described sort of like discernment. It is a spiritual connection that goes beyond a guess. Sort of like something that you know and you know that you know what no one else knows and it is true. Yeah sounds kind of rhetorical, but I have witnessed these “extended perception” episodes throughout my life from my grandmother and my mother so I am a believer. As for my own personal perception extensions, I am still somewhere around the middle perceptions heading hopefully toward the extension level! I mean I am not always sure if I am in touch with my “gifted’ visions like some of my female relatives. I have been known from time to time to be able to dream about someone I love or have an inner instinct about those persons. But so far, nothing that would be labeled as special, unusual, spectacular, or mystifying. But I still feel like a member of this special class of women. Maybe I need to concentrate a little harder or go and read the instruction book. Oh yeah, we don’t have a book! Oh well.
You need to log in to urbis or create an urbis account to review this writing.
Reviews
Sort Reviews by Newest | Oldest | Highest Quality | Lowest Quality | Newest Comments |
natassa___ reviewed Version 1 -
Read 100% of the Item
This 138 word review has not been unlocked.
oknapp reviewed Version 1 -
Read 100% of the Item
This 84 word review has not been unlocked.
Blitzwing reviewed Version 1 -
Read 100% of the Item
As I was reading this I can’t help but be captivated by the way how you described the circumstances that led you to write about your experiences. I was particularly happy with your use of humor in your writing just in the case of paragraph 5 when you mentioned about your travel log:
“Mind you no names or places are being changed to protect the innocent. For some reason the thought of my family as needing protection just struck me as funny.” (sentences 3 and 4)
These lines show that you are someone who is candid enough to reveal all you can about your subject mater. Not only do you use humor in your writing but you set the tone of being a person who aged gracefully, as someone who learned so many things from life in the process worth sharing (see paragraphs 6 and 7).
You seem to have a very interesting family history. Just imagine having a popular educator for a grandmother who even gave lessons to local politicians. She must have been a very wise and intelligent person to be approached by people like that.
If you do plan to publish a book about your family it would be best to have a specific focus. I think publishers would be interested in publishing books that will sell. With voluminous celebrity memoirs in the market it seems as if there are a lot of tough competition out there.
I suggest that you try to package the story of your family as a form of an intellectual and spiritual journey. You can try to show how your intellectual upbringing helped you to become the spiritual person you are now. From time to time you can insert vignettes of wisdom in every chapter in order to show the valuable lessons you learned from the history of your family as well as from your own experiences.
If you manage to pull this off I think you can give a significant contribution to “wisdom literature” (ex. Whitehead, Jaspers, Schopenhauer) out there which I think is sorely lacking in the market today. With your writing style I think you won’t have a hard time engaging your readers to keep on reading. With careful planning and reflective writing I’m sure this will turn out to be a fine book.
More power to you! =)
- add/view comments (2)
littledevilgirl reviewed Version 1 -
Read 100% of the Item
I’m a bit confused by this. Was it meant to be journalism or short story? Your criteria says “Publishable SHORT STORY” but you put this in the journalism category. It doesn’t really feel like journalism to me. I think that it would be better suited in the Journal, Diary, & Blogging category or something like that. This piece was very well written though. It was an interesting read. There were a couple of little errors though:
“Any way…” -That should be one word.
“grand children” -Is one word as well.
”...become aware of your own specific course of road way to travel.” You need to take the words “ROAD and WAY” out. This just doesn’t sound right.
“prose like” -You should have put a hyphen in between these two words.
“You see my grandmother; Mrs. Arizona Marie Fort was…” -Replace that semicolon with a comma, and add a comma after the word Fort.
Overall like I said before, this was a very nice piece…You are very talented and this is very well-written. I definitely think that you should write a novel, and this piece should be part of it. You could do an auto-biography kind of thing. It’s definitely something that I feel a lot of people would enjoy reading. I hope I have helped you…Good luck!
trav8434 reviewed Version 1 -
Read 100% of the Item
“I have often been told by several people that I should write a book!” If you’ve been told something often, we can safely assume that several people were involved in telling you this.
“Any way” is one word.
“Now putting a written word to paper does seem to be something that I have no problem in doing, in fact I enjoy creating written information that I want others to read and experience.” This is a sentence fragment.
“grand children” is one word.
”...become aware of your own specific course of road way to travel.” Course of road is a bit redundant.
“prose like” should have a hyphen seperating the two words.
“But there does comes a time in your life, if you are fortunate that you begin to realize…” Comma after “fortunate” or put the whole clause at the beginning of the sentence.
”...four girls was to look after, and protect my sisters always.” Better something like this: ”...four girls was to always look after and protect my sister.”
“You see my grandmother; Mrs. Arizona Marie Fort was…” the semicolon should be replaced with two commas, one after “grandmother” and one after “Fort.”
““gifted’”
I don’t think this is journalsm. Maybe short story, blog, novel…
This could be a good intro to something but you beat around the bush for quite a while before getting into your life lessons. The grammar mistakes are somewhat glaring and you should think about seperating the text into logical paragraphs for ease of comprehension.
I’m sure you have a lot to say, given your life experience, so give this a once-over and keep writing.
Travis
Showing 1 - 5 of 5
Review item
Add to favesCreator
Relevant Links
Item Stats
GENERAL
5 Reviews 4 Comments
Version 1
Latest Activity: 3 months ago
REVIEW QUEUE
Appeared in Queue: 128 Times
Skipped: 0 Times
Ratings & Rankings
