Back to the Manject: Day 10

I’m trying a fancy new scheduler gadget, so I hope it works…

My next task in the Manject is to Memorize ‘If’, by Rudyard Kipling. ‘If’ is a pretty great poem, and if (har har) I’m being honest, I’m not much one for poetry. Anyway, I spent a lot of my childhood reading bits and pieces of that poem – my dad had a shortened version somewhere – and I love it.

But. If this is a Gwen version of a Man project, shouldn’t I be able to find an equivalent piece of poetry about women? Something about their strength, and wit, and character, something about what drives them to succeed and how they dream and think? Yes, I should. But I can’t, so far. As I said: Poetry = not my forte, so there’s probably something out there, but my googlings have turned up a Whole. Lot. of poems about women’s beauty, and grace, and sex appeal, and (argh) fashion. None of which should be excluded! I count poise and confidence in sex appeal as brilliant traits among my dear friends, but come on. That’s far, far from all that they have to offer.

Bitch, bitch, bitch, you say. The correct course of action here is clearly: If I want a poem that doesn’t exist, I should write it. I don’t know quite how that would work out, but maybe I’ll have a go at it. If there are any talented poets reading this who want to write me something to memorize, or any students of such things who know of a poem I have been unable to find, please! Share!

In the interim, here’s what I was thinking: What if you all – that is, everyone who reads this or sees it on Twitter – commented, or tweeted to me (with, say, the hashtag #day10poem) a one-liner starting with the word ‘she’ about a woman in your life that inspires you. And I could put them all together in a great conglomeration of awesome, and we could make a community poem of sorts, that brings together a big fat list of all the things we admire in women.

What do you think? It only works if everyone plays, so it’s on you. No pressure. I think it’s worth a shot, so I’ll start – these are a bunch of different women in my life:

She never stopped learning
She meets the world each day with an open heart
She is the best listener I know
She can do the New York Times crossword puzzle in under twenty minutes (on a Sunday!)
She reads everything she can get her hands on
She is adored by her children
She has never let anything change her

Back

 

Oh you poor, sad, neglected little blog. I’m sorry I left you without saying a word. The truth is, things just got so busy, and I had to drop something – and it had to be you. (Everything else was paying the mortgage.) But I’m back now. We’ll finish our month-long project together, stretched out as it may be, and I’ll get back to doing the work of not being a human-on-the-couch.

I’ve been on Cipralex for nine months now. I could have made a new human in that time! Wait, maybe I did. (Ooh. Cheesy.) In contrast to last year, I am now (over)employed, volunteering a LOT, applying for a new education program, writing regularly, and socializing like a fiend. (Well. For me.) I have an interest in the world around me, which is a precious thing to gain and an equally shitty thing to lose – which leads me to this:

In the midst of filling my days with all of that stuff, I have nearly lost track of my internal reflections. This blog used to be the way in which I kept focus on my real progress, and I really want to maintain that.

So here’s me, trying to keep it up. I’m back, baby!