What Does "Religious Freedom" Mean?

Okay, I really want to talk more about writing than politics, but some things get under my skin. I will admit from the git-go that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool liberal Democrat, so I come with certain biases. I am also an active Cradle Catholic with deeply held religious beliefs.

That being said, I resent Corporate America using the term "religious freedom" to justify not providing contraception in their health insurance plans. We're not talking condoms here, we're talking about safe, effective birth control. I think most of America is past "barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen." While it's not anyone's business, women need contraception for a variety of reasons including health risks. Some women simply shouldn't get pregnant or they risk the health, or even the life, of mother, child, or both. Should they be denied sexual intimacy? Without effective birth control, abstinence is the only reliable way to avoid pregnancy.

Some women aren't ready for children or don't want children.Should we tell them how to behave in the privacy of their home? Do women, simply because they are the ones who bear children, not have the right to sexual pleasure without the fear of an unwanted or unwise pregnancy? What gives one the right to insist people behave according to a narrow moral idea? And that is not my only concern about "religious freedom" dictating the right to set policy in any place except those that are religious institutions.

It raises the serious question of, "Whose religious beliefs?" Suppose my employer, or lawmaker, or school superintendent, or corporate CEO is Jehovah's Witness. Can he or she prevent any form of healthcare to be available? Can these same religious beliefs dictate employment, personal behavior, school or company policy? It's slicing the baloney. Use religious freedom to justify one thing at a time, things that seem either reasonable or inconsequential. Now you have precedence. It is suddenly much more difficult to prevent an infringement on the very rights they claim to be trying to protect.

When conservatives tell me they think there should be prayer in school, I ask them, "Whose prayer?" I'm Catholic. Can we start the day with a Hail Mary? What if the teacher is Hindu or Buddhist, Muslim or Jew, Wicca or Pagan? What they usually mean is Protestant prayer and a Protestant Bible. I'm often told that everyone prays the Our Father. Do they? Really?

Few people understand the right to religious freedom given to us in the Constitution of the United States. It doesn't mean that we have the right to make others live according to our religious dictates. Quite the opposite. The First Amendment was written to prevent the government from instituting a State religion, to prevent anyone from telling another they must live by a certain religious criterion.

This Amendment is very important to me. I am a resident of North Carolina and can remember open prejudice against Roman Catholics. The State Constitution still prohibits from Office "any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God." While no longer enforced (since mid-20th century), it is still on the books. In fact, one had to swear that he believed in all the doctrine of the Protestant faith. The first Catholic to hold office got around this by saying there was nothing in the Protestant faith that conflicted with Catholic doctrine, therefore he could, in good conscience, take the oath. Cute way around it, but my point is, where do we draw the line? When will someone decide to start enforcing that part of our constitution? If we are honest, every religion, every faith, every denomination, has something with which we disagree. Allowing faith to set policy anywhere outside the legal jurisdiction of that church violates the constitution allowing free exercise of religion.

Okay, I'm stepping down from my soapbox now.

Poetry 101-3 Repetition

Today's example of poetry elements is repetition. It can be a word or phrase, a thought or theme, or an entire stanza - think refrain in a song. Repetition gives emphasis, rhythm, or flow. It can be used throughout the poem, or for a portion of it. Rhyming is a very familiar form of repetition; a repetition of sound. Alliteration is also a sound repetition, but we'll get into that later.

One way to help you decide what to repeat is to decide what is the main point you want to get across. Of course, it could just be what sounds good.

As I write this, I feel like I'm turning poetry into something cold and lifeless. This isn't meant to be a college exercise. Poetry comes from the heart as well as the mind. It expresses what prose struggles to say. This is just to point out the tools that turn prose into poetry.

I wrote today's poem while watching my nine-month-old grandson. It is an early draft and may have a bit too much repetition, but it gets the point across.

Baby Eyes

Baby eyes

William’s eyes

Smiles and kisses for Nana eyes.

Loving eyes

Sparkle eyes

Smile for Mommy and Daddy eyes

Mischief eyes

Flashing eyes

Just you try to stop me eyes

Wonder eyes

Shining eyes

All the world is new eyes

Sleepy eyes

Drowsy eyes

I have to keep them open eyes

Baby eyes

Blue eyes

Nana’s precious little angel eyes.

Give it a go, and if you create something you like, feel free to share.

Poetry 101-2 - Metaphor and Simile

When I taught metaphor and simile to my 4th and 5th grade students I gave a simple definition: a simile compares two things using like or as (hungry as a bear, runs like the wind) and a metaphor compares two things without using like or as (Dad's a bear until he has his first cup of coffee). Simple, but to the point. Both devices are important to poetry, but metaphor more so than simile. My poem about my daughter did use both, though.

Metaphor is the language of poetry. I read an article once, many years ago (so I can't give you the source; sorry) that proposed that without metaphor, higher learning and thought would be impossible. We need this comparison to visualize something totally foreign to us, something new or abstract. Abstract is the operative word there. Poetry is, by and large, about the abstract; thus, metaphor is the most common tool of the poet.

However, you can also take the concrete and describe it in metaphor. The following exercise was also from NCCAT (See previous post Poetry 101-1). It not only helps to create metaphors, but also to turn prose into poetry. In this exercise, you will focus on something you should know better than anything else, yourself.

First, write down some basic information about yourself. Here are a few questions to get you started. [My answers are in brackets]

1. What is your heritage - where are your ancestors from? [Italy, Ireland]
2. How tall are you? [5'2"]
3. What color/tone is your skin? (try to be more specific than brown, black, or white) [olive]
4. What is your occupation? [teacher]
5. What personality trait do you most like? least like? [most - dedication/loyalty, least - shyness]
6. What are your dreams/aspirations? [to run my own Montessori school]
7. Add anything else about yourself that is important to you. [family]

You won't necessarily include all of it, but it gets you thinking. [My answers are based on when I wrote the poem.] Now look at your answers and see what you can make into a metaphor. For heritage you may choose symbols of those places. Such symbols are metaphors. There are iconic symbols for many things - anchor for hope, stability, strength; rock - loyalty, protection; lion - leadership, courage. You get the point.

Finally, try to weave those symbols into a poem. Free-verse is definitely easiest for this, but if you are good with rhymes and feel more comfortable there, go for it! The following is my final product. (Please keep in mind, my poems went through many rewrites. As I told my kids, your first copy is never your last. Also, there are lines I probably would change in another rewrite.)

      I am the wind
         whistling over the jade meadows of the Emerald Isle,
         dancing through the amethyst vineyards of the Mediterranean.
      I whip past the olive trees
         stripping their hues to drop them on the pallet of my skin.
   My ancestors blow through me.

      I am the soft whisper that lulls you to sleep
         comforting, gentle, familiar.
      I rage with the fury of the howling storm
         with its lightning snakes
         startling you into action.
   My students blow through me.

      I am the sudden gust that bursts into action
         rearranging leaves, landscapes, lives.
      I am the diamond mountain thermals
         that lift this five-two body
         into the rainbow sunsets of possibilities.
      I am the gentle breath
         that carries the opal butterfly
         to the field of dreams.
   My spirit flows through me.

If you take a go at writing poetry, please share. I would love to see it. Happy writing!
 

Tolerance vs. Acceptance

Words matter.

I believe they not only move the dialogue, they shape it. Take the word tolerance. When I worked with the public schools we were asked to "teach tolerance", that we should tolerate those who are not like us. Now we're back to connotation.

To tolerate has the connotation of reluctantly putting up with something (or someone) rather than embracing it. This frames the the discussion in terms of allowing someone or some group to exist, but with permission to hate them still. If you merely tolerate someone or someones, control is firmly in your hands. If tomorrow you decide you can no longer tolerate them, then you have every right to end their existence or move them to the margins of society.

What we need to teach is acceptance. Acceptance has a much more positive connotation. If you accept others, you embrace them as they are and where they are. You realize you have no right to do otherwise. I feel blessed to have worked in a Montessori school that understood the difference and managed to pass along acceptance to our students. It was beautiful to see. We taught that, while we could consider an action inappropriate, we could never call the person bad, stupid, or worthless. We all have our worth and have something unique to give to the world.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya and insisting we should all be friends with everyone else. We have the right to choose those with whom we associate. We can't get along with everyone. We can, we must, acknowledge their right not only to exist, but to live life as they see fit.

Let's reframe this dialogue.

Poetry 101-1

Okay, I found out that you really can't post much on other pages - it's meant for "content that doesn't change often." <sigh> So my poetry will appear here and I hope you will post some of your own creations. It may well mean that I have more than one post on a given day because they often are separate thoughts or come to mind because of other thoughts that I post.

I also want to share some of the techniques I learned to brainstorm and create, mostly from an NCCAT seminar. These I will label "Poetry 101". Today, first lesson :-)

One of the first things we did was brainstorm different words for blue. Of course, brainstorming is best with a group, but you can do it yourself. Try to discipline yourself to not use a thesaurus. After we had some time for this list to marinate, we were given a chance to write. The stress was on imagery. Rhyming, while not prohibited, was discouraged.

Focus on something or someone you could describe with the colors. Don't necessarily think in terms of describing attributes (like a blue balloon), but on creating images in your readers' minds. Use as many of the words from the list as will gracefully fit into your poem. Remember, in poetry metaphors are allowed and encouraged. The following was my attempt. Please feel free to comment and critique, but bear in mind that this was an early attempt, so be gentle.

By the way, NCCAT stands for North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching and they sponsor week-long seminars on topics important to teachers. It is where I found my poet's voice. I hope Beth doesn't mind my sharing this one since it's about and for her.

Blue
   Boys' color - Beth's color
       My blue girl.
Blue as bright as your eyes as they awake to a new dream
   sea-foam dreams
      azure dreams
         cobalt ice-castle dreams.
Blue as serene as the deep pools of your thoughts too deep to see the bottom
   cerulean thoughts, 
      turquoise thoughts
          sapphire stars reflected on the surface thoughts.
Blue as strong as the steel in your spirit as you face your pain
   blue-grey steel
      periwinkle steel
         forget-me-not for I will prevail steel.
Blue as deep as the melancholy that grabs your you soul when your crosses become too heavy
   midnight soul
      indigo soul
         ice cold silent keep out soul.
Blue
   Boy's color - Beth's color
       My little blue girl
          My love.

Life Happens

I hear that a lot these days. Life happens. It usually means that something has gotten in the way of what we want to do. Life happens, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I recently fished my poetry journal out of a moving box (we're trying to sell our house) and found a poem written 4/22/10. I want to share it with anyone out there. I hope to post more poems as I go along. Anyway, here's the poem.

      Life happens

The unexpected

       the hurtful

            the serendipitous

Interruptions that aggravate

       surprise

             please

                  crush

Life happens

      Bring it on!

Please feel free to share some of your poetry on this blog. I would love to see it.

Connotation Counts

When I taught elementary school children writing skills, I told them that there is a difference between denotation and connotation. Denotation is the basic definition of a word while connotation is the color, or nuance, of a word. (Being fond of mnemonic devices, I told them D: denotation/definition; C: connotation/color.) Unfortunately, an over-use of thesauri has contributed to widespread misuse of words. Just because a word means the same as another doesn't mean it should be used interchangeably.

For example, look up "smell (n)" in your thesaurus. You will find, among others, the words fragrance, aroma, stink, and stench. If you were to best match them to the words "bubbling stew", "rotting carcass", "fresh roses", and "dirty socks", you should come up with something like "the fragrance of fresh roses", "the aroma of bubbling stew", "the stink of dirty socks", and "the stench of a rotting carcass".

A dictionary can help some. For instance, dictionary.com defines fragrance as "a sweet or pleasing scent" and aroma as "a distinctive usually pleasant smell, esp of spices, wines, and plants". However, they define stink as "a strong offensive smell; stench" and stench as "an offensive smell or odor; stink". Stench usually connotes a stronger smell than a stink while evoking a much stronger reaction.

So how does a writer learn the nuances of language? Read, read, and read some more. Not just pop literature. There's nothing wrong with it and it has its place, but find quality literature, or, better yet, quality poetry. The nature of poetry demands a knowledge of the subtleties of words. The poet must be succinct in order to express thoughts and evoke emotion with an economy of words.

I hold that there is a difference between a writer and a wordsmith. We can all write something, some of us can write stories, and some of those even get published. But the wordsmith? Ah, the wordsmith is the one who wins a Pulitzer Prize. That is a rare talent these days, or at least it rarely blossoms. With such a focus on standardized tests, there is less time for the exploration necessary to learn the power of words.

Enjoy words. Play with them, experiment, explore, write, and rewrite. Get the feel of those little differences that can make a huge impact. Find your voice and use the right word. Become a wordsmith and be great.