{"id":125,"date":"2009-12-14T16:49:35","date_gmt":"2009-12-14T20:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=125"},"modified":"2009-12-14T16:50:13","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T20:50:13","slug":"in-response-to-catherine-watsons-minnpost-entry-my-conversation-with-a-young-soldier-who-had-an-old-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.sherryquanlee.com\/?p=125","title":{"rendered":"In response to Catherine Watson’s MinnPost Entry “My conversation with a young soldier who had an old face”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018”You could write about this,” I suggested, ever the believer in the healing power of words.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No, he said, no \u2014 he’d never write about it \u2014 \u2026\u201d \u2018 –Catherine Watson, MinnPost, Dec.14, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t written a blog entry in weeks, too many weeks. But I am constantly thinking about writing a blog entry. The longer I don\u2019t write, the more I think about what to write, and the more I know that I want to write\u2014but I just can\u2019t get started.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mostly I write when something triggers my emotions.\u00a0 It can be a book, a movie, a news event, something a friend said, something a stranger said.\u00a0 I don\u2019t only respond to things that anger me, though often that is the case. But, I also respond to things that move me to think, be sad, to laugh, to cry.\u00a0 It could be something I fervently agree with, or something I fervently disagree with.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Catherine Watson writes for Minn Post\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.minnpost.com\/catherinewatson\/2009\/12\/14\/14240\/my_conversation_with_a_young_soldier_who_had_an_old_face<\/a>\u00a0 She also teaches for the Split Rock Arts Program\u00a0 http:\/\/www.cce.umn.edu\/Split-Rock-Arts-Program\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I work for the Split Rock Arts Program and am happy to say Catherine Watson will be teaching \u201cInto the Country of Memory:\u00a0 A Retreat at the Cloquet Forestry Center\u201d, July 11-16, 2010.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, at lunch, I read Catherine\u2019s recent MinnPost post \u201cMy conversation with a young soldier who had an old face.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I believe, as Catherine, \u201cin the healing power of words.\u201d\u00a0 But her story of a young man home from war, made me think about what we can\u2019t write, what we don\u2019t want to write, and why.\u00a0 Catherine wrote what the young soldier couldn\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I believe this is the responsibility of a writer.\u00a0 To tell the stories of those that can\u2019t.\u00a0 To give voice to those who don\u2019t have a voice.\u00a0 \u00a0And, to tell \u201cthe worst stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things we ask them to do, I kept thinking. The secrets we ask them to keep. The memories we ask them to carry for the rest of their lives…\u201d\u00a0 Catherine Watson<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thomas Lux wrote the poem \u201cThe Voice You Hear When You Read Silently.\u201d Here\u2019s a short excerpt of his poem.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is your voice<\/p>\n

saying, for example, the word barn<\/p>\n

that the writer wrote<\/p>\n

but the barn you say<\/p>\n

is a barn you know or knew. The voice<\/p>\n

in your head, speaking as you read,<\/p>\n

never says anything neutrally \u2013 some people<\/p>\n

hated the barn they knew,<\/p>\n

some people love the barn they know<\/p>\n

so you hear the word loaded<\/p>\n

and a sensory constellation<\/p>\n

is lit:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The word \u201cbarn\u201d likely means something more (or less) to the reader than what the writer wrote.\u00a0 Catherine\u2019s words for me were \u201cloaded\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

My \u201cbarn\u201d conjured stories of slaves.\u00a0 What they were asked to do?\u00a0 The secrets they were asked to keep.\u00a0 And, Native Americans, Asians, Mexicans\u2014people of color who cooked and cleaned, built railroads, picked crops\u2014were raped, were murdered–atrocities\/ secrets left out of history books for how many years?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Catherine Watson listened to a passenger on a plane sitting next to her.\u00a0 She listened.\u00a0 And she remembered.\u00a0 And she shared.\u00a0 I believe everyone can write and should write.\u00a0 Catherine reminded me there can be obstacles.\u00a0 It\u2019s not always possible or easy to write.\u00a0 It\u2019s also not always a person\u2019s choice to write.\u00a0 Does that make their stories less important?\u00a0 Does that mean if we tell their stories healing is not part of the equation? Do words have to be written down on paper to be powerful?\u00a0 Is just listening enough?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I belong to a writing group.\u00a0 We seldom sit down and write.\u00a0 Sometimes, we don\u2019t even talk about writing.\u00a0 But, we tell stories.\u00a0 Perhaps, eventually, we will write these stories, our own or each other\u2019s.\u00a0 Perhaps we will fictionalize them or not.\u00a0 Although we are not strangers and we know we will see each other again, we are not so close we can\u2019t tell our stories to each other. \u00a0We feel safe with each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although my life is mostly an open book, I think about the stories I don\u2019t tell and the people I don\u2019t tell them to. \u00a0\u00a0My secrets.\u00a0 The worst.\u00a0 Or, what I am most afraid to tell, or even what I am afraid to ask.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sherry Quan Lee<\/p>\n

December 14, 2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018”You could write about this,” I suggested, ever the believer in the healing power of words.\u00a0 No, he said, no \u2014 he’d never write about it \u2014 \u2026\u201d \u2018 –Catherine Watson, MinnPost, Dec.14, 2009 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I haven\u2019t written a blog entry in weeks, too many weeks. But I …<\/p>\n

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