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Monthly Archives: August 2013

How Not To Be Afraid of Teenagers

30 Friday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Community, Learnin'

≈ 1 Comment

Leading the dragon

In a city, it’s not unusual to find oneself in the company of a gaggle of teens. On public transportation, at a sports game, in line at a popular ice cream haunt. Shouting opinions, selling raffles, engaged in chases-around-the-table. Their young voices make my ears stand to attention and I can easily be transported back to my years at that age. I feel a bristling sense of anticipation. To myself I wonder, will these “kids” taunt, ignore, or spy me with narrowed eyes? Am I safe among them?

Stilt-walker young people at Wake Up The Earth

Recent reading has led me to consider how I’ve been trained to be afraid of teenagers. Their sharpness and unpredictability. Their power. Their violence. In fiction and through media, we hoist them as ideals, but sometimes the reality sees us closing our doors, ears, and hearts. People mutter in person and on-paper: the world is going to pot largely because the youth are un or under-prepared (to rescue us.)

Dance line at Wake Up The Earth

Once I was on the MBTA and some loud teens at the end of the Orange Line car did what kids do when unchaperoned. Although I felt that familiar prickle of possible danger, I talked myself into just listening. I reinterpreted the shouting and goofing around to uncover creativity and curiosity. Their observations about one another were frank, smart, and revealing.

Despite having been a teen myself, I’m accustomed to stereotyping and reducing them to “trouble.” These keepers of our stories and traditions who translate technology into culture, who are neither our destroyers nor our saviors.

Dandelions at the skatepark

To be fair to these important people, I realized that I needed to address not only my past fears and failures of being one among them, but also the legacy of oppressions that dictate how I view young people now. I needed to learn how not to be afraid of teenagers.

Three non-exact strategies:

  • Remember: What was it like to be a teen?
  • Review: What have I learned from my family, friends, culture, and nation about being a teen and how to treat people that age?
  • Renew: The cracked lens through which I view and interact with young people . . . repair it! Accept that I won’t always get things “right.” See my failures and successes through with gratitude.

Whole Heart 200 Winner

26 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Bloggin Noggin

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

blog-love, contests

A big, cheerful THANKS to all who participated in the Whole Heart 200th Post Celebration Giveaway. Chosen by random, Jasmine Laietmark is the lucky winner! She will receive tea from Lala Earth and a little somethin’ extra from Jamaica Plain’s popular KitchenWitch.
Sheep mug

The Well-Trained City Bike Commuter

21 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Bike Life

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

bike-commuting, bike-love, community

IMG_3872

Riding in a city can be tricky stuff. First there’s the cars and how to behave around them. Then there’s the potholes and how not to tumble into them. Finally, and perhaps most challenging, your own naughty self to contend with.

Helmets. Bike lights. One-way streets. Stop signs. Night riding. Relating to fellow commuters who may or may not be running said stop signs as they shoot down one-way streets, sans helmet, in the middle of the night. It’s complicated.

Although I wore a helmet from the start, I admit it took me about two years to complete a contract with myself to stop at every red (it’s so easy to just fly through.) Stop signs are fuzzier: I slow significantly but rarely stop (unless it’s a four-way) because of the effort it takes to get started again from a dead halt. Several years and some nasty verbal clashes have convinced me to self-ban screaming at drivers who pull rude or unaware moves (like the dreaded right-hook.)

I do harbor a few guilty cheats. For one, my apartment sits at the bottom of a steep hill, so I ride the wrong way every evening to get home. My other guilty cheat, discovered when I observed another rider take the easy way into Brookline after crossing the BU Bridge and Commonwealth Ave., was recently resolved, much to my delight!

Do not enter sign

Cycle track in Brookline

A peaceful side-street ride just got more legit.

Whole Heart 200

14 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Bloggin Noggin, Writing Life

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

contests, goals, gratitude, writing

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My internal writing critic, like most, is full of doom and gloom. It declares things like: you’ll never be a prodigious writer. Authors don’t make enough cash to live on. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

This kind of inner talk has a dangerous dampening effect on, say, novels, poems, plays. But blogs, and more specifically Whole Heart Local? Meh.

When my critic says scornfully, with unsurprising frequency: nobody reads your blog. They don’t care what you have to say.

I reply, currently: beh.

I read WHL. And love it! And so appreciate the opportunity to plan for, dream about, and write it, still, 200 posts later. And to celebrate, we’re hosting a giveaway, WHL and me.

Lauren Murphy, herbalist, strong-lady (rumor has it she can lift 600 lbs with her LEGS,) master cheese-maker (no kidding), and good friend, will be debuting her new herbal line Lala Earth this September. Through her enormous generosity, WHL is giving away loose-leaf tea with the theme of love. And if THAT weren’t enough, I plan to pair it with a small treat from one of JP’s wonderful, local businesses.

Lala Earth

Lala Earth herbal tea: evidence of tastiness. Add sun and water. Kapow!

On to the giveaway. All you gotta do is leave a comment. That’s it! One comment, about any such subject as your heart desires. Or “hi!” That’s nice, too. The winner will be chosen by random on Wednesday, August 21.

Luck, friends.

Staycation

05 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Green Life, With Friends

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

as-we-are-living-it, food-n-cookin, hikes

IMG_6893

I can’t say exactly how a “staycation” differs from a normal weekend, local-wander, or just hanging out. It’s got something to do with intention, I think.

Summer grass

With the rare fortune of getting to see friends for more than just a few hours. Sharing home-prepared meals and more than one occasion of frozen treats.

Tomato, mozzarella, basil

Friends enjoy ice cream

Sharing stories, dreams, challenges, and silly moments.

Caro and Jack = catbeard

What’s a catbeard you ask?

A staycation most definitely includes local treasures: in our case, a short drive to Broadmore Wildlife Sanctuary in Natick. Peaceful exploring and spying on turtles; less-peaceful attempts at dodging mosquitos.

Tree growing along the ground

Two turtles on a log

Looking over the map

There’s something about a continuation of effort, but without the burden of expectation.

Caro

Phoebe in the meadow

Appreciating what we have, in the moment that we have it.

Twigs and leaves in Lauren's hair

Can you spot the twigs and leaves in Lauren’s hair?

Gummy candy on the forest floor

Can you spot the gummy candy?

Librarytour: Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building

01 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by Phoebe in Librarytour

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

book-love, travel

From time to time, I become aware of a place and think wow! I’d really like to go there. My assumption is that I never will, but more often than not it happens that I find myself walking through the door . . .

Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building entrance

A trip to DC for work prompted me to ask friends where I should visit, even as a little voice in my head whispered: the ultimate librarytour: Library of Congress. I engaged in the bare minimum of research, glancing over the options for the Library of Congress. Three whole buildings (Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison Memorial) dedicated to research, and at least one holding American folklife history as well as tweets.

Statue in Library of Congress

Good in everything mural, Library of Congress Enjoying the beautiful hall, Library of Congress Similar to visits to the New York Public Library, I opted to go for the iconic, even though I knew these beautiful spaces don’t actually house books (at least not books intended to be held, sniffed for their gorgeous and memorable library-smell, checked out.)

Of course, even in the halls of softly glowing marble, security guards, brightly restored murals, treasured collections (ensconced in glass), interpreters/tour guides, long, empty passageways, and tourists, I often find a haven for young people.

Cardboard reading children at Library of Congress Read it first in the YRC

Hunger Gams in Braille Locating books to touch and exclaim at and pour over, I soak them in.

The turtle spits at Neptune

Neptune's lady

Err . . . a different sort of soaking at the Court of Neptune Fountain in front of the library

Wherever You Are, Be There

Whole Heart Local is a webhome of Phoebe Sinclair, writer, wanderer, friend.

Whole Heart Local celebrates beauty at home and afield. Welcome. Stay awhile.

Phoebe goes a-walking

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Phoebe loves a library

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Fresh From The Stacks

The Kids: The Children of LGBTQA Parents in the USA

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--Beautiful and compelling. I've been wondering about these kids.

Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

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--NEEDED.

Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People

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--Very cool. Very depressing.

Webcomics I'm a'Lovin
Wilde Life - surprising mid-country paranormal & a grumpy werewolf- GO! READ!

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