My New Library Writing Group

When I had my birthday at the end of August I gave myself a gift of an online family history writing class by The Family History Writing Studio which can be found HERE.   It was a six week workshop and I enjoyed it very much.  I will take another one of their workshops sometime although I am not convinced that I want to write "creative family history" and think I will lean a little more toward non-fiction when I write about my family history.  One of the suggestions made during the work shop for development of one's writing craft was to join a writing group.  Either an online group or one in the community.  So I began to look for one and found one at the local library.  The first meeting I attended was their Christmas Party and the second meeting for me was in January.  I just observed.  They have a theme or topic that is assigned and everyone writes something that is somehow related to that topic.  During the meeting every one reads what they wrote and the other members comment afterwards.   In February I participated and the theme was "What Does Love Look Like".   As I have been working this evening on March's assignment it occurred to me that nothing is stopping me from sharing the items I write for writing group on my blog after I have shared them with the group.  So what follows is what I wrote for  February's assignment for library writing group.

Library Writing Group

2/16/17

What Love Looks Like

By

Mary Rohrer Dexter

     Webster’s dictionary has two entries for the word “love”.  The first entry lists the word “love” as a noun, while the second entry lists it as a verb.   Some examples the thesaurus lists for synonyms of love are: devotion, affection and fondness.   Yet the word “love” is clearly a verb and synonymous with the word “work”.   But not just any work.  Love is: roll up your sleeves, slip in your sweat and break off your finger nails, work.  Therefore, in order to see what love looks like we need only to look around at the people who are acting out their love for others with hard work.  The parents who leave for their jobs every day so that they can provide for their families, who hold their child’s head as the little one vomits, who cook, clean house, do dishes and many other daily tasks to meet their family’s needs are what love looks like.  The teachers who spend their personal money for school supplies, who stay after school to decorate the class room, and who take that extra time with students are what love looks like.  The adult child who visits their parent on a regular basis despite their own very busy schedule is what love looks like.  The nurse who stays for an additional shift to cover a hole in the schedule, even though she is tired, because she knows her patients need her is what love looks like.  History is full of examples of what love looks like.  Human rights activists, Civil rights leaders, abolitionists that helped people through the Underground Railroad during the Civil War, and those that hid Jewish people during WWII, are only a few of the too numerous to count examples of what love looks like.   Here is an example in keeping with the theme of February’s Black History Month. Love looks like:  Susie King Taylor

     In 1848 Susie Taylor was born in Georgia and was the daughter of slaves.  When she was around age 7 her owners allowed her to go live with her grandmother in Savanah where she was able to attend school in secret and was tutored secretly by two white youths thereby learning to read and write.   In April of 1862, along with many other African Americans, she fled to the Union held, St. Simon’s Island, and almost immediately began teaching the freed African Americans around her to read.   While on the island she married a black enlisted man named Edward King.   In October of 1862 the island was evacuated and Susie moved around with her husband’s regiment staying busy doing whatever needed to be done.  She did the soldiers laundry, she nursed the sick, the men injured in battle, and she cooked for the camp.  Her memoirs were published in 1902, ten years before her death.  Reminiscences of My Life in Camp with the 33^rd United States Colored Troops, Late 1^st S.C. Volunteers is the only memoir published written by an African American woman of her wartime experiences during the Civil War.  It is a short book of 124 pages and not only delightful but is easily read.  There are several examples in the book of what love looks like.  Susie writes about one of the men coming down with a variation of small pox.  He was put in a tent separate from the rest of the camp.  Only a couple of men would attend to him but since Susie had been vaccinated she went to him every evening and made sure he was comfortable.  She also taught many of the soldiers to read and write.  Many years later she received thank you notes from some of them who told her what they were doing.  One had went into the ministry and was serving a church in Jacksonville Florida.  Another worked in government service in Washington DC.   Susie writes of seeing sickening sights during the war like men who had been mangled by shells some having had their limbs blown off.  She says instead of turning away it was necessary to hurry to bandage wounds and to do what she could to help lessen their pain.  She writes of pressing cool water to their lips.   In early July of 1864 after a battle near Fort Gregg the wounded began to arrive at the camp where Susie was.  The wounded men had waded through creeks and mud on the way back and upon arriving at camp they had not had adequate food for several days.  Susie writes that the men wanted soup but she had no ingredients to make any soup for them.  She did find some cans of condensed milk and some turtle eggs.  She had never made anything with turtle eggs before but she got busy and was able to create a delicious custard for them. 

     Susie King Taylor is just one of a multitude of examples of what love looks like.   Love looks like work.  It looks like hard work.  Love looks like skinned knuckles, like sweat glistening on the brow and like dirt ground into clothing.   Love can be observed all around us on a daily basis.  We only need to pay attention to see what love looks like.