The Bigger the Better
Yesterday I sent an email to my students reminding them that we are going on a field trip tomorrow morning to The Natural History Museum at Harvard to sketch. My wonderful student and now friend, Maureen, wrote back that she would be there and—’I always have such grandiose ideas.’
I LOVE that. The bigger the better! Seems like so many of us have been rather small thinkers and with good reason. I consider this a concern of women. When we Baby Boomers were girls it didn’t look like grandiose ideas could apply to us. I remember being ten and suddenly getting it. I thought that God was a man, Jesus was a man, the Prime Minister of Canada was a man, Santa Claus was a man, Mark Twain was a man. If it weren’t for Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Queen of England I would have shot myself right then and there. I decided that I, too, would be a writer because I couldn’t be Queen. Though, at the time, I was holding out hope that Prince Charles might cast an eye my way.
That was then. I’ve had plenty of grandiose ideas myself over the years but too often I haven’t believed that all is possible. No more. So, tomorrow, we nurture those visions in the company of one another after breakfast at the local diner. Stay tuned.
Go Obama!
December 1st, 2007 at 10:08 pm
That’s right, think big and then sometimes it helps to work in tiny steps. Hope the field trip is lovely, if not a bit brrrrrrr.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Your post made me smile! I so wanted to be a boy when I was growing up. I imagined myself as a stowaway on a pirate ship, a whaling ship (I grew up on the Cape and the library had all sorts of whale ship adventures that I sucked down! I wasn’t thinking about killing whales, just the adventures of finding them), etc. I wanted to run away like Huck Finn and be smart and brave like Tom Sawyer. I wanted to live on a deserted island and make friends with wild dogs and be adopted by a native family who would give me a new name. Pooey on girl stuff. Strangely though I also played a lot with dolls. They just had adventures along with me! Maybe this winter I’ll come up to Boston and we can meet–I would LOVE to go draw at the natural history museum.
December 3rd, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step. I hope the field trip was a good one.
December 3rd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Funny, Mary! I had many of the same fantasies as a girl in Toronto! Let me know if you come to Boston and we can go to the museum to draw together!
And, yes, the field trip was fabulous. Will post about it soon! Thanks!