{"id":1002,"date":"2008-04-02T17:16:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-02T17:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2008-04-02T17:16:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-02T17:16:00","slug":"meme-passion-quilt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1002","title":{"rendered":"Meme: Passion Quilt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ambulance Driver has tagged me <a href=\"http:\/\/ambulancedriverfiles.blogspot.com\/2008\/03\/meme-passion-quilt.html\">in a post about teaching<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I let his request rattle around in my brain during spring break, hoping for inspiration. And by doing so, I violated Rule 1, which is &#8220;Don&#8217;t wait for inspiration. Start writing.&#8221; (But, Professor, I was on <em>vacation<\/em>!)<\/p>\n<p>AD writes, &#8220;If I had but one message I could pass on to my students and my child, what would it be? What lessons am I most passionate about?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Here are the full meme directions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Post a picture or make\/take\/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.<\/li>\n<li>Give your picture a short title.<\/li>\n<li>Title your blog post &#8220;Meme: Passion Quilt.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Link back to this blog entry.<\/li>\n<li>Include links to 5 (or more) educators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As I wrote recently, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chasclifton.com\/2007\/10\/dream-and-job.html\">I am leaving the classroom<\/a>. Passion is at a low ebb right now: I just want to get through the next month.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_5wy2K16Cy0Q\/RxDgkbCkD0I\/AAAAAAAAAHk\/OeWlBWwOdjo\/s400\/wetmtns10_12.jpg?w=625\" align=\"right\" \/><em>What keeps me going<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What keeps me going is this: More time in the woods. No more saying that I can&#8217;t go hiking or hunting or fishing because I have papers to grade.<\/p>\n<p>So as a teacher of (among other things) nature-writing, I would like my students to know that at least some of the time you need to be in your &#8220;Pleistocene body,&#8221; walking, moving, looking, listening.<\/p>\n<p>And when you do write&#8211;anything&#8211;all the clich\u00e9s are true:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once you pass your twentieth birthday, technique counts for more than inspiration.&#8221; (And if you are in rhetoric class, it counts more <em>before<\/em> you are 20.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Books <em>are<\/em> our grandparents (thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gary_Snyder\">Gary Snyder<\/a> for that one).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Writing <em>is<\/em> thinking.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Use an action verb.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And my favorite: &#8220;The first million words are just for practice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now that I have stumbled through that (I suck at profundity), I tag <a href=\"http:\/\/quakerpagan.blogspot.com\/\">Cat Chapin-Bishop<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dizerega.com\/\">Gus diZerega<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/besom.blogspot.com\/\">Macha<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/gnosiscafe.com\/gcblog\/\">Anne Hill <\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/prairiemary.blogspot.com\/\">Mary Scriver<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ambulance Driver has tagged me in a post about teaching. I let his request rattle around in my brain during spring break, hoping for inspiration. And by doing so, I violated Rule 1, which is &#8220;Don&#8217;t wait for inspiration. Start writing.&#8221; (But, Professor, I was on vacation!) AD writes, &#8220;If I had but one message [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-ga","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":886,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=886","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":0},"title":"Five (Really More) Thinking Bloggers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Erik at Executive Pagan tagged me with the \"Thinking Blogger\" meme. That's fair enough, since I hit him with the \"book pile photo thing.\" (Mine's here.)In fact, I read one of his links too: Rod \"Crunchy Con\" Dreher.So, setting aside the uber-bloggers like Glenn Reynolds, here are five who make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1046,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1046","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":1},"title":"Seeing the World with Greek Eyes","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I am a Greek born 2,381 years after my ancestors built and dedicated the Parthenon . . . . I am telling Greek history outside the conventional Christian worldview,\" writes Eaggelos G. Vallianatos, author of The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the HellenesBorn in a Greek\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":538,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=538","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":2},"title":"Writing on Paganism helps journalist\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing on Paganism helps journalist earn awardFreelance writer and religion journalist Kimberly Winston won this year's American Academy of Religion journalism award in the category of \"news outlets with more than 100,000 circulation or on the Web.\"Her work has included writing on Wicca and Paganism, including a piece that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":865,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=865","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":3},"title":"Gallimaufry","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Leftovers tossed into a pot:\u00b6 From my friend Rowan in Colorado Springs: Ten Things to Do to Get Ready to Join a Coven. Nothing about candles or astral projection. Learn to cook, keep your word, have a life.\u00b6 Using the \"Mary Magdalene as sacred prostitute\" meme to sell sex aids,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"blogging\"","block_context":{"text":"blogging","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":336,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=336","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":4},"title":"The Passion but not the\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Passion but not the Code The Religious Newswriters Association's top 10 religion news stories list of 2004 leads off with Mel Gibson's Passion.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10938,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10938","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":5},"title":"How Do You Write to a Pagan Author?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I got this email last week from a publishing firm that I had never heard of. I did my due diligence \u2014 I looked at their website and read an article about them from Publishers Weekly. Apparently their nonfiction business model is to do deep data analysis and see what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"publishing\"","block_context":{"text":"publishing","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=publishing"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}