Blackwater Writing Project

June 22, 2009

Imagine MaDonna singing in the background . . .

Imagine Madonna singing softly,

"If we took a holiday
Took some time to celebrate
Just one day out of life
It would be,
it would be so nice
Everybody spread the word
We're gonna have a celebration
All across the world
In every nation
It's time for the good times
Forget about the bad times,
oh yeah
One day to come together
To release the pressure
We need a holiday"

Okay, that's enough Madonna. She just set the mood for me to think about the holidays we need created. But speaking of Madonna, I just remembered that a friend in London had a little girl (about five when we first me) who called me Mydonna. What a cutie.
  • National What Have You Done For Me Lately Holiday: This holiday asks everyone to reinvestigate how they have enriched my life for the past two weeks. People tend to forget how much laughter and joy I provide, so this holiday would remind people to take care of me through words and actions. People could leave thank-you notes for me, write poems in my honor, write memoirs of times spent together. You get the idea.
  • National Darwin Awards Day: This holiday celebrates stupidity. Everyone rats out everyone else's Doh! moments, sharing them in a public arena. Instead of kareoke or trivia night, we can have Darwin Awards night at a local bar/restaurant. Churches could host G-rated nights to celebrate stupid moments of children. This holiday can only happen once a year because we want to be able to roast everyone.
  • National Poetry Day: This holiday requires everyone to write a poem that is shared with at least one other person. We already have National Poetry Week, August 29-Sept. 7 according to this website: http://www.nationalpoetryweek.com/ We also have National Poetry month in April, sponsored by the American Academy of Poets: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/47 While I appreciate both of these efforts, I'm not sure everyone is actually writing poetry on those days. Also, Lindsi, Rebecca, and I toyed with the idea of having people write limericks at every site of the writing marathon, but we forgot to do it. What do you think? Should we have done it? Are you ready to write a poem every day for the rest of the Summer Institute? I know you can.
  • National Read to a Child Day: Shouldn't every day be National Read to a Child Day? But now I'm imagining guerrilla tactics. I don't have kids, so should I pounce on a child in the mall and read to him or her? Maybe I should just sign up to participate in the library's summer reading program and read a children's book one day. What if every adult volunteered to read one book to a child not his or her own? How much of a difference could that make?
  • National Weed Out the Gene Pool Day: Maybe once a year we should reduce the gene pool by those people less likely to enrich it. Of course, we'd have to have a quota to avoid cutting the population in half. For example, let's say someone survived a Darwin Award moment or someone engages in incredibly stupid behavior that affects others, such as the person who sued McDonald's for serving hot coffee that she managed to spill. If that woman's clumsiness means my coffee has to be served cooler, maybe she's a candidate for National Weed Out the Gene Pool Day. I'm sure you all have other candidates.

Okay, I think I'm running out of ideas for holidays--or at least slowing down.

Lindsi left the room, and then Rebecca got up. I watched to see if she was following Lindsi out the room because I wondered if I was supposed to join them for a powwow. Nope, Rebecca just wanted coffee, so then I had to watch her pour the coffee to see if I needed to make more. Maybe nosiness is a trait of a BWP director?

I think I'll move to my notebook now because I'm feeling rather thick-headed. No sense in sharing that thick-headedness with the rest of you. My posts tend to be way too long anyway.

2 Comments:

  • Thank you for not punishing us with the limerick idea. Also, I think it would be fun to write a poem each day of national poetry week.

    You are not the only one who notices when you BWP directors move. Why the secrets?? You scare us!! You are not here now. Are you plotting your limerick revenge??

    By Blogger Mary Poppins, at 9:08 AM  

  • Actually, that movement was not related to BWP at all. Calm down. Breathe. Believe it or not, we aren't always talking about y'all (grin).

    By Blogger Donna Sewell, at 9:13 AM  

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