Birthday Buddies: T-2 days!

I love to read. LOVE it. I would spend all my time sitting on the couch reading if I thought I could get away with it.

I also like to write. There have been many days I have dreamed of writing a book. And, of course, many days during which I actually have, in fact, written a book. A book that will be published on September 30, 2013.

But sometimes I've dreamed of writing a novel. Of course, I have zero creative writing skills and I'm fairly certain that while my imagination may be over-active it does not contain a developed story.

In 9th grade we did a poetry unit, during which we had to both read and write poetry. It was, at the time, awful. I did not yet have fully abstract thinking skills and metaphor was often just beyond me (as it is for many 9th graders). Poetry was hard. I'm still working through that trauma and trying to get into poetry. (in fact, I'm hoping to read more poetry this fall, so if you have suggestions, please put them in the comments!!)




But poetry that tells a story? I'm all over that. As is the famous author with whom I share a birthday: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772)!

Coleridge was the son of a pastor, a voracious reader (he preferred to read over all other activities!), and he daydreamed of starting a utopian commune (me too!). Of course, he was addicted to opiates (oops) and some of his philosophy is a tiny bit out-there, but I love that I share a birthday with someone whose imagination was just active enough for poetry, and who loved to read as much as I do. I love that I share a birthday with a man who was invested in finding ways to write poetry that was accessible to real people, using normal language to tell his stories in their form--with just the perfect words that are also understandable (that's what I try to do with preaching, too!).

my idea of getting out more

Though I doubt his mom made him join a softball team so he would get out more.











Only 2 days! I was born at 5am, Pacific Time, so the last entry in birthday-buddies will go live then. I bet you can't wait to see who that is! But first...tomorrow. :-)