New Life Story Seeds
# 6
Of Gardens, Graceful Prose, and
Enduring Love
Dear Friends,
This is the sixth issue of New Life
Story Seeds, which now appears twice monthly on the second and fourth Mondays of
each month. Welcome to all the new subscribers who have joined us, both close at
home and around the world. We're 100 strong already, and we're growing by
word-of-mouth.
As always, I love to keep in touch with
subscribers and hear your suggestions, comments, and feedback, as I search for
new ways to make this newsletter more relevant to your writing and to your
personal life. I am grateful that
so many of you have found time to tell me how much writing and thinking the
questions and articles have generated. Drop
me a line at ellenmoore@newlifestories.com
It has been said that the perfect
hostess puts a volume of Saki on a guest's bedside table. Perhaps. But if it's sheer
delight you're after, you couldn 't do better than to meander back into the
letters, essays, and children's books of E. B. White. In this issue you'll find a quotation from E. B. White about
his beloved Katharine (a devoted gardener and garden writer) and juicy questions
about the garden of your soul, along with some background on a life-long love
story. A "Hearth and Soul" column debuts in this issue. Gift ideas and
Resources, and some excerpts from a wacky website called "The Garden Hose
Safety Site" round out the mix.
Let us give thanks for both the
darkness and the light in this time of wonders,
Wishing you gratitude and exciting new
life stories,
Ellen Moore
In This Issue:
A Thoughtful Quotation
Juicy Questions
Of Gardens, Graceful Prose, and Enduring Love
Hearth and Soul
Resources and Gift
Ideas
More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Garden Hose Safety
A
Thoughtful Quotation
"As the years went by and age
overtook her, there was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled
appearance on this awesome occasion--the small, hunched-over figure, her studied
absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring,
oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near
at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the
dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection."
E. B. White Introduction to Katharine
S. White's "Onward and Upward in the Garden"
Juicy Questions
What is the condition of your inner
garden?
In what season is your heart now? What seasons have you known?
What are your awesome occasions?
Is it true that we love people because
they are beautiful, or do they become beautiful because we love them?
Have there been times in your life when
you've doubted that your spring would ever come? How do you remind yourself?
What passions will sustain you when you
grow older? What passions sustain
you now?
What stories are you writing about your
old age?
How do you cope with dark skies? To what extent can you create your own interior climate? How do you do that?
What are the seeds you are planting in
your life?
How would the phrase "plotting the
resurrection" apply or not apply to you?
How do you plan the garden of your
soul?
What in your life fertilizes your
garden and helps it grow?
Of Gardens, Graceful Prose, and
Enduring Love
Kay and Andy (as they were called) met
at the newly formed "New Yorker" magazine in 1925. Andy was a bachelor; Kay was an older, unhappily married
woman with two children. By 1928,
she was divorced, and in 1929, they were married. "It was a very nice wedding," said E. B., "Nobody threw
anything and there was a dog fight." They
soon had a son, Joel, and together, raised the three children. ("New Yorker" writer Roger Angell is Katharine's son from her
first marriage). In 1939, the Whites wrote a new life for themselves by moving
the entire household (including cook and dachshund) to a small town in Maine,
where they became gentleperson farmers, shuttling to New York City on writing
business. She retired from the New Yorker in 1968. Ill for several years, she
died in 1977. He was devastated at her death, but soldiered on without her,
dying in 1985.
Theirs was a lively, witty, bantering,
sassy, and irreverent relationship, a literary marriage from the beginning. They read each other's writing and made suggestions, with Katharine
hovering over E. B. to protect his time, managing his career with care.
Katharine was an editor and writer in her own right, with regular garden essays
in "The New Yorker."
They were devoted to each other, living
and working together in the very heart of New York's literary world. His friends included humorists Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Stephen
Leacock, and James Thurber (with whom he wrote "Is Sex Necessary?").
Katharine was friend and editor to Mary McCarthy, John O'Hara, Alexander
Woolcott, Vladimir Nabokov, J. F. Powers, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, and
John Updike. E. B.'s writing was
credited with having helped to set the tone of "The New Yorker,"
tolerant, urbane, and faintly amused.
He wrote for the ear, and believed in
"writing a thing first and thinking about it afterward." His cadences and rhythms are perfectly paced and poised, elegantly turned
out, wittily deployed. Although he made it seem simple and easy, writing was
difficult and painful for him. He
won many prestigious awards through the years, but was deeply insecure about the
quality of his writing. Fortunately
for us, he did not take the advice of a psychiatrist who suggested he give up
writing altogether. Deeply
introverted and shy, he was plagued with depression and hypochondria most of his
life, and often found it wearing to deal with other people. Writing, his family, rural life, and his companionship with animals
provided antidotes for all his emotional malaises.
In Maine, Katharine focused on her
garden, with more or less equal parts of planting and writing. Her posthumously published "Onward and Upward in the
Garden" is a collection of her "New Yorker" essays brought
together and edited by E. B. Her
writing is delightful--chatty, detailed, and opinionated. She wrote about the history of gardening and plants, herbalism, and
flower arranging, and also critiqued the writing style of garden catalogs, Every spring, seed company executives all over the country held their
breaths to see what plants and seeds she would and wouldn 't favor that
particular year. She didn't much
care for gladiolas, for example, or marigolds, or the pronouncements of
"experts."
E. B. wrote about everything-world
affairs, literary concerns, the city, the joys of country life, his beloved
animals, scrambled newspaper subscriptions, daily hassles, friends, neighbors,
commentaries about every imaginable situation or occurrence. Nothing was too big or too inconsequential for him to consider. "I get up every morning determined both to change the world and have
one hell of a good time," he wrote. "Sometimes this makes planning the
day difficult." And so it
went. He was a man who noticed
things, an observer on the lookout for amusement. Waiting for the denouement of
each little drama presented to him, he seemed to have that attitude of the
raised eyebrow, the cocked head. Threads of irony, humor, and amazement, run
through his works. It's a warm,
gentle, wise and compassionate wit, never hurtful. It's a natural, unforced merriment that bubbles up unbidden, then is gone
in an instant. When you read his
essays and letters, you might chuckle, guffaw, wince, and sometimes shed a tear
or two, but often it's just a continual smile as you read. It's such happy writing! It's
the writing of a man who loves life and everything in it. There's gusto in his
words, and he writes so vividly that you are there beside him as he goes on his
daily rounds, and you see what he sees. He
seems to have had his eye on the long view, on the larger picture, and always,
he argued for the inherent freedom of the individual. He was direct and to the point, mincing no words. "There it is," you can almost hear him say. To a young reader
of "Charlotte's Web," he wrote: "Dear
Alice, Thanks for the letter. I
don't believe I can write a book about a horse because I don't know any horse. Sincerely, E. B. White."
If I had to choose only one of his
books, I'd pick the "Letters," a huge compendium of collected
correspondence from his youth onward. It
reads like a journal, and allows the reader to walk with E.B. through his life
as he experiences the large and small miracles of city and country life
(including the births and deaths of farm animals), his relationships with his
family, friends, and readers, his deepest delights and fears, his aspirations
and beliefs. It's not all joy, as there were hard times, his wife's ongoing
illness, deaths, financial problems, and his own old age issues. He had often and publicly affirmed his deep love for Katharine, and while
she was in the hospital following a heart attack, he wrote to her: "Dear K, Tomorrow is our 46th, and it is a particularly important
one for me because of your having strayed so far away, and then been brought
back, and this made me realize more than anything else ever has how much I love
you and how little life would mean to me were you not here. Welcome back, and do not ever leave me."
I find the letters more intimate and
spontaneous, more direct and less studied than the essays. Both the letters and essays are perfect bedside books: You can pick them up to read bits and pieces without long-term
concentration.
E. B. is the White of "the little
book," "the English major's bible," or "Strunk and
White," as we variously called it in the 1960's. In 1959, White was asked to revise and amplify his
professor's "Elements of Style." For years and years, it was "the" standard by which concise
prose was evaluated. Some say it's been replaced by other reference works, but
the book remains influential in teaching the art of clarity in writing. White's essay on Will Strunk is priceless: You'll be entertained and enlightened at the same time.
E. B. is perhaps best known for his
children's books. "Stuart
Little," is the story of a mouse boy who undertakes his own personal quest,
and "Trumpet of the Swan," is a happy meditation on profiting from
disability. His most famous book
for children, however, is the classic for all time: "Charlotte's Web." These books have been called "emotional autobiographies," and
as such, they give us perhaps the clearest glimpse into the beautiful and
sensitive soul of a man who understood the world with his heart.
Of "Charlotte's Web," Eudora
Welty wrote: "What the book is
about is friendship on earth, affection and protection, adventure and miracle,
life and death, trust and treachery, pleasure and pain, and the passing of time.
As a piece of work it is just about perfect, and just about magical in the way
it is done. What it all proves…
is that human beings must always be on the watch for the coming of
wonders." To a reader of "Charlotte's Web," E. B. wrote,
"All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I
love the world. I guess you can
find that in there, if you dig around."
Reading Katharine and E. B. White may
inspire you to appreciate the daily mysteries and treasures under your own nose. Their books will almost certainly inspire you to write, and your prose
will automatically tighten as you absorb their rhythms, their wit, style, and
precision. And if it's been a while
since words have sent you into paroxysms of pleasure, well then, it may be time
to give yourself a literary treat.
In a poem titled "The New Story of
Your Life," Michael Blumenthal writes, "Whatever the story is, it goes
as it goes, and there are vicissitudes in it, gardens that need to be planted,
skills sown, the long hard labors of prose and enduring love." Let those words serve as a tribute to the new life story of Katharine and
E. B. White, gardeners of the soil and the soul.
Hearth and Soul
The bulbs go on the kitchen window
shelf underneath the hanging pot rack, wedged in with antique crocks full of
wooden spoons and the glass jars that hold brown rice, millet, twig tea,
garbanzos, and raisins. I give thanks for the warmth of this room, for the
abundance of food, and for tools and supplies that please all the senses. The kitchen is the temple of the home, and the altar is now complete.
December 12, 1999 Sunday. They're paper whites, and they're gorgeous, in full bloom today. The
heavenly scent fills the house. My
heart is content.
I've learned to love bare trees and
winter. Learned to cherish the many
and subtle shades of gray. Learned to see leaves and fruit waiting quietly
within the tree. "In the depth of winter," wrote French philosopher
Albert Camus, "I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible
summer." The human heart has its seasons, too, and my heart must be in
transition--at last. I suddenly crave a row of plants in every window, I long
for pots of flowers on the patio come spring. I'd love to have a home to restore in Provence or Tuscany, but I've
realized I have this home here, now. Let me find the deep happiness of blooming where I'm planted,
to bring soul and beauty to this home now, not in the distant or improbable
future. There are windows to be
washed, gardens to be planted, vegetables to be chopped, sacred moments to be
lived--here, now.
It's time. Something has rumbled beneath the surface. Something has sprung up through the soil of winter. When I was a child, we sang, "Let every heart prepare Him
room," as we lit candles against the dark of the year. And I still believe
in preparing the heart and awaiting the coming of new life and divine light. A
pen is dipped in ink, and a new story begins to write itself.
In a winter of the heart, when is it
time for you to focus on what lies beneath the surface? What grows and pushes its way upward in your life?
Resources and Gift Ideas
Gardening for Kids: Winter is an ideal time to plan an outdoor garden with
children. When you think about it,
is there any subject that couldn't be taught in the course of garden planning? Language, aesthetics, history, geography, biology, chemistry, nutrition,
mathematics, philosophy? And what
about the "deep lessons" of life? Can you envision a shared log book, a gardening journal with pictures
from seed catalogs and observations of garden wisdom? (You have to be patient, you know, you harvest what you plant, everything
dies, spring will come eventually, new life emerges, everything needs sunshine
and water, growing things need rest and darkness). Much to write about in a
garden, for both children and adults. You'll
be investing in many happy hours of memories and life lessons for the young ones
in your life.
Now is also a great time to start an
indoor garden "from scratch" with the supplies already in your
kitchen. If you can assemble a few
discarded containers (egg cartons, cottage cheese containers, margarine tubs,
cardboard mushroom boxes) and a few seeds, you've got an absorbing indoor
gardening project for the winter months. A
shelf on a sunny window, some dirt in a container, a little watering can, and
you're in business. Look through
your kitchen for a variety of sproutables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, ginger,
carrot and parsnip tops, garlic cloves) and seeds (beans of all kinds, herb
seeds and spices, citrus and avocado and other fruit seeds, sunflower seeds,
bird seed--the list is almost endless--just soak them overnight first). Children can learn to sprout seeds (alfalfa, broccoli, mung,
radish, clover, lentils) that the family can eat, and they can also grow trays
of buckwheat and sunflower "lettuce" that are both tasty and
nutritious. "Eat your
vegetables" takes on a whole new meaning, when the pride of growing and
nurturing is involved. There are
many books on indoor and outdoor gardening for kids, with ideas for science
experiments and gardening projects. A
few of these are:
Berenstain, Stan and Jan. The Berenstain Bears Grow-It: Mother Nature Has Such a Green Thumb. Random House (Merchandising), 1996. ages 4-8.
Brennan, Georgeanne et al.. The Children's Kitchen Garden: A Book of Gardening, Cooking, and Learning. Ten Speed Pr, 1997. ages 4-8.
Lerner, Carol. My Indoor Garden. Morrow Junior, 1999. ages 4-8.
If there are children in your life, you
(and they) will love these two craft recipe sites many deliciously messy play
dough formulas. The first site
features several recipes for "slime" and "goofy putty,"
along with giant bubble liquid, invisible ink, soap crayons, and rock candy:
The SOAR site has many potpourri
recipes, along with sidewalk chalk, bubble solution, body paint, chemical
volcanoes, soap, candles, and a crystal garden to grow. <http://SOAR.Berkeley.EDU/recipes/crafts/>
Writing books for young people:
Wilber, Jessica, Elizabeth Verdick
(Editor). Totally Private & Personal:
Dahlstrom, Lorraine M. Writing Down the Days: 365 Creative Journaling Ideas for Young People. Free Spirit Pub, 1990.
"Charlotte's Web" is a must,
both in book and video form. Read
the book together and let E. B. White help you teach some of life's most
profound lessons to the little ones you love:
White, E B. Charlotte's Web. HarperTrophy, 1999.
White, E B. Charlotte's Web. Movie.
White, E B. The Trumpet of the Swan. HarperTrophy, 1973.
White, E B. Stuart Little. Harpercollins Juvenile Books, 1974.
"Stuart Little" is to be
released as a film next week, so a movie trip might be a good idea. Check your local papers for show times.
Gherman, Beverly. E.B. White: Some Writer!. Beech Tree Books, 1994.
Tingum, Janice. E.B. White: The Elements of a Writer. Lerner Publications Company, 1995.
For adults:
White, Katherine S. Onward and Upward
in the Garden. North Point Press,
White, E B. Letters. OUT OF PRINT.
White, E B. Essays. Harperperennial Library, 1999.
White, E B. One Man's Meat. Tilbury House Publishers, 1997.
Strunk, William & E B White. Elements of Style. Allyn & Bacon, 1995.
Root, Jr., Robert L. E.B. White: The Emergence of an Essayist. Univ of Iowa Pr, 1999.
Gardening:
For the gardeners or would-be-gardeners
on your list, a lavishly illustrated gardening book or two would be heaven. Add some seed packets, gloves, a few gardening tools, and you have a
thoughtful and practical gift basket. And
who wouldn't be delighted with a pot or three of some mid-winter bulbs of
hyacinth, narcissus, or daffodils. You
can order them sent direct from Burpee (http://www.burpee.com/) or plant them
yourself.
Martin, Deborah L and Sally Jean
Cunningham. 1001 Ingenious Gardening Ideas:
Glyck, Vivian Elizabeth. 12 Lessons on
Life I Learned from My Garden:
Lisa
Shumicky, ScribeTribe's resident
garden-journaling expert suggests these five books as some of her favorites:
Midda, Sara. In and Out of the Garden. Workman Publishing Company, 1989.
Klaus, Carl H. My Vegetable Love: A Journal of a Growing Season. Houghton Mifflin Co (Trd), 1996.
Klaus, Carl H. Weathering Winter: A Gardener's Daybook (Bur Oak Original). Univ of Iowa Pr, 1997.
Pereny, Eleanor. Green Thoughts: A Writer In The Garden. Random House (Paper), 1983.
Handelsman, Judith. Growing Myself: a spiritual journey through gardening. Plume, 1997.
Send for Lisa's fabulous journaling
newsletter, "a capacious hold-all: an occasional newsletter about
diaries." Send a donation to
her at: 32 Fischer Avenue, Islip Terrace, NY 11752 or contact her by e-mail at lshumick@suffolk.lib.ny.us
If you're a gardener somewhere deep in
your heart (never mind the actuality of the thing), you'll want catalogs from
Gurney and Burpee for dreaming and writing purposes. The Gurney catalog arrives in January:
The Burpee catalog goes out in late
December, and their website has fabulous resources, including gourmet recipes, articles, gardening tips, tools, links: <http://www.burpee.com/>
For garden tools, clothing, and design
resources, and much, much more:
And finally, for everything and then
some, try: <http://www.garden.com/>
More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About
Garden Hose Safety
The Garden Hose Safety site contains
both prose and poetry, beginning and advanced safety "courses," and
such useful tips as:
1. When transporting your hose be aware
of the position of the hose in relation to your body. "Why," you may ask yourself. I have one word for you: Strangulation. That's right strangulation. If the hose is positioned around your neck during the time that you are
trying to bring the hose to its destination the hose may cut off your air supply
and terminate your life. In
addition, if the hose is wrapped around your legs during transportation, you may
trip and fall, which may or may not cause a concussion.
2. If riots and gang wars break out a
block down from your house and a furry-looking store clerk appears on your front
lawn smashing television sets and screaming the word "distraction,"
leave your house only to retrieve your garden hose and bring it safely indoors.
3. A leaky hose could flood your
backyard and your basement, which could cause a drowning hazard among other
things. A flooded backyard attracts
marsh animals like alligators, mosquitoes, and hippopotamuses. These animals can and will cause injury to both you and your
family. Wild animals are nothing to
fool around with.
If you're brave enough, go directly to
the Garden Hose Safety site for pages and pages of more of the same. It's amazing! http://members.aol.com/gdhose/hosehome.html
© Copyright Ellen Moore,
Ph.D. 1999