At a recent elementary school open house, my daughter’s third grade teacher said something profound. Well, she said a lot of wise things, because the knowledge of teachers is immense. But one particularly thing about writing and reading that caught my ear.
Here it is – that she looks for books for these young readers to be either “windows” or “mirrors.” Windows are the books that enable them to see into someone else’s world and mirrors are the ones that reflect back something recognizable in the reader.
Her point was one of diversity. That books need to reflect different races, genders, religions, and so on so that all kids have a chance of finding a mirror. It reminded me of the advocacy that my dear blogging friend, Ab of the My Life with T blog has done to include books of neurodiverse kids in the school library.
But I also took it to heart as a great point for writing personal narrative and blogging. If all that populated the blogosphere was essays from perfectly-appointed, happy people, it wouldn’t be much of a mirror.
I think of the blogs that I’ve had a hard time writing – about vulnerability, learning to meditate after being stuck after my divorce, the tiredness that comes as a single parent, and the fear of my journey through in-vitro fertilization. I felt especially tremorous when hitting the publish button on those essays. I’ve said many times I’m a congenital optimist and that’s mostly where I write from, but I also need to talk about the times I step in dog poop.
But if we don’t publish those, we only put forth a little piece of mirror for others to find themselves in. It’s why I find my friend, Vicki Atkinson’s book, Surviving Sue, about growing up with a mom who suffered from anxiety, depression, alcoholism, and Munchausen’s by proxy so powerful. Because it’s her journey to flip from fear to love as she traverses the choppy waters of her mom’s condition.
It makes me wonder about some of the people that I notice start blogging and then drop off. There are many reasons that blogging might not fit with busy and full lives. But in some cases might it be that they didn’t find a mirror?
Windows and mirrors both improve with the quality and opacity of the materials used. Here’s my take-away from third-grade teacher wisdom. That the usefulness and feeling of our writing will do the same if we shoot for that same transparency and fullness.
I’ve written more about courage and vulnerability in a personal blog post: Vulnerability
Please check out these other items of interest:
More about Wynne Leon and her story-telling journey
Workshop about creativity jump start that I delivered with Dr. Vicki Atkinson
Speaking and workshops on leadership through creativity to build resilient teams
Podcast about the how and why of creativity
Articles and corporate creativity resources
Corporate evaluate your team needs for creativity
Individual creativity survey for individuals
My book about my journey to find what fueled my dad’s indelible spark and twinkle can be found on Amazon: Finding My Father’s Faith.
You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @wynneleon
(featured photo from Pexels)