Roar. Mew.

Thank you, Stimey, for my shiny new award! I'm always surprised when I get one. I spend a lot of life on fringes of things, a forgotten bounder, present but not part. I'll blog about that some time, I suppose.

Anyway, I got this cool award. It's called "A Roar For Powerful Words" and its from the Shameless Lions Writing Circle. Stimey gave it to me because I "regularly make [her] think." I wonder what I could possibly make an amazing someone like Stimey think about that she thought deserved an award. It's a humbling thought.


Part of this award is you have to come up with three things that you think makes writing powerful. I would have to say first, I think that good writing keeps in mind its audience and its goal. For blogs, this can be many and diverse; for here, my goal was to remove fear, provide grounding, and give other parents access to an experience of raising children that was accepting, joyful, and naturally human, with all its ups and downs, so that those highs and lows were not something to dread, not something dark and foreboding in their mystery. One of the great blogs I know for this ability to know her audience is MonkeyGirl at Musings of a Highly Trained Monkey. Those of you who have not yet swarmed over to her site to check out life as an ER nurse, go. Now.

Next, I would say that good writing, especially good blog writing, needs more than just a sense of humor- it needs a firm grasp of the absurd. You need more than a chuckle here and there, you need to realize that life is one long belly-laugh if you just stop long enough to take in the joke. I know Maddy at Whitterer on Autism is the true mistress of this, but she's already gotten this award. So instead I'll send you over to my other favorite ER/medico blog, Ambulance Driver. Besides, he likes getting lots of hits.

My third thing is that you have to have something to say. That may seem a strange thing to mark down, but when I was in college, I had a very serious problem with this. I was taking a wonderful poetry seminar with Andrew Salkey, which was a bear to get into because you had to apply in person with a poetry portfolio, everyone wanted to take the class, and there were only 15 slots. I was absolutely abashed to get in, especially when I walked in and found myself in a room full of English and Creative Writing majors... and me. He said straight-out that I would never be a poet. I had a wonderful grasp of language, but nothing to say. Everyone else there had the opposite problem. Without something to say, what good are words at all?

The blogs I read all have something to say, but I'll direct your attention to these:

Casdok at Mother of Shrek and her message of hope, love, and joy in her son, C. I direct a lot of families to her blog, but especially families who seem to think I can be loving and accepting of my own children because my experience of and writing about autism is "autism lite." You can accept people for who the are, as they are... no matter what challenges they may be facing.

The Autistic Bitch From Hell at Whose Planet Is It, Anyway? with her powerful reminders that autistic people are, first and foremost, people.

And then there is Big White Hat, where we find life and faith can indeed meet, and are relevant to one another. That's a good message to keep in mind.

There were lots of other folks I thought of, but most of them already had this award, and I hate to tag someone who already got tagged. Since I don't read too many blogs regularly, coming up with fresh destinations for you is- as you may notice- not too easy. I've probably sent you all of these places before. But then, i read these blogs- and the others I thought of- for a reason. I've not much time for idle blog-reading. Hugs to you all.