I am of

I am reading a book by Mary Pipher called Writing to Change the World. In it she offers this exercise to help learn and understand your own voice. This is my first try. ====================== I am of Jack and June of route 2 box 162, of proud parents who believed in everything I set out to accomplish. I am of Oklahoma and its friendliness and its pride in its own and its simplicity and patriotism I am of small town and everyone knowing everyone and their business, of the cult of football and the longing to feel a part of it and the desire to reject it for what it was. I am of bad eyesight early on, of thick glasses and feeling different and awkward, and of gratitude for contact lenses that brought opportunity and not limitation I am of Church, the kind that taught the importance of a savior and a relationship therewith, that getting wet in a tank behind the stage was one of the most lauded and important decisions in the world. I am of social Church, where all my friends existed and thought like me and held common values and reinforced certain practices and ways of thinking that I would later come to reject. I am of identity Church, which shaped my lifestyle, from the kind of music I made and listened to and the books I read, to the job that I held for 18 years. I am of authority Church, where everything a preacher said was right, and everything you thought was wrong, which led to a blind acceptance that I was pretty much a loser that needed to work harder at not being such a bad person. I am of Busyness and not Idleness, where Saturdays growing up consisted of one hour of cartoons at 7am followed by a day full of work around the farm, of now preferring to plant a garden than watch TV, of feeling a need to clean or bring order instead of feeling like I’m doing nothing. I am of Self-Sufficiency, of relying on yourself out in the country, of not waiting on someone else to come along and help, but of getting it done by yourself with whatever you have on hand, and of not wanting the government to tell me to support and pay for someone who is just simply lazy. I am of all of these and more, much more than I will ever know or remember. I am of this blog, and of risking writing it, wondering if it will even be worth the effort, or if anyone would ever read it, but eventually of the comments from unknown sources saying thanks.