Evelyn hates to write. She’s a very busy woman. In the past she’s owned a bakery and a tee-shirt company, both highly successful enterprises. Now she’s establishing a new business.
She needs to write a website. She needs to write a brochure. She needs fliers for her classes. She hates to write but she needs to write and keeps putting it off. Evelyn is very annoyed with the whole concept of writing.
When I first mentioned alternate handwriting, she was unenthusiastic, to put it mildly. Wasn’t I listening? She hates to write! She has too much to write already! Why would she want to do more writing?
Evelyn is also kind-hearted and generous. She had spent several hours leading me through whole-brain psychological “exercise” classes. She knew I wanted to repay her for her time and expertise by taking her through an alternate handwriting session. (See previous blog re: grim financial situation. It continues but I can barter with the best of them.)
So, more as a favor to me than because she wanted to, which she didn’t, Evelyn agreed to try AH. And here was a new response: absolute hilarity. Her handwriting took her directly back to her childhood, when writing was a game. She talked about learning how to write in cursive and how exciting that had been. She said the letters looked like artwork. She giggled the whole time she wrote with her alternate hand.
She actually wrote something about strangling her sister, but she laughed in delight as she wrote it. She looked at me happily as she read aloud what she’d written. She told me stories about her family, how they changed their Eastern European names when they emigrated to the U.S. many decades ago to escape the pogroms. Then continued to change the names until they sounded WASP enough for the very WASP-centric city where they settled.
“This is so much fun!” she exclaimed several times. When I asked if she wanted to write more about dealing with her sister she said no, she already knew how (and it didn’t include murder). She thanked me several times and her face and posture were noticeably lighter.
Responding to the act of writing, rather than to the content, allowed Evelyn to go to that part of herself that loves making “artwork.” Back to the days when writing was an adventure, a playful activity.
She’s holding onto that sense of delight. She recently told me that AH allowed her “to feel really creative… like getting my fingers into the clay as a kid.” As for the writing she needs to do: she’s found someone to do it for her. Evelyn is no slouch when it comes to bartering, either.
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Part 5 of Circuitous Path to AH is in Pages. Thanks to Mr. Springsteen for the photo and many years of stellar music.
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