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Robin Brande and Lizzie’s Pack of Wolves

Published
by
Hildy
on April 6, 2007
in Learning about Blogging
. 0 Comments

Had lunch yesterday with Robin Brande. Robin is a member of the pack of wolves with gentle spirits and lethal hands (aka the Kajukembo dojo) that was one of the many similar packs of wolves that raised my daughter. As I think about it, Lizzie really was raised by a very large and very extended family of many loving adults. But there may be none that surpasses her dojo family for the ongoing nurturing of having a dozen or so older brothers and sisters looking out for you. And ok, they taught her some lethal moves that she has already used in her young life, mostly to peel drunks off her friends.

Robin is a novelist - she is about to be the biggest thing to hit the teen scene, which is so cool! You can check out her stuff at www.RobinBrande.com - her book is about a teenaged girl trying to reconcile Darwin’s science with her fundamentalist upbringing, to deal with the controversy over teaching evolution. With a topic like that, you can well imagine it will be released this summer to major fanfare, and the pre-release buzz is already incredible. This book is going to kick butt. (I’ll tell you all more once I’ve read it, which I am hoping to do soon!)

Robin was regaling us with stories of her book tour, and sharing how Lizzie has helped her understand some of the details us old folk will never be hip enough to know - like what music different teenagers might listen to, what movies they might love. Behind every good teen writer there should certainly be a cadre of young people, keeping them honest.

Then we talked about my book, and our work, our travel, the Institute, the fact that finally, yes finally, I have a blog.

By the end of lunch, Robin said we had worn her out. We laughed. “We make people tired,” we told her. “It’s our motto.”

To which Robin instructed, “You need to blog about that! We Make People Tired - I love it!”

So Robin, I have done so! Tonight, in particular, I’ve made me tired. Time to go read a bit more in Taylor Branch’s amazing MLK / Civil Rights story and then hit the sack. Good night, all!

My First Blog Post!

Published
by
Hildy
on March 30, 2007
in Learning about Blogging
. 3 Comments

Hello, all!

This is my first post on a blog, any blog, forget it being my own blog. Dimitri and others (yes, that’s you, Jon!) have been urging me to do a blog for a long time now, and I have resisted - strongly, vociferously - and for a long time. It just didn’t seem I was the  [tag] blogging [/tag] type.

So why now? As will surprise no one who knows me, the reason is in a story. This memory popped into my head during my walk to the office a few weeks back, and I have not been able to get it from my mind since.

When I was just out of college, my neighbor’s yard and mine were separated by a chain link fence. Our dogs could see each other all day long, and they so badly wanted to play together.

So here’s what those dogs did: They dug a little tunnel under the fence, just deep enough to put a toy in. From then on, Hallie would grab the toy, run around the yard with it for a while, and then she would pass the toy under the fence to Beau, who would grab the toy, and run around his own yard with it. Then Beau would put the toy in the tunnel, and Hallie would play, and so on.

Those two found a way to connect, despite all human intervention to the contrary!

Something made me remember that while I was walking that day, and that was when I realized - we are having such a blast building the Community-Driven Institute, and the book I am writing about all the approaches we have been developing is going so well, and I’m so excited about it all.

And that’s when it hit me. It’s time we passed the ball under the fence, to you all, so we can all play with that great stuff together!

So that’s what this blog will attempt to do. I have no idea if it will be successful at accomplishing it, but that’s my goal - that we share the joy of the work we are doing, and that you share your own stuff with us as well.

I’m looking forward to your joining in the fun. Because I know these toys will be far more fun when we have someone else to play with!

Hildy

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