Well.... here it goes.

1. Reading is breathing in; writing is breathing out.



I've heard that you need to both breathe in and out in order to live, so I guess both reading and writing are crucial to keeping the art of the written word alive. A writer who only writes and never reads is going to just keep expelling, but will never take anything in. However, since breathing is a cycle, first out then in or the other way around, a writer who reads will then have more to write about. It's like playing the flute. If you don't take in enough air before you play, you may not get to the end of your run. If a writer doesn't read before attempting to write (or continue writing), then the result will not be as good as they would like.

2. Something in the world that concerns me...

Something that has been concerning me lately is the direction that women's rights movements are taking. Women's suffrage movements have been traced back to as early as the 1750s, and we weren't allowed to vote until the 19th amendment was ratified in 1920. That's almost two hundred years of fighting! Women still have to fight for rights in the workplace, and on average are paid less than men in the same position. Debates about abortion seem to be taking place between men, and it's easy for them to talk about since they won't be the ones potentially going through it! So, what's been bothering me is the direction that the music industry has been going. Take for example the singer Fergie. I was totally mortified when I first heard her song "My Humps" at my dance studio. We were just innocently warming up to a mix that someone made, and I cannot believe that music like this is socially acceptable! For those of you that haven't heard it, her song basically talks about her "lady humps," her boobs and her butt, and how whenever she sees men they go crazy for it. Think about this, ladies... We have been fighting for hundreds of years to be treated fairly, and now big-shots like her as well as many other artists that I have heard make it OK to treat women as sex objects???? There is so much more to girls than how their bodies look, and I have yet to hear any hip-hop artist respect that.

3. What is one piece of art that has greatly inspired you?

Working at JoAnn fabrics, I constantly see art during my shifts, and am totally reinspired every single time someone asks me to cut fabric for them and tells me about what they are making. I know that usually people are inspired by really famous art, but the other day I asked my colleague why she quilts. This particular colleague has always kinda scared me, having worked in fabric retail for longer than I have been alive and knowing all the ins and outs of everything, but after having seen some of her quilts, in particular a huge paper-pieced masterpiece made of the brightest batiks you've ever seen, I was really inspired by her. When she was younger, her family didn't have very much money, so she had to sew her own clothes, starting at about age 7! As she grew up, she continued to sew, and quilted as a great stess relief. When her mother passed away, she made copies of her mother's quilts so that she and her siblings could all have one. I find it really inspiring that quilting helped her overcome the hardships of her past.