Crowd

Hello Friends,

Don’t crowd me. Don’t push in on my edges. Don’t play loud music in your car next to me at the stoplight. Don’t stand so close in line. Don’t pick at your teeth around me. Don’t eat smelly food next to me on the plane. Don’t slurp your drink or soup. Don’t carry on personal conversations on your cell phone while I am shopping for shoes. Don’t clip your fingernails while waiting for your packages at the post office. Don’t meander slowly as if the rest of the world can just wait for you. Don’t spend ten minutes carrying on a conversation with your child in the school drop off line while the rest of us are waiting to drop off our kids.

Crowd.

Don’t crowd me. I need space and plenty of it. I am private and I believe in privacy. Some things should only happen behind the doors of your home. We all need a little more space, physical and psychological. Being raised in the country down a long dirt road, on land with no running water, electricity, indoor plumbing, or for that matter, glass windows, I learned to appreciate solitude and quiet. Crowds don’t freak me out. I am not agoraphobic. I can go to concerts, crowded bars, and the mall. I just prefer solitude. I prefer wide open spaces and the freedom to move.

Lisa Jo Baker has an interesting task every Friday. She calls it Five Minute Friday and it is a writing exercise posited around a particular prompt. You write to the prompt for a total of five minutes, uninterrupted, unedited, and then you link your writing to her site. As well, you go back and read two entries and comment on them.
She has, in effect, created a writer’s workshop. I love this and find it fun to participate in whether or not I had a blog. It is about the writing after all.

Love,

S