I mostly blog for selfish reasons -- to muse aloud, to enjoy my children's growing and learning through reflection and to create an archive that my kids and I can look back on in the future. For me blogging isn't really a form of social networking, though I do enjoy the comments and questions of those of you who comment, stimulating me to further reflection or pointing me to new ideas and resources.
So I don't normally do the "blog nod" thing. But I make an exception today to point you to Erin's blog. It's been in my sidebar for a long time, but she rarely posted, and even when she did, she was guarded and calculatingly elusive in her style. So I didn't visit there much, and anyone who followed the link would probably not have found much much entertainment there.
But when she travels, things change. She becomes more herself when she writes from afar. You won't find much travelogue-style writing. If you want to know about daily life in Laos, her blog will not give you that. But you will get a potent glimpse of her wit, incisiveness and creativity.
People ask me around town all the time whether I miss her. I do, of course I do! But those feelings are far outweighed by the immense sense of glowing pride I have over what she is doing and who she is proving herself to be.
This morning in an e-mail one of her travelling companions wrote "We sure do like travelling with your lovely daughter; never any whining and sniveling and always game to try anything." Isn't that nice to hear? Apparently they are all happy and healthy, though I do wonder whether Erin is in her right mind because "Erin is a changed girl. Going to bed at 8:30 sometimes and getting up between 6:00 and 7:00 on her own! She accused me the other day of messing up her life. Eating three meals every day, up early, to bed early. Oh my!" Wow. Is this my kid? (Of course, 6:00 a.m. in Laos is 2:00 pm here, and that sounds more like her! Perhaps she's still on Pacific Time.)
They're heading to Bangkok tonight, then flying into Burma (Myanmar), behind the "bamboo curtain" tomorrow. We won't hear much of anything from there, because the ruling junta controls the internet with an iron fist and access is difficult to impossible. So enjoy Erin's blogging while it's happening!
You are justifiably proud. She writes extremely well :) And it sounds like she's having the time of her life :)
ReplyDeleteJust to say, I really like reading your blog - it reminds me lots of the kind of things my brothers and I got up to when we were younger.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was reading about origami, and it reminded me about my twin being completely obsessed with it when he was about 11 - he loved the books by Robert Lang (http://www.langorigami.com/pubs/pubs.php4) and I thought you might like to know about them, if you don't already. He made a little model of a violin player once - that was what made me think of it! (He mostly liked making the poisonous insects.)
Hi Miranda,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading about your family on ivillage and todaysparent and here on your blog for years now, I think. It was fun to read Erin's own words and catch a glimmer of her wonderful personality. You must be a really proud mom. Thanks again for sharing your unschooling life with us. What great kids you have.
Colleen