Kelsey Timmerman's Blog, page 17
October 17, 2015
Take 3 minutes to learn about the storytelling project I co-founded
So far the Facing Project has reached 30 communities and hundreds of writers and storytellers. I co-founded the project with my friend J.R. Jamison in 2013. If you aren’t sure what the project is about, check out this story on the Indianapolis news about Ball State’s Facing Depression project.
Hope you’re having a great Saturday. We went adventuring today with the family. By adventuring I mean that I got to carry a machete and chop away at thorn bushes while the family followed behind me. I also got to skip a rock. Any day you skip a rock is a good one.
October 16, 2015
Austin Peay State student writes song that makes my eyes sweat
I have a new happy song: Sonder by Gina Henderson.
Gina is a student at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, where students who read WHERE AM I WEARING as part of the university’s common reading program were asked to do a creative response. Gina wrote and performed (vocals and ukelele) her song Sonder.
Here’s how she introduces the song in a book highlighting a few of the responses:
According to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, [Sonder] means, “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” This perfectly encapsulates the emotions I felt while reading Where Am I Wearing. I was a startling awakening to realize that my clothes were made not by faceless robots in some detached part of the universe, but by living, breathing individuals with hopes and dreams like mine. I expressed this feeling through my song, “Sonder.”
The moment I was introduced to the song I was standing in front of 100 or so faculty, deans, students, and the president of the university. I heard the chorus, and my eyes started to feel a bit sweaty. I suddenly found the tops of my shoes very interesting. I’m sure that those in attendance would have loved to see me moved to tears, but it wasn’t going to be a pretty cry.
Here’s the chorus:
’cause there’s a girl who’s just like me
All across this world we wander
Is she who she wants to be?
Is this even more than sonder?
And I wonder
And I wonder
Oh and the bridge…!
Trying to see a life that’s not like mine
Trying hard to read between the lines
Would it even make a difference?
Wondering what it’d take to make a change
Make our separate lives get rearranged
Maybe all we have to do is listen
I really want to write out all the lyrics. They are perfection, but instead, promise me you’ll listen closely to the song.
Later I even got to have my picture taken with her. Thanks, Gina, for inspiring me, moving me, introducing me to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, and to Sonder.
Here’s the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows on Sonder:
October 4, 2015
When I meet students on the autism spectrum…
Every time I meet a college student with autism, I want to give them a hug.
Of course, for some individuals on the spectrum, the last thing they would want to do is get hugged by someone they barely know. Most of the time I refrain from doing so, but sometimes, as in the picture above, I can’t stop myself.
They give me hope for my son Griffin, a sweet and smart 4-year-old on the spectrum. I see them and I imagine Griffin waiting in line fifteen years from now to get his book signed by a visiting author. I see them and I imagine him getting that book signed and going off to his dorm where he’ll order late night pizza with his buds.
I see them and I smile.
(Photo courtesy of the Austin Peay State student newspaper The All State)
October 1, 2015
Sometimes you gotta shut up and listen
I enjoy sharing my stories. But here’s the thing, I know all of my stories. My stories aren’t going to teach ME anything new.
Recently I spoke at Central College in Iowa. As part of my visit I was interviewed by Dr. Bob Leonard for his local radio show In-depth. You can listen to the interview. It lasted 13 minutes. I say things I’ve heard myself say hundreds of times, but when the interview was over, the real interview began.
I interviewed Bob.
All I said was, “I hear you have some interesting stories,” and that’s all it took for Bob to get going. Bob is an Anthropology professor, and I had heard that he drove cab for a while as part of his research. He didn’t talk about that much, but he did talk about interviewing pretty much every major presidential candidate over the last 12 years. It’s not my place to share his stories as they were told in confidence, but I will say this: it is scary how some of the candidates he interviewed were unable to handle being interviewed on a show in rural Iowa. And it’s even scarier how close they actually came to the White House.
Bob has stories. Loads of stories.
He shares some of his stories and opinions on The Hill (“Stop giving Ben Carson a pass on issues just because he’s a ‘brilliant’ surgeon) and on Salon (Ted Cruz’s dad is even more frightening than Ted Cruz). Here’s an excerpt from that last story:
I sat at a corner table when the senior Cruz spoke recently to a standing room only crowd of about 60 people at a coffee shop in Knoxville, Iowa, population 7,200 (more or less). My guess is that all were Republicans, and most, if not all, are Christians in a world where they see Christian influence waning, if not under attack. Historic and current global persecution of Christians is part of their intellectual DNA, and they take this persecution personally, despite the fact that Christians in the United States are arguably the most privileged religious group in the history of the planet.Sometimes even when you are supposed to be doing the talking, it’s best to shut up and listen. . .
Near the end of the question and answer session, Pastor Cruz walked up to a boy, maybe eight to ten years old, who was seated at a table.
What is your name?” he asked, hands folded, looking down at the boy.
“Thaddeus,” the boy replied, looking up, eyes widening.
“I’m so glad you are here… Let me tell you Thaddeus, I don’t want to shock you, but let me tell you something. We are fighting for your future (amens came from the crowd), and if we lose, you will not have a future. Do you understand what I am saying?”
Thaddeus gulped and nodded. Cruz looked up to the rest of the audience, opening his arms wide.
“We are fighting for the future of our children, and our grandchildren. That is why we cannot lose this fight. It is their future that is at stake, because the way this country is going, if we don’t change it, they will not have a future. If things continue the way they have someday we will be sitting and telling our children and grandchildren about back when America was free. I’m not willing to have that conversation.”
The crowd erupted.
You can listen to Bob on Twitter @RobertLeonard
September 29, 2015
Where Am I Speaking Fall 2015
This Fall I’ve had the chance to corrupt a lot of students at schools across the country.
I’m in the middle of a stretch of 8 weeks of visiting at least one high school or college per week. I always like to write this post before I start a season of speaking so maybe I can sync up with some friends or readers while on the road. Alas, I’m a bit behind, so this post covers where I’ve been and where I have left to go this fall.
8/26 Fashion Institute of Technology
As Hogwarts is to wizards, F.I.T. is to fashion students. First year students read WHERE AM I WEARING. I love reaching fashion students with the stories of the garment workers I’ve met in Bangladesh, Cambodia, and beyond. Some day these students may be sitting in a meeting about rushing an order or squeezing a factory on pricing and ask: “What about the people who make this?”
The garment industry has such a huge potential to provide mothers and fathers around the world with genuine opportunities.
9/2 Gilmour Academy
Gilmour grad, Hilary Dell, founded One Seed Heritage to connect those who wear school uniforms with the people who make them. I spent the day at the high school chatting with students.
9/9 Florida Southern College
I got hissed at by an auditorium full of rattlesnakes during the campuses convocation. I think that was a good thing, but startling nonetheless.
9/17 Central College, Iowa
It was fascinating to be in Iowa during the 2nd Republican debate. I ate some Dutch letters, tilted at windmills, gave a reading of WEARING (I so wanted to rewrite as I was reading!), addressed the first year students who read EATING, and met my author friend Matthew Clemons to pose with a giant ear of corn–as one does in Iowa.
9/24 William Peace College
I lived in Raleigh with Annie for two years after she graduated college, so I got my nostalgia on while visiting William Peace. I also grabbed my first Uber ride (Hello 2013!), bought a pair of Raleigh Denim jeans, and had some really great interactions with students in classes, at my lecture, and at dinner.
10/1 Austin Peay State, Clarksville, TN
10/7 UNC-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
I love speaking in areas with a history in the garment industry.
10/8 Elon University
Not sure about all the details. That’s how organized I am. But I will finally get to meet Eric Henry of TS Designs– a garment industry hero of mine!
10/13 Faces of Leadership Conference, Charleston, WV
I’ll be speaking about the Facing Project and the power of stories to build community alongside Facing Project co-founder J.R. Jamison.
10/30 IPFW, Fort Wayne, IN
Speaking about the Facing Project alongside J.R. again.
11/12 Ivy Tech, Ft. Wayne, IN
I think I’m speaking at 2PM.
11/18 Nothrwest Missouri State, Maryville, MO
Fall is pretty much booked, but if you are interested in bringing me to speak to your campus or organization in the spring, email me Kelsey@kelseytimmeran.com.
And if you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about all the time, here’s a list of my speaking topics. That said,
August 11, 2015
Is rural America becoming China’s China for manufacturing?
Many in the Carolinas thought the textile industry was gone for good. That it had moved to China and would never return. But the NY Times reports that a textile mill is opening in Indian Land, SC, and it has an unlikely owner.
The Chinese-owned Keer Group is moving some textile production back from China to South Carolina.
From the Times piece:
Textile production in China is becoming increasingly unprofitable after years of rising wages, higher energy bills and mounting logistical costs, as well as new government quotas on the import of cotton.
At the same time, manufacturing costs in the United States are becoming more competitive. In Lancaster County, where Indian Land is located, Keer has found residents desperate for work, even at depressed wages, as well as access to cheap and abundant land and energy and heavily subsidized cotton.
In short, things have gotten better in China making manufacturing more expensive, and things have gotten worse in Indian Land, South Carolina.
I knew that rural America had become the developing nation of American manufacturing. There are few opportunities, less education, and plenty of desperate people who can be paid lower wages and receive fewer if any benefits. I’ve seen this happen in my own hometown where the largest employers are the temp agencies that provide labor to the large factories.
What’s new is that rural America is becoming the developing nation of International manufacturing. Rural America is becoming China’s China.
I don’t think this sort of reshoring of manufacturing is cause to celebrate. How about you?
If you are looking for reshoring done right, I recommend checking out the work of my friends at Cotton of the Carolinas who produce products from dirt to shirt sourced in the Carolinas, and also SustainU who uses recycled cotton on their Made in USA products.
August 10, 2015
Should we mow our lawns?
“Oh, no, daddy! Watch out for the toad!” My six-year-old daughter nearly broke into tears as the tiny toad jumped out of the way of our rumbling riding lawn mower.
This was our first time mowing our new property and Harper was on my lap calling out the crickets and grasshoppers and toads.
Start. Stop. Start. Get off. Sometimes I had to move a life to a safer place.
I’ve always been the type of mower who would stop for an insect when I saw them. I think I was influences by all of those bug cartoons and movies that pitted insects and shrunk kids against the evil lawn mower. But, here’s the thing, when I’m on the mower I do my best not to see the tiny little lives. As if out of sight and out of mind meant out of harm’s way.
I catch and release spiders much to my wife’s dismay. Smooshing spiders has a much higher spider removal success rate than catching them in the house and releasing them into the wild. Recently a quick spider in Harper’s room left me with no choice, but to smoosh. Harper nearly cried. Just as she did when I sprayed the wasp nest in our basketball hoop. One of the wasps fell out and she hollered, “Daddy it’s suffering!” Prompting me to immediately step on it.
Let me take a moment to acknowledge all the hypocrisy and flaws in my bug saving logic. I save a few bugs per year and I kill many more. American motorists are responsible for an estimated 32.5 trillion bug deaths annually. I’ve eaten caramelized crickets in Cambodia and I’m nowhere near a vegetarian. Many, many things die because of me.
A Massacre?
Jason Donati, a friend and environmentalist, recently shared a post on facebook about a couple in Ohio who’ve decided to stop mowing their lawn altogether.
For the first two years, she said, “I mowed like a normal person.”
In 2013, she said, she began to experiment, letting parts go natural. Last year, she let more of the property go natural and bumped into the township’s zoning inspector, who told her she needed to mow the yard.
“I was about to go on a long vacation, like a month, and didn’t want to leave this situation unresolved, so I mowed it,” Baker said. “It was terrible, like a massacre. I ran over a snake and killed it. I killed a toad. I cut down all of these beautiful native plants and wildflowers. It was so upsetting.”
She hasn’t mowed since.
Habitat Lost?
One of the reasons we moved into the country was to avoid some of the rules and laws and social conformities that come with living in city limits. By God if we want chickens, we’ll have chickens. I want to be able to take a leak outside. If we don’t want to mow all of our yard, we won’t mow it.
We’re still used to mowing though. In fact, we mowed for 3.5 hours. However, we’ve decided to allow an acre of our yard to go unmowed. It’s at the front of our property near the road. There’s still that perceived social pressure though, so we mow a strip of the yard along the road and lane to show that “we are people who keep up their property.”
The story about the folks not mowing has some interesting arguments for not mowing.
Baker, in a July 4 letter to Frederick, said, “A mowed lawn, put simply, is habitat loss. It’s a barren wasteland that provides no food or shelter for wildlife. It’s a virtual green desert.”
She filled the three-page letter with cross-referenced facts to support her case. She said that a gas mower, running for an hour, emits the same amount of pollutants as eight new cars driving 55 mph for the same amount of time. And that the EPA reports that 17 million gallons of fuel are spilled each year by people refueling lawn equipment — more than all the oil leaked by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
She said letting nature’s balance be restored on her small slice of Earth attracts pest-eating birds to tall-grass seed heads. Bees and other pollinators are attracted to the wildflowers.
“As Christians, getting to do this, turning our property into a sanctuary, is an opportunity to be a good steward to God,” Watson told the trustees. “Having to mow that property would feel like a violation of my values.”
As much as I feel her arguments, I still love the look of a mowed lawn, and there are few things better than running barefoot through your own lawn playing a game of tag or kickball or whatever.
I currently have this argument with myself that it doesn’t make sense to mow yard that you don’t play in. There’s no way we’ll play in our 3.5 acres of mowed lawn on a regular basis. We’ll continue to mow it all the same.
Sorry insects and toads. If it makes you feel better, I struggle mowing straight as I try to avoid making eye contact with you.
A yard may be a barren wasteland, but we’re using ours to raise kids. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
Show we mow? What do you think?
August 4, 2015
On Indy Style TV with Harper
Two years ago I was on Indy Style TV and chatted with host Tracy Forner shortly after my book EATING released. A month ago Tracy emailed me that he finally got around to reading my book while on vacation in Michigan–not far from the apple farmers and juice factory I wrote about in EATING. He wanted to have me on again to cook. Cook . . . gulp!
I’ve come along way in my food journey, but I’m no chef. Instead of whipping something up Bobby Flay style, I suggested I make banana splits and we have a chocolate and coffee tasting while we chatted.
I took my daughter Harper along for the ride and we included her in the last segment. She did awesome and was so well behaved even if she did spit her chocolate out into my hand. We had a great a great time. Hosts Tracy and Amber and producer Janine made us feel most welcome. They even plugged our new YouTube channel Harper & Daddy TV.
You can watch both segments here.
BANANA SPLITS
CHOCOLATE & COFFEE (Where Harper spits in my hand!)
July 29, 2015
The most amazing thing about publishing is . . .
… that you can be watching the Bachelorette, or taking a nap, or organizing your Smurf collection, or scrolling Facebook while sitting on the toilet, while simultaneously somewhere else in the world your thoughts and words are entering someone’s head a heart.
If that’s not magic, I’m not sure what is.
July 10, 2015
Creating together: A Confession of a Reluctant Collaborator
(If you are fan of my solo work, I’d love to collaborate with you on a Facing Project. Please visit FacingProject.com or reach out to me for more info. This post originally appeared on the Facing Project’s blog. )
With J.R. (right) and the amazing organizers of Washington & Lee’s Facing Sexual Violence project)
A few years ago I roped a guy who I barely knew into participating in the very first Facing Project as a writer.
Today, he’s the co-founder of the Facing Project, who had the vision to see it was more than just a one-off project; he’s like my brother in that I spend more time with him than about anyone other than Annie and the kids; he’s like my son in that we often take him in to feed him so he’ll eat something other than a frozen dinner; and today he’s a year older.
I’m thankful he was born.
J.R. Jamison and I have avoided dying while navigating the streets of Costa Rica and crossing swinging bridges in a rental car, had the most epic and longest Martin Luther King Day ever that may or may not have ended with us both falling asleep during the midnight showing of Selma, stood on stages across the country pushing each other to share our own stories to help others. Hell, I even signed his marriage license while wearing a turd T-shirt.
Projects have undertaken topics such as homelessness, poverty, racism, and sexual violence. As we’ve helped communities bridge difference and face prejudices and preconceived notions, we’ve had to face our own. J.R. gives me the space to be ignorant and we have open “safe space” conversations about our thoughts and feelings on these topics. These conversations continually help me evolve to better understand others. A great example of this would be and Caitlyn Jenner.
Better Together
When J.R. first approached me with the idea that the Facing Project was bigger than Muncie, I had two thoughts:
1) I was in the middle of writing my second book, WHERE AM I EATING, and didn’t have a lot of energy to put towards anything else. I had 12 months to travel to four continents, research, and write the book. I was kind of swamped.
2) I stink at group projects. I never liked them in school. The work seemed to always fall to one or two people. A few years ago I tried a collaboration on a project on the global impacts of the financial crisis and it just didn’t work out.
Instead of just saying “yes” or “no” I told J.R. exactly what my concerns were. He listened. He talked about making a toolkit to help other communities. Since I didn’t really know what that would look like or have the energy to commit to it, we talked and he made it happen. It didn’t take long to realize that this dude was really talented when it came to community engagement, writing, and speaking.
There are very few people in this world who I would share the page or stage with, J.R. is one.
I’ve always done things alone. Traveled alone. Written alone. Ran alone. Hiked alone. Yet here I am partners with another human on a project that perfectly aligns with my mission. Actually after J.R. and I created the mission statement for the Facing Project – connecting people through stories to strengthen communities – I realized that no phrase better captured what I was trying to accomplish with 10 years of writing and traveling.
I’ve found my solo work with WHERE AM I WEARING / EATING to be very rewarding. They’ve changed me and allowed me to reach other people. I plan on continuing this work, but J.R. and the Facing Project have shown me that there is something special about collaborating and engaging other people in the creation of a thing.
Creating and producing connects us and changes us more than consuming what has already been created.
Because J.R. convinced me that Facing was bigger than one project and one person, more than 2,000 writers, actors, storytellers, and volunteers have been engaged in the production of projects.
Our personal experiences and endeavors may change us, but we won’t change the world unless we work together.
Happy birthday, Mr. Jamison!
