Matthew Dicks's Blog, page 437
October 26, 2013
Which okay is okay?
OK?
O.K.?
Okay?
I choose “okay” every time, because it’s the only logical and acceptable choice. It’s the only one that represents an actual word.
As an abbreviation, O.K. is not the shortened version of any two modern-day words. It’s origin is uncertain at best and probably the result of an error made long ago. The two letters, along with the two marks of punctuation, mean nothing.
I don’t use abbreviations that don’t represent actual words because I am not a crazy person.
On the other hand, the unpunctuated version of OK does stand for something:
Oklahoma.
Using it in place of anything but our 46th state makes no sense.
So I choose “okay” when attempting to express that assent or agreement. It’s the only sane choice.
October 25, 2013
Hashtag excuse
A student interrupted me yesterday. When I told him to knock it off, he said that he wasn’t interrupting.
“That was a hashtag, Mr. Dicks. Not an interruption.”
Sometimes an excuse is so original that it works.
October 24, 2013
Unacceptable platitude #5: “It’s not the worst thing.”
In the past two days, two people have used told me that “It’s not the worst thing” in an attempt to mitigate my level of annoyance.
On Sunday, I was asked to remove my hat from a restaurant in New York City. This is a request that never sits well with me, and for good reason. When I protested, declaring that the restaurant was “dead to me,” I was reminded that being asked to remove my hat is not the worst thing in the world.
Yesterday a colleague told me that keeping me waiting nearly 20 minutes for a meeting “isn’t the worst thing that could’ve happened.”
Both times, the person was correct. These petty annoyances were not the worst things in the world.
However, I do not live my life with expectations as low as “the worst thing.” Nor should I be expected to do so.
Just imagine what an awful, terrible, no good life we would lead if the best we could ever expect was slightly better than the worst thing.
“It’s not the worst thing” is an attempt to mitigate concerns and complaints through comparison. It is an unacceptable platitude because there is always a worse thing, always a person suffering more, always a more difficult circumstance, but this does not mean we should walk through life in perpetual satisfaction because we are at least one notch better than someone else.
More importantly, people have a right to expect more.
This includes wearing a baseball cap at Sunday brunch and expecting punctuality in the workplace.
Speak Up storytelling workshops
After reviewing the results from the survey conducted at our most recent Speak Up storytelling event, it became clear that there is a strong interest in the possibility of storytelling workshops.
But we also know that checking off a box on a survey is easy, so we’ve done some planning and come up with a program that we believe would work, so now we are wondering if there is still interest.
Here is how the program would look:
Six workshops over the course of six weeks, each lasting about 90 minutes.
A limit of 8 participants in each workshop.
During these workshops, instruction would focus on the skills and strategies required for both the development and delivery of effective stories, as well as the generation of story ideas. Workshops would include whole group and individual instruction. As a part of the process, each participant would develop at least one story for an eventual performance.
Following the completion of the workshops, participants would have the opportunity to tell their story in a smaller version of one of our Speak Up shows. This would be hosted by Real Art Ways in the smaller of the two gallery spaces where our first Speak Up event was held back in May. The show would be free and open to invitees of the workshop and Real Art Ways members. Our goal is to provide a low-stakes environment where participants can give storytelling a try for the first time.
Ideally, these storytellers would then go on to perform at a future Speak Up event if they so choose.
The cost of the workshop would be $150-$200 depending upon costs.
The first workshops would likely take place in January of 2014.
Our hope is to begin to build a vibrant and active community of storytellers here in the Hartford area who could tell stories at our events as well as other storytelling opportunities here in Connecticut and abroad.
If you’re interested, please email speakupstorytelling@gmail.com.
October 23, 2013
Daddy’s shoes
As a parent, you hope that your child will someday follow in your footsteps, but then you think back on the difficult and treacherous footsteps you took to get you where you are, and you find yourself hoping beyond hope that your child avoids your footsteps at all costs.
Thankfully, my son is still a baby and can’t fit into my shoes yet (as much as he tries), but it’s something I think about all the time.
Wearing underwear to bed is hard work.
My daughter went to bed in underwear in lieu of pull-up for the first time last night.
Around 11:30 PM, she woke up to use the bathroom.
After she ambled her way down the hallway and back into bed, I crept into her bedroom to tuck her in. She looked up at me, smiled and said, “Daddy, wearing underwear to bed is hard work.”
Ain’t that the truth.
October 22, 2013
Worst things ever
Three years ago, I made a list of the worst things ever. They were:
1. Waiting
2. Not knowing
3. Not existing
Upon reflection, I stand by this list wholeheartedly.
My daughter’s first manuscript
My daughter can only form a handful of letters from the alphabet, but she started writing her first book after being inspired by the television show Max and Ruby.
Television promoting the written word. Who knew?
In a strange turn of events, however, she insisted on writing the words herself and asked me to draw the pictures.
She clearly doesn’t understand her father’s skill set at all.
