Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 10th 2024

23 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from the novel “The Ceremony p. 91-92 ” by Leslie Marmon Silko, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about being seen from the outside.”

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Please join us for our next session Friday May 17th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The Ceremony p. 91-92 by Leslie Marmon Silko

She sat with the sheets pulled around her and watched him get dressed. “I have been 
watching you for a long time,” she said. “I saw the color of your eyes.”

   Tayo did not look at her.

  “Mexican eyes,” he said, “the other kids used to tease me.”

   The rain was only a faint sound on the roof, and the sound of the thunder was distant, and 
moving east. Tayo unbolted the door and opened it; he watched the rainwater pour out of the 
rain gutter over the side of the long porch. “I always wished I had dark eyes like other 
people. When they look at me they remember things that happened. My Mother. His throat
felt tight. He had not talked about this before with anyone.

   She shook her head slowly. “They are afraid, Tayo. They feel something happening, they 
can see something happening around them, and it scares them. Indians or Mexicans or 
whites – most people are afraid of change. They think that if their children have the same 
color of skin, the same color of eyes, that nothing is changing.” She laughed slowly. “They 
are fools. They blame us, the one who look different. That way they don’t have to think 
about what has happened inside themselves.”

Credit: Leslie Marmon Silko

23 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 10th 2024”

  1. michele348's avatar michele348

    About being seen from the outside~~~

    She is quiet and unassuming.Her weathered face bears witness to allthat she has endured…the deep furrowed wrinklesand sun-baked skin.

    Her body is stooped overafter years of physical labor,doing all she had to do tohelp support her family.

    Her brown eyes are deep wells,leading us into her soul,into her spirit.For within this calm exterior, she is one to be reckoned with.

    She is determined and courageousand will fight to the deathanyone or anything that threatensthe existence of her family,a family she values above all earthly treasures.

    She is someoneI am proud and honored to hold close to my heart.I rely on her to help push me throughwhat I must face in this world…a world that pulls me in opposite directions,often leaving me questioning my resilience.

    To her, I give my thanks and gratitudefor a life well-lived.

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    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      Michele, your description made me want to meet that person. This world needs some good forces to be reckoned with. Glad she is such a source of strength. Thanks for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Michele,

      Your speaker describes the source of values and resilience handed onto you. The contrast between what is seen and what is known – that this woman is one to be reckoned with – emphasizes that there are different ways to leave a legacy.

      Thank you.

      Andre

      Like

      Reply
  2. Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

    We all see each other

    At first glance from the outside,

    But to really get to know someone,

    We must peel away the layers,

    Like onions,

    Hoping a person is ready to share themselves

    So that we can feel free to share ourselves.

    Please kindly remember

    We must also pay attention

    To their outsides

    (This is not a superficial act)

    Because they are who they are

    In part because of the way

    the world responded

    to what it saw.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Elizabeth, your words ring so true. Unfortunately, at times, the world works its ways with us, building us up or tearing us down. And our exteriors will eventually show the wear and tear our bodies absorb.

      The outside cover must be opened up, to read, to view the story that lies within. We are often unwilling to expend the time, to our detriment. And it is, in the end, our loss.

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    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Elizabeth

      One of the things I find beautiful about Narrative Medicine is peeling back layers of the story in order to more fully understand it and your speaker points this out so aptly, along with the importance of paying attention. However, the layer we see first is also important because that is part of the story and is also important and it the part of the story the other wishes all to see.

      Thank you.

      Andre

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      • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

        Andre, I like your perspective that the outer layer is part of the story and what the other wishes us to see. I think we have to view it not as superficial because it packs a lot of weight. Thanks for sharing.
        Also, aren’t we all like onions… So multi-layered!

        Like

  3. Rita Basuray's avatar Rita Basuray

    Being seen from the outside

    Rita Basuray

    Yup! You don’t know me.

    My eyes are gentle, but my soul can be bitter and vicious. 

    My smile can be dazzling, but my mind – ugly.

    I may be fair on the outside, but I’m actually dark dark obsidian on the inside.

    The question is, do I fool you like I fool others, or do you see me through the pink hued façade?

    Do you really know me?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Rita,

      Such a list of contrasts. Is it possible that the person we don’t know, that lies beneath what we see, tempers what is shown? I am drawn back into the text where our storytellers do not fear change.

      Thank you.

      Andre

      Like

      Reply
    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      Rita, I like how your writing has such contrast that it really draws us in. It also makes me think —does anyone really know anyone in totality? Thanks for sharing.

      Like

      Reply
  4. al3793's avatar al3793

    Write about being seen from the outside.

    What others see when they look at me is something I consider often these days, ever since a consultant wrote, “Andre is a late middle aged man”, I realized that I had only a few more years of being late middle aged at which point I would become elderly”, “geriatric” in medical parlance. And the question arose, “at what point in life does being elderly actually occur,” and what does it look like to those who look?

    Is it the graying of the hair, the wrinkles that become cracks, the change in posture, gait, joints, the tenor of the voice?  Is there something that remains beyond what the eyes see, something beyond, the depth behind the color of the eyes where the story truly wells.

    VGS Friday May 10, 2024

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    • michele348's avatar michele348

      My life didn’t kick into full, out of control gear until I reached my mid 60’s, running half marathons and hiking mountain sides, writing, and becoming a patient advocate. My life is more active now than when my now grown kids were in diapers. So my thought on the topic is you are as old as you feel and the rest of the world will have to deal with it. And from what I can tell, you follow a similar code.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • rehavia6's avatar rehavia6

      I agree with Michelle it all in how you feel. I compare myself to my mother who is 27 years older than me and think it will not be long before I am decrepit. Then I remember that I have accomplished a lot in the last 27 years and will have many more adventures in the next 27.

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    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      Andre, this just reminds me of how we really have to be careful how we use our words… When we describe others and when we describe ourselves. Words have such an impact and a punch. Also, it depends what kind of meaning we attach to the descriptions. For instance, being elderly in certain cultures is revered and other cultures considered burdensome. Thanks for sharing.

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      Reply
      • al3793's avatar al3793

        Elizabeth, words are so important a concept which is lost on so many in our culture. Here’s a comment from Ursula K LeGuin that speaks eloquently to this point.

        A poet is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Poets know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls, and ours as well.After Ursula K. Le Guin

        Like

    • Elizabeth's avatar Elizabeth

      Andre, thank you for sharing that beautiful quote. I’m going to add my own original take—Words can create peace or they can create war; they can wound or they can heal; they can bring us heaven or give us hell.

      Like

      Reply
  5. rehavia6's avatar rehavia6

    From the Outside

    From the outside

    She appears

    Self -assured,

    Comptent.

    She has figured it out 

    Her act is together.

    On the inside

    She is still

    A little girl

    Easily hurt

    Confused 

    Not sure what to do.

    Like

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      We all experience a bit of self-doubt when the light isn’t directly shining on us… should I have said or done things differently? I think second-guessing ourselves is a built-in gene in the human mind. Maybe when we do this, we attempt to improve ourselves for the next go-around. Enjoyed your honesty.

      Like

      Reply
    • al3793's avatar al3793

      Lisa,

      Life in interim time is a challenge. Yet it sounds like your speaker is finding their own way through We are sustained by deep breaths that we allow to escape very slowly, while trying to find that way. The dawn can be long in coming and finding others to walk with us are sustenance.

      This prompt truly promoted transparency and vulnerability. It was a good one.

      Thank you.

      Andre

      Like

      Reply

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