Marjorie Clayman’s Writing Portfolio

Professional writing profile of Marjorie Clayman

Archives for April 2010

Post #2: Afghans for Afghans

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Back in 2001, I, like everyone, felt hopeless and helpless in the wake of 9/11. Watching people tell the stories of their loved ones for 3-4 days, all of the stories that turned out not to be true, all of the amazing stories of heroism…I was a grad student at the time, in a small town. I knew that I would never be able to understand the experiences I was watching. What could I do?

I had always been a crafter, and the idea came to me to try to find somebody that was looking for homemade items to sell, which would in turn raise money for the victims. Children newly orphaned were of special concern. During this time, I found an organization called Afghans for Afghans.

Of course, this organization caught my attention for 2 reasons. First, it was a charity crafting organization. Second, it was for Afghanistan, a country that was bearing the brunt of the blame for the 9/11 attacks. I decided that I would make some items and send them. The fulfillment I received from doing so got me hooked on making things for charities, a hobby that still occupies a lot of my time.

Afghans for Afghans is on my mind today because I just got an email update that makes it seem like the collection they are doing now might be the last for the whole year. A few years ago, there were many different collections — someone would be collecting socks for kids, another would be collecting blankets for maternity wards. But those days are gone, thanks to the increased in power of the Taliban, a lack of funds, and general deterioration of the situation.

I hope that this is not the case. Afghans for Afghans didn’t just give me something to do after 9/11. It gave me hope that even after all of that, there could still be people who would view the world as bigger than themselves. To give charity to a country when your country just declared war on it takes guts.

Afghans for Afghans is collecting items for kids ages 7-14 until May 14th. Since these items might have to last for the entire year, I’m hoping to be able to send a lot of items in addition to the socks I made (pictured). If you are interested in helping either through crafting or monetarily, take a gander at their website: http://afghansforafghans.org/

Blog #1: The Tale of the Indian Bead Loom

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Lately, I’ve been thinking about an event that happened over a period of months when I was a little kid.
You have to understand, in order to “get” this story, that when I was real little, I found out I had Cherokee blood in my family. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. To think that this rich culture I had already kind of liked was part of my family tree was just too amazing. I wanted to learn everything I could about all Native American cultures. 
 
So with that in mind, the following might make a bit more sense. One day, I went over to a friend’s house, and she had a little loom like the one in the picture there. She was making a bracelet that had a beaded pattern in it. I of course was enchanted. She showed me how to use it. I knew that I had to have one of these.
I asked my mom if I could get one. Her first vision was not the beautiful jewelry I’d make but rather the millions of tiny seed beads that she would get to step on. Despite these obstacles, one Christmas, I found a long, rectangular box under the tree. I had gotten my Indian Bead loom.
After Christmas breakfast I ran upstairs to my room and ripped open the box. I already had visions of what my beautiful “authentic” jewelry would look like. But what was this? What came out of the box was not a fully functional, put-together loom. It was in pieces. You had to put it together. Being a kid, I didn’t think I needed to bother with the directions. I had seen the loom in action. I had worked with the loom. I started fitting pieces together and…broke it.
I’ve been thinking about my Indian Bead Loom a lot lately because I have found that there are a lot of experiences in life that could potentially go better if you bear such lessons in mind. In life, one could apply this to something like relationships. Everyone seems to have a great relationship. You see it, you think you are pretty sure how it works, so you rush to get one, but it doesn’t come all put together. You have to work for it.
 
In the business world, this comes to mind when I think about marketing through Social Media. Everyone is pretty sure they know what Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are by now. Heck, teens can use this stuff, so it would seem like a business could. And everyone is talking about how great Social Media can be. But Social Media, corporate identity, whatever it might be…these things don’t arrive all put together. It comes through bits and pieces of information and experience, and yes, some directions. But like a relationship…like my Indian Bead Loom, if you try to rush into things without doing the research….if you try to put things together haphazardly, you can end up breaking it.
Years later, by the way, when I was an adult, I bought myself another loom, determined to learn from my mistakes. I did put the loom together successfully, and I got a third of the way through making something. I realized I didn’t know how to change the tension on the strings. I moved that in-progress bracelet to three different abodes before finally throwing the whole thing away. With a little more research, a little more care, well who knows. I could have been a Native American bracelet guru by now.

Yeah, so, I’m repurposing my blog

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And I’m starting with a challenge.

Inspired by the great Ed Hamell (aka Hamell on Trial), who challenged himself to write a song a day for days and days, I’m challenging myself, and I guess you too, to write a blog a day for the next 100 days. It’s kind of like the 30-day challenge on Wii Fit or Wii Sports Active. Mind calisthenics. No rules, except that it has to be a real writing effort. And now, this does not count for my number 1. This is just my warm-up round 🙂

Will you play?