Today’s post is going to be a little different. I’m going to free write about a random word, editing very little of the final product. I decided to use the 10th word in the 10th row from today’s article on the Wikipedia homepage. It happens to be the word “crew” (unless I counted wrong).

The first thing I think of is the crew of a ship, like the Love Boat. At the beginning of the 4th grade I went through this phase where I liked to draw yachts, like the 50 or 75 foot kind. The only trouble was I really only knew how to draw one kind, and that was a 3-leveled, very simple kind of boat. I’d see other kids at school, like Mike or Bobby, drawing boats so I would draw them also. Sometimes I drew them at home. I remember sitting down at the desk I had put in my closet (yes, I know that’s weird) and started drawing a boat. For the first time I guess, I realized that this was the same exact boat as I had been drawing all along. No difference except for sometimes I added a little stick man on the bow. I didn’t know how to draw any other kind of boat, so I just gave up and decided my boat-drawing days were over. I never have drawn very well. I used to hate art class. I dreaded having to turn in anything to Mrs. C. because I was sure she’d think I was some sort of imbecile for not being able to create depth or shadows or anything and that my people always looked like they had tree branches for arms and legs and long spindly fingers if I drew any. I was smart and did well in school. Generally I got all A’s. Drawing was beyond me, however. I guess the way I felt in art class was the way a lot of kids felt every day of every school year. They probably dreaded turning in their writing assignments for fear of being branded stupid and being laughed at, either in class or worse, in the teachers’ lounge. Of course we had no empathy for those kinds of kids in class. I’m sure I laughed at a few of them over the years, wondering how anyone could be so stupid. But I was wrong; we were all wrong. Now when I look at a wonderful drawing or painting, I wonder how anyone could be so talented as to be able to create something so beautiful and alive. How could they see it in their mind before it was ever formed on the paper or canvas? I guess we should never judge others. No, I know we should never judge others. We don’t know their story, where they came from, the problems they’ve had to face, the sorrow and hurt in their hearts.

And that’s the lesson I learned from writing about the word “crew”.

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