The Archeologist of Voice
Dear Readers,
When we last met, I wrote about woman's First Voice found on inscribed clay tablets over 4,000 years old from the ancient culture of Sumer.
I also described the process of how archeologists uncovered the layers of Sumerian history by excavating the buildings, built one on top of another, each old building filled in and then built over--a process that went on for over 1,000 years! Archeologists remarked that no matter how much larger and more elaborate the successive buildings became, they carried the same essential design as the original building--they all contained a podium in the center and a niche in the wall of the central chamber. Imagine now how the Sumerians left the furniture, the pottery, the statuary, even the fish bones in place, shoveling in dirt to fill, then built up the walls, put in new floors, a new roof--and created a new building.
Tonight I wish to offer a writing exercise. Each of us, with the complexity of modern life, has structures of memories, experiences, and feelings built one on top of the other and spreading out with each new direction our life has followed.
For us women that complexity includes experiences within our bodies that are felt as well as an often wordless awareness of ourselves. There are the larger moments, our first period, our first pregnancy, our shift into menopause. There are an infinite number of smaller moments that may take us by surprise: the first budding sensations of our emerging breasts, the first quickening sensation of our womb, the first sensation of our child's movement in the womb, the unexpected feeling of loss the first day our child leaves our realm for the wider world. There are other experiences when we give voice to our anger, our tears, our "no."
How many of us women grew up with messages about how girls, nice girls, talk? How many of us grew up with other messages about what we were not allowed to talk about? What feelings we were allowed to express and not allowed to express?
How many of us remember how it felt to just speak our thoughts outloud in a spontaneous way without thinking and weighing our thoughts and words before we speak?
Each of us has a First Voice, a simple building, a temple built on virgin sand. Each of us, over the course of our growing up and adult lives, have built over our First Voice--buildings of language and silence, filled in, smoothed over, then built on again. Our buildings of language and silence are containers for all those embodied experiences that we women share over the course of our lives.
Writing Assignment: You are the archeologist of your Woman's Voice. The temple of your voice may be a small building with only a few layers or it may be a large complex built over many generations. It may have few rooms or it may have entire wings built around the center. The rooms of your building may be filled with furniture, pottery, statuary, and fish bones. It may only contain a podium with niches in the walls.
Begin by remembering a conversation that you had recently. Perhaps it was at work. Perhaps it was with a friend. Perhaps it was with a child.
Remember back to what you said and what you didn't say. Were you aware of sensations in your body? Was your body, your heart, your gut, speaking to you as well?
Take a moment to write down this recollection.
Now ask yourself: What does this remind me of? And write down any further recollections you may have with particular attention to your voice, what you said, what you didn't say, and how you felt.
As the archeologist of your voice, use this question as many times as you wish "to dig" down the successive layers of your voice until you are back in childhood recalling your First Voice--the freedom, the spontaneity, the openness of childhood expression.
As the archeologist of your voice, you may find that you have begun a process that will continue on past your writing. Open to your First Voice. Like the clay tablets of ancient Sumer, it contains treasure.
To be continued...and
Thank you, dear Readers, for once again joining me here. Thank you to all my special helpers. Often these days, as I see you gathered around me, as I listen to you, I am filled with reverence and I remember: "For Thou are with me." Thank you all.
When we last met, I wrote about woman's First Voice found on inscribed clay tablets over 4,000 years old from the ancient culture of Sumer.
I also described the process of how archeologists uncovered the layers of Sumerian history by excavating the buildings, built one on top of another, each old building filled in and then built over--a process that went on for over 1,000 years! Archeologists remarked that no matter how much larger and more elaborate the successive buildings became, they carried the same essential design as the original building--they all contained a podium in the center and a niche in the wall of the central chamber. Imagine now how the Sumerians left the furniture, the pottery, the statuary, even the fish bones in place, shoveling in dirt to fill, then built up the walls, put in new floors, a new roof--and created a new building.
Tonight I wish to offer a writing exercise. Each of us, with the complexity of modern life, has structures of memories, experiences, and feelings built one on top of the other and spreading out with each new direction our life has followed.
For us women that complexity includes experiences within our bodies that are felt as well as an often wordless awareness of ourselves. There are the larger moments, our first period, our first pregnancy, our shift into menopause. There are an infinite number of smaller moments that may take us by surprise: the first budding sensations of our emerging breasts, the first quickening sensation of our womb, the first sensation of our child's movement in the womb, the unexpected feeling of loss the first day our child leaves our realm for the wider world. There are other experiences when we give voice to our anger, our tears, our "no."
How many of us women grew up with messages about how girls, nice girls, talk? How many of us grew up with other messages about what we were not allowed to talk about? What feelings we were allowed to express and not allowed to express?
How many of us remember how it felt to just speak our thoughts outloud in a spontaneous way without thinking and weighing our thoughts and words before we speak?
Each of us has a First Voice, a simple building, a temple built on virgin sand. Each of us, over the course of our growing up and adult lives, have built over our First Voice--buildings of language and silence, filled in, smoothed over, then built on again. Our buildings of language and silence are containers for all those embodied experiences that we women share over the course of our lives.
Writing Assignment: You are the archeologist of your Woman's Voice. The temple of your voice may be a small building with only a few layers or it may be a large complex built over many generations. It may have few rooms or it may have entire wings built around the center. The rooms of your building may be filled with furniture, pottery, statuary, and fish bones. It may only contain a podium with niches in the walls.
Begin by remembering a conversation that you had recently. Perhaps it was at work. Perhaps it was with a friend. Perhaps it was with a child.
Remember back to what you said and what you didn't say. Were you aware of sensations in your body? Was your body, your heart, your gut, speaking to you as well?
Take a moment to write down this recollection.
Now ask yourself: What does this remind me of? And write down any further recollections you may have with particular attention to your voice, what you said, what you didn't say, and how you felt.
As the archeologist of your voice, use this question as many times as you wish "to dig" down the successive layers of your voice until you are back in childhood recalling your First Voice--the freedom, the spontaneity, the openness of childhood expression.
As the archeologist of your voice, you may find that you have begun a process that will continue on past your writing. Open to your First Voice. Like the clay tablets of ancient Sumer, it contains treasure.
To be continued...and
Thank you, dear Readers, for once again joining me here. Thank you to all my special helpers. Often these days, as I see you gathered around me, as I listen to you, I am filled with reverence and I remember: "For Thou are with me." Thank you all.
posted by Knowing Woman at 8:16 PM
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