writing with your lips

Rivka Willick — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:26:00 GMT

I've just started a book called The Warrior and the Priest by John Milton Cooper, Jr. It's a comparative study of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Cooper starts off saying they both had disabilities as children. Most everyone knows Teddy had severe asthma which at times caused his parents to fear for his life. Wilson's "disability" was different; he was slow to read--didn't read until he was eleven. And, he had difficulty writing--all of his life. He preferred giving speeches with few if any notes. Writing was belabored--he'd first compose in his head before committing anything to paper.

NOW WAIT A SECOND.

HE WASN'T DISABLED--HE WAS A TELLER!!!!

JUST LIKE ME.

I went to college to become a journalist. I was great at creating stories, but when it came to composing on paper I froze up. Everything was a gargantuan struggle. I went on and did other things, but never stopped creating stories. I finally discovered there were two ways to express ideas, two ways to create stories. You can write them or tell them. You can take your ideas and let them flow from your mind into you hand and onto paper (or a computer screen), OR you can let the ideas flow from your mind to your lips.

I verbally "said" this blog before I "wrote" it.

And it's a two way street. Some folks find it easiest and most enjoyable to read, others prefer hearing. And most folks find it easier (and a lot more fun) to hear a telling as opposed to hear a reading. The creation of the story is fresh and is a shared creation between Teller and listener.

Woodrow Wilson did OK.

He went on to become President of Princeton, then President of the USA.

I bet he gave a good speech.

I'm doing OK too. I'm a Teller. I tell to adults (they need to hear stories even more than the kids). I tell to teens and kids too.

ME and WOODROW-- both lip writers.

Rivka Willick's Simply Extraordinary Tales

writing with your lips