The interviewer heard they’d planned to write ten volumes and laughed at the two old people. He laughed at them, not with them, and looked at them like they were crazy, “How old are you anyway? Don’t you think your too old? Do you really think you can finish this project?”

Those weren’t his exact words but something like them. Both William and Ariel in their nineties looked at him like he was crazy.

There were the three of them. Two staring at one and it was the young interviewer who seemed to carry the weight of decrepitude.

The POINT was to write, to learn, to wake up with a purpose, not be interviewed at the end of a project. What a wonderful life. I saw Ariel and William Durant interviewed because they’d completed another book in their series, ‘Story of Civilization’. They changed me.

In middle school I angrily and resentfully applied myself to projects because they were assigned to me.  But I began to recognized the joy of hard work. I saw that my parents and the Durant’s loved the process and the discipline. I began to recognize the lazy me, the do whatever is easy me, wasn’t alive and was far from satisfied. I set my parents and the Durant’s as my pattern. Perhaps this is the best principle I learned in school and best reason to stay in school.  nancymauerman.com

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I was terrified of making mistakes until I discovered a secret in art school.

Within two weeks the entire class would laugh as soon as I hung my picture, with theirs, on the wall. You see my teacher went from picture to picture pointing out strengths and weakness and EVERY TIME he got to mine he’d say, “This is exactly what I was going to tell everyone what not to do,” or, “This is a perfect example of bad taste.” The class squirmed with the giggles just waiting to see what flavor my critique would come in.

Every time I’d turn red, it was uncomfortable, but I loved it too because I was LEARNING so much. For years I’d drawn and painted and not liked the product but I never knew why. AND NOW I WAS FINALLY FINDING OUT THE WHYS.

The others were seeing an example of principles. But I was doing the learning!

I decided I’d turn in two pictures, not one, for each assignment given. Soon I turned in three, four, and up to seven. Each different in its own way so I could learn in as many directions as I could dream up.

You can’t do it wrong. You can do it twice.  nancymauerman.com

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A man I knew gave me a secret. He was in his mid- twenties and supported his wife and three small children buy starting a business. When I found out his wife took night courses while he parented at home I was surprised. “How can you afford to stay home any evening when you could be promoting your business?” I asked.

My friend explained his main job was to support his wife and help her reach her full potential.  nancymauerman.com

Don’t Step On My Dishes

I learned early from stories, movies, and the news that certain people are born with remarkable skills. My interests were in art, dancing, and music and I quickly learned I was traveling in a remarkable direction but a remarkably negative direction from normal in all three.

Dancing; I was swayback, my belly hung out, and I had a great case of pigeon toes instead of turn out.

Music; I joined a Baptist children’s chior and the preacher’s wife said, “The choir is suddenly very off tune,” she couldn’t get us back on and she couldn’t understand why. I explained it to her afterwards. She didn’t disagree but when I said, “It’s okay, I won’t come back,” she knew my musical offerings to God were more important than her ego in front of the congregation. I got to keep singing.

Art; my Mom taught art skills to my Girl Scout troop for years.  I could tell I wasn’t catching on and I could see by my mother’s demeanor she agreed. Later I was even fired as a florist. The shop couldn’t sell my creations with their “awful” color combinations and you should have heard the art students laugh in college. I laughed too because again and again after being taught a new concept it was obvious my work was a perfect example of what not to do in all facets of the new art principle.

I thought if I wasn’t born with math or spelling skills I was doomed to dumbness. When my teachers insisted I practice I thought they were asking me to CHEAT! After all if an employer asked and could I correctly spell, ‘disappoint’ he would then expect me to spell ‘abject failure’. Those were two words I had not ‘practiced’ 450 times in forth grade.

I’m used to failure and excitably surprised when I like my art and finally I learned I hadn’t been cheating. Perhaps children born with great skills are remarkable but more movies could be made about those who just won’t give up. And by the way I still had to readjust the word, ‘disappoint’ twice for this article. Ha. nancymauerman.com

Self Portrait

This is Mom, my Mom because I married John. On a hot day when John was young he, his older brother, Dad, and Mom when skinny dipping. John remembers she wore underthings in the water then took them off.

Into her late fifties she was still hanging from tree branches by her knees and cartwheeling. In my book Dragon’s Tale Anna talks about reaching a certain grown up age at which all people start growing down to kid sizes then up to grown up size again. As Mom got shorter and shorter she said, “My spirits getting too big for this body.”  nancymauerman.com

Mom In Five Flavors – Framed