Finding our voice, words we relish and remembrance
Stephen Pearson-Jacklin reflects on the Norwich WT Group Meeting.
The refectory at the Anglican Cathedral in Norwich is always a busy, bustling place. Especially on Saturdays; and even with a cool wind whipping up the Fine City. Today was no exception and it was only hearty waving arms from Jeni Smith and Mark at the furthest table that caught my eye and helped me find my seat with the group. Three of us made it this month, with others either delayed or waylaid by teaching and other commitments. Before we could begin proper, all fell silent for the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The dozen-strong queue for coffee and cake stood still. People outside and in, amidst conversation and everyday life, paused to reflect on conflicts past and present. Some stood at their tables. Of course, afterwards the three of us then shared stories of ancestors and living relatives who served, or are serving as well as our awareness of the world around us: conflict, change, upheaval and turmoil. Once the hustle and bustle resumed, the little minute’s peace and quiet seemed all the more poignant. All the more important.
Of course, Jeni always arrives at WT events armed with a plethora of ideas and activities. We almost always start by writing words - I’d been thinking of these in the car and on the walk up from the multi-storey - but the theme this time was words you frequently use, words you relish. Occupation, sleep, kitten, place, journal were some of those on my mind: the first relating to Remembrance and teaching. We wrote more, full sentences this time, on the theme, ‘I am from…’ Jeni and I keeping mostly to the structure of starting sentences in that way. Mark made a list. We told of links to other parts of the country, the influences family and friends have had upon us. The effect that teaching has had upon us. Our own occupation, it seemed, had taken a heavy toll on us and we pondered on the flux of people either leaving or thinking about leaving teaching.
After much ruminating, we pondered a ‘What if…’ - what if we had led a different life? Had a different name, a different career, what if we or our ancestors had made different choices? There was the writer who had not pursued teaching, but had become an author and journalist instead. Highs and lows, of course, humour and horror but an adventure and a vignette of another life. There was James (aka me) who was rally driving through an Alpine forest, as far away from teaching and education as perhaps one can be. There was the grandmother who had led another life and not married grandfather. A more romantic, dreamy story than crashing through woods at breakneck speed or the (mis)adventures of said journalist. We reflected on how we’d written the stories, just as we had on the different ways all three had approached the ‘voice’ activity beforehand. On hearing the story of the grandparents who had not married each other, I reflected back to my own grandfather who I always understood had wanted to stay in the army and not return home after the War. In that scenario, my own grandparents may have not married each other either. An entirely different ‘What if,’ and a different voice I would have had, had I been here at all! WT often serves up curve-balls like that, as inevitably one thought arises from another or from the way in which someone else has approached their writing. As unnerved as I was by the realisation that there are probably millions of circumstances by which I would not be here today, and again millions more by which I would not have my present voice and identity, there is always comfort in Writing Teachers sessions in hearing the words of others and in knowing that there is freedom in what we compose. No pressures from the curriculum or from ways of doing things.
Writing, remembering and reflecting always have an impact on me, and I’m sobered by that as much now as I was twelve years ago when I first began attending Writing Teachers’ meetings. As I sit here now, I wonder what we might have talked or written about if the date had not been 11.11 and the time not 11am, even if we’d had the same prompts. I’m pretty sure I’d have still written about wanting to be a rally driver, and would still have thought about my cousin who wanted to be a fire engine or a police dog (now there’s something to write about!). My cousin who is now, somewhere, out there in a submarine. Now that’s about as far from teaching as you can get!
Have you ever pondered what if…? Have you ever thought about where your voice is from? What are the words you relish, that you use frequently? Have you ever pondered on a why, or taken a pause?
>> The next Writing Teachers’/NWP Norwich Group meeting will be at 10:30am on Saturday, 2nd December 2023 in the refectory at Norwich (Anglican/C of E) Cathedral. Sat Nav = 65 The Cl, Norwich NR1 4DH.
Parking: St Andrew’s Multi-Storey (9 mins), St Helen’s Wharf (10 mins), Rose Lane Multi-Storey (10 mins). There is very limited parking within the Cathedral grounds itself.
By Rail: Norwich Cathedral is a 12 min walk (approx) from Norwich Railway Station.
By Bus: please use public bus stops in Magdalen Street and Tombland from Norwich Bus Station and other directions/routes. If arriving by Park & Ride, Norwich Cathedral is a short (6-8 min) walk from Castle Meadow bus stops.
