Hungry Minds

I think that the title itself draws attention to the article. I thought that first and foremost the mere fact that this was all taking place in a church. I know of many churches around my home that incorporate soup kitchens during the day. It's comforting to know that things like this go on in many major cities such as New York. I said in the beginning that the title intrigued me because I didn't know where the writing was going. Being hungry is a terrible feeling, but I think that the author was trying to convey that being hungry to write is just as important/noticeable as being hungry for food. When I first started reading about the writer's workshop that was being held there I honestly found myself, ashamed, stereotyping those who would be going to a soup kitchen. Normally we think of homeless people, or even people in need of a free meal like that as being unintelligent. However, that really isn't the case at all. The author recalls so many stories of the people who came in and out of the workshops and the impressions their writings had. One point in this piece really stuck out to me: "In the workshop’s fourteen years, several participants have died. Pierce, a tall, white-haired man with bushy black eyebrows, was a volunteer at the soup kitchen. Almost every piece he wrote centered on the most important moment in his life—when he attempted suicide by jumping into the East River. After police pulled him out, he quit drinking; many of his pieces ended, “One day at a time.” A few years ago when the workshop reconvened, we learned that Pierce had died of a heart attack not long before." Even a man like this had such an impact on Frazier. We don't know what is going on with other people in their lives, but Pierce had the opportunity to showcase it to everyone by writing and sharing his work. His life changed because of it, and I want to think that this may have saved him slightly before his time to die had come.

I personally knew a man one time who was homeless for 4 years. The man was a local at our Taco Bell and he always sat outside. He never asked you for money or food, but one time he did ask me for a pen and a notebook. Most of the time I went to Taco Bell right after school. Tim was sitting there one day when he asked me, and I happened to have my book bag in my car. I got out a notebook that hadn't been used yet, and I gave him a pen and pencil. I asked him why he would want such a thing and he brought out, from his trash bag, and old tattered notebook and handed it to me. Page to page was filled with writings. This particularly was a journal he had been keeping. Tim told me he wrote in it everyday. When I asked why he simply said "I have a life too, and maybe one day someone will want to hear about it." I never really thought about that day until reading this article.

Everyone has a voice. Today's society lends us the opportunity to have it heard. Right now for instance I am writing on a blog that the entire world could view if they wanted to do so. Another form of writing is graffiti which almost anyone can do as well. We all have voices, and that is what I think this particular writing is telling us. The great thing is that it's real. There really is this opportunity that has been given to so many to have their voices heard throughout a room full of people who truly are going to support them. Below is a video of a writing workshop being used in a very young classroom. It goes to show that with the right preparation and state of mind, anyone willing can learn. I think it's a great video to showcase the variety of ways this concept can be used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi9hkwvF2Dg