I enjoy memoir-ing in small snippets. This snippet is part of my on-going series called Recollecting and Wondering. It was prompted by the Writing for Children course I’m taking. Our teacher, Erin Entrada Kelly, asked us to recall the nonfiction in our lives when we were children, and asked us to consider what topic(s) we’d like to write about now that we’re adults.
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As a young child, I was fascinated by archaeology. When I was 7, I saw the traveling exhibit of King Tutankhamun in Los Angeles, and I was riveted. I also went to the La Brea Tar Pits as often as possible and I subscribed to Archaeology magazine. The excavation and interpretation of the past captivated me.
As a teenager, I volunteered for the Orange County Natural History Foundation (we dug locally in sites that yielded marine fossils ~ so this was paleontology). I cleaned and identified fossils and I was a docent in our tiny museum. Jean Auel, the author of The Clan of the Cave Bear, came to our museum for a public reading and discussion when I was 14. She recruited the fossil record to serve her imagination. I wondered how much care she took in sticking to the facts. “Science first!” was my motto.
I also subscribed to National Geographic World Magazine in the 1970s and early 80s, a wonderful publication for kids that has since changed its name to National Geographic Kids. I enjoyed reading the scientific writing about new discoveries being made. There were amazing photographs on every page. I recall one article about a sculptor who used a microscope and small tools, perhaps a laser, to carve elaborate scenes into strands of hair ~ inside the dang strands ~ whew! And on the back cover of each issue was a matrix of nine photos of seemingly unidentifiable things ~ unidentifiable because the photos were so zoomed-in that you couldn't recognize the features of say, a watermelon, a marble, a leaf, etc. The contents of each photo were revealed in tiny print along the edge and I tried my best to identify each photo before checking to see what it actually was.
This particular childhood reading experience connects to the present in this way: I would choose to write about fractals in nature. My friend and I have a plan to write a book for children about fractals, those repeating patterns in flowers, leaves, shells, snowflakes, Romanesco broccoli, etc. It's fun to write about math and science and to share knowledge of patterns in the world around us. There are so many reasons to love math, but elementary children often find math boring. So, I’d like to write about the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci Sequence and connect young readers to math-in-the-world-around-them as they eat dinner, take a walk in the forest, or go beach-combing.
As I look back, I understand that my interest in scientific discoveries has not stopped, but I have focused on a different scientific branch as an adult. In college, I veered away from natural science and hunkered down in social science where I studied cultural anthropology and education. Then, in grad school, I conducted empirical research into how we discover and enhance our voices (during composing, revising, and providing commentary to others).
What has remained consistent over the course of my life is that I love searching for, excavating, and examining beautiful truths. I also enjoy sharing truths with others, as well as taking interest in – and promoting the discoveries…and voices of – others.
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I have exciting news to share: You can now read Diana Says in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.