Margaret's Bench -- December 2006
I’ve been a writer ever since I could read, and I’ve been a
thief ever since I could write.
In the first grade, I was publicly unmasked as a plagiarist
during show and tell when I tried to pass off a story from
Highlights magazine as my own.
I learned my lesson, and I’ve never been exposed as a plagiarist
since. But as a writer I continue to steal. Steal insights and
techniques from other people’s work. Steal bits and pieces of
other people’s lives when they bump into mine and strike a
spark. These days, my favorite source for stolen text is the
Bible. Fruitful material, strong language, and best of all,
nobody’s going to call me a plagiarist for lifting its lines.
I left the Protestant church of my childhood when I left home
for college and stayed away for a quarter of a century. Since
returning to church in my middle years, I’ve been drawn to write
pieces of liturgy for use in my home Episcopal parish.
Meditations for the Stations of the Cross. Litanies or Prayers
of the People for special services.
Learning the traditions and disciplines of these age-old forms,
I found that plagiarism from my favorite source (the Bible)
wasn’t just condoned – it was positively encouraged! I had come
home.
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This photo was
taken in a small public courtyard in Walla Walla,
Washington, on a trip to visit our nephew Kern at
Whitman College. |
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In the Courtyard is a place for this work to be shared
with the world. And because liturgy’s spirit and energy comes
from the matters of everyday life as well as from scripture and
tradition, the courtyard is also a place where I can sit here at
Margaret’s Bench and share my stumbles and discoveries along the
road.
Here the issue of writer as thief comes back – a thief who
steals from other people’s lives. Bumping into other human
beings, feeling the sparks strike, trying to understand how
relationship breaks and how it’s made whole – that can be a way
of prayer as much as any litany.
What turns the threads of everyday life into woven prayer? I
think the work can be as simple – and as difficult – as paying
attention. Month by month, I’ll post my own weavings on this
page, prayers of attention to our world.
Welcome to the courtyard. I hope we meet here again.
--
Margaret D. McGee
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