I’m currently reading a book called Ghosting by Jennie Erdal. It’s about a woman who is a ghostwriter for an interesting and eccentric publisher back in the 80’s/90’s.
Last night I ran across a section in the book where she talks about her husband leaving for an extended (2 month) stint overseas for work. This was back before email and when calling overseas was very expensive. Her children were small and had no well-developed sense of time. So in order to help them understand how long it would be before their father came home she came up with a great idea how to mark the passage of time and also create a meaningful keepsake.
Below I will print the excerpt from Ghosting by Jennie Erdal.
Two months is a long stretch in the lives of young children, and at the start they had found it impossible to imagine the size of so many days and weeks lumped together. To help them get the idea, I acquired a huge roll of paper from a local mill, cut two pieces measuring ten feet by six, stuck them together for extra strength, and bound the edges with strong masking tape. With the help of a long ruler, felt tip pens and six small hands, the sheet was divided into sixty squares, each square representing one day and marked with the date and the day of the week. The children all liked the idea of filling the squares with “something for Daddy” — a poem, a picture, an account of something that happened at school, a message or a short letter that he could read when he got back. I said it could be a sort of diary, a record of what they had been doing or what they had been thinking about when he was away. In a way it would be like speaking to him. I told them they didn’t need to do something every day, just when they wanted to.
The huge paper sheet was pinned up in the kitchen. It stretched from floor to ceiling and took up nearly the whole wall. I explained to the children that for the first few weeks they would have to stand on a stepladder to fill in the squares, but as time went by they would be able to reach without the ladder, just by standing. When they could sit or kneel on the floor to fill in the squares, it would nearly be time for their dad to come back. the wall chart looked intimidating at first, very white and empty, but soon it began to fill up. And as the weeks passed it was transformed into a wonderful specimen of modern graffiti art. There were complex compositions in bold leaning letters or soft curly script, thoughtfully decorated with polka dots or crosshatching; and every so often, great surrealist splashes. Emily, the eldest, filled some squares with more abstract pieces that reminded me of the paintings of Mark Rothko — indeterminate shapes in muted, tender colours.
Isn’t this a fabulous idea? I love it! My son has a small calendar that we cross off every day so he knows which days are school days and which are “stay home days” as the calls them. I love the idea of a big, ginormous wall calendar like the Erdals did to pass the time.
What kinds of things have you done to either mark time or pass time? Tell me your brilliant idea!
Tags: calendar, creative, journal, kids, passing time
I love the idea of an entire-wall calendar! We don’t do anything like this on a daily basis. In fact, it’s been years since I’ve marked time in a special way.
Eighteen years ago my dear twin brother was serving in Operation Desert Storm. I missed him terribly. I bought two dozen medium-sized boxes, and every day of his 12-month deployment I would put something into a box. Some days it was a handwritten letter; some days it was a jar of his favorite iced tea mix; one day it was a harmonica or a set of guitar strings; some days it was a book: some days we made cassette tapes of our messages; some days it was a silly gift like squirt guns or Nerf balls.
Every other Friday, I packaged up a box of love and well wishes and shipped it to Saudi Arabia, where he was stationed with his fellow Marines.
Not only was this fun for him, but it helped me, too, in more ways than you can imagine! Instead of being fearful of his safety and dreading a bleak 12 months without him, I was always on the lookout for box-worthy items, focusing on what would make him feel good. Just thinking back on it now makes me smile! How much grander life is when we focus on others.
Peggy’s last blog post..Einstein’s Folly–Part II
Peggy, this is a great idea for doing something cool without it being overwhelming. And like you said, the beauty of it is that it’s ongoing, so it’s like you’re doing something for that person all the time, because you’re always looking. You get a lot of bang for your buck that way!
Thanks for sharing your idea. It’s great!