JOY ALONG THE WAY: OUTLINING SUMMER OR GOING WITH THE FLOW

There are three ways of approaching summer -- organized, going with the flow or a mixture of the two. I'm prepared for each but mostly going with the flow.

Maybelle Sheppard, one of my high school teachers, loved to instruct us in how to make outlines: how to outline an essay, how to outline our week's work, how to outline and coordinate our wardrobes. She could outline everything, impressively. However, I don't remember her using the wardrobe as an example. We were coming, swiftly, upon the Depression and gave little thought to what went well with what. We were glad just to have what.

"First," she instructed, "you begin with a main idea or thesis. It's good to put that main idea into a sentence form rather than just one word. (I'm paraphrasing Miss Maybelle's instructions as I remember them). For all I know, near the end of the school year she might have used as an example of a main idea, "How I'm going to make this the best summer I've ever had." She would write that on the blackboard. A cluster of curls fastened somehow at the crown of her head bobbed up and down, distracting my attention. I wished they were mine.

"Then," Miss M. might have gone on, "you indent. You know what indent is, don't you?" The curls bobbed around as she showed us, on the blackboard, what indent meant. "You indent five spaces and write a Roman numeral I. It is made like a capital I, in case you don't remember. You may write here, after Roman numeral I, 'Enjoy the present moment.' That is your first main idea. Then under this statement you may indent again, three spaces and make statements labeled A.B.C., etc. These will be your subordinate ideas." She chalked an "A" on the blackboard and bobbed around to ask if we had any ideas. None of us did. It was getting near the noon hour.

"Well, under 'A' you may list: Stay Healthy. And then you indent again, three spaces and list the way you intend to stay healthy as: (a) Eat right. Notice the parenthesis and the small 'a.' Then, indenting again, and in Arabic numbers list such things as 1. Eat apples. 2. Eat green beans, 3. Eat squash. Etc."

Have I lost you, readers? I think I've lost myself just as I did under Miss Maybelle's intensive determination to teach us how to outline and those lovely bobbing curls.

Using Miss M's hypothetical main idea, "How I'm going to make this the best summer ever," I'm not thinking of making a formal outline. Oh, there may be some A., B. and C's such as The Olympics, the Republican Convention, The Democratic Convention and under them (a), (b), and (c), Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego.

Should a rainstorm knock out TV just as the USA's long jumper is about to win, I'll (1) go outside to sit in the porch swing and listen to the rain splattering on the awnings, feel the fine mist of it in my face, hear the silencing of the birds and then their tentative songs again as the rain ceases, (2) go see what new things have sprung up in the hedgerow, (3) go down to the creek side to imagine where the planned hiking and biking trail will cross on a NEW FOOT BRIDGE!

Take heart, Troll, wherever you are. Maybe beneath this bridge you can again find a suitable home. How silvery clear the meadowlarks sing after the rain, and look, there's a robin taking a bath in a new rain puddle. Suddenly, going with the flow, ABC's turn into (a), (b), and (c's) and the fragrance of honeysuckle in the hedgerow, flight of a bumblebee, taste of sheep sorrel are elevated to main ideas rather than subordinates. Who will win the long jump and who will be the vice presidential candidates are still there, somewhere in the mixture, but they will have to go with the flow.

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.