Happy Free Thinkers Day!

That's today. And I'm a free thinker. It's exhilarating to finally, proudly, identify with this. I spent so much of my life wondering things like: What's wrong with my coloring the sky green? Why do I have to write inside that stupid little box? Why did they invent a form for this when it's so much nicer to make up new words? Why am I the only one here wearing a hat? Why do I have to use white lined paper instead of lavender cardstock? Why would I ever give anyone a greeting card purchased rather than made? Who are these bestbuyers buying the bestsellers, when I always seem to be reading something quirky, rare or old? What is fashion, if not my own invention?

I think most of us were once freethinkers. Children have their own voices, styles, ideas. Yet we hammer our inner children into submission, and habitualize ourselves into thinking "normally."

Something amazing happens in Wildfire Writing class. My students, of all ages, rediscover that original, unmatched, freethinking kid inside. And they begin to play. They give themselves permission to be different. At last: freedom. The freedom to think.

Write about a rule you've always resisted, and how, perhaps, this might be a wonderful thing.

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