Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world.

Special Treat – From Me!

August 17, 2006

I Forgot

Carol Roach

I am not usually like this; I don’t forget to answer surveys and questionnaires.  In fact I just love to do them.  I love when people want to know about me or about my opinions.  Does it make me feel self important? Well maybe just a tad, but more importantly it makes me feel significant, it makes me feel like somebody somewhere wants to know something about me or about what I think and what I feel.  Hence the teacher and the writer, and the historian in me are fulfilled.

As you know already, the writer in me means that I must pour out my soul onto paper.  I write about my life, the good parts and the bad.  I write about the people I meet and how they have affected my world.  I write about my feelings, my heart’s desire.  I pour my soul out, I open myself up, I expose all – and I enjoy doing it.   Writing is as much a part of me as breathing.  Writing is the essence of who I am.

Similarly I am a counselor/therapist and teacher.  If there is anything that I have learned that can be of value to another I must write about it. I can teach about it or I can express it in such a way as to promote my own personal experience and let the readers decipher, understand, and learn from it – in other words take from my writing what they will and apply it to their own personal experience.  I prefer this style.  Milton Erickson, renowned psychiatrist and hypnotherapist used the telling of stories and antidotes as a preferred method of therapy.  What I like about this style of writing is that I tell my personal story. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I allow my readers to decide for themselves what is right for them and if in the process they have a personal insight or have gained some useful information to make their lives just a tiny bit better then I am happy. I have done something significant in my life. 

So having said all that, I enjoy questionnaires and surveys. I do as many as I can get my hands on.  I fill them out and I think how I am helping the marketers target markets for their product.  I may even help create a better product in the process.  I fill out surveys with the intention of furthering science and in turn making the human experience better.  Last, but not least I fill out surveys to help the government create a better environment for myself and more importantly for my grandchildren who will reap the benefits long before I ever will.

Then how could I forget?  How could I forget to complete the 2006 census? It is just not like me.  The historian in me realizes the important of these surveys.  I watched my friend Dorothy, a Montreal historian succumb to pure elation when the census of the turn of the century (1908) was finally released so she could have access to such important information for her book about Blacks in Montreal.  This information was more valuable than gold to her. Just imagine having to wait 96 years before census information can become public domain and then you can begin to appreciate her excitement.

Yet I forgot.  Actually I don’t even remember receiving the census form back in May.  I was busy with school, editing my book and running my newsletter and the whole census issue just slipped my mind. Friday night there was a banging at my door.  I didn’t bother to answer it; I wasn’t expecting anyone and I didn’t feel like company.  Later when I did go to the door I had a letter in my mailbox.  The field supervisor for Census Canada came by.  The letter informed me that I had not sent in my census form and failure to do so would result in a $500. Penalty, three months in prison, or both.  Saturday morning I completed my census form online.  I doubt if I will ever forget to do it again.

Carol Roach

winterose@videotron.ca

A Native of Montreal, Quebec, Carol is a graduate of Concordia, and McGill University.  She holds a bachelor in psychology and a Masters in counselling psychology.  Carol Roach is a published writer and newsletter editor.  You can purchase her book: Picking up the Pieces: A Woman's Journey at www.publishamerica.com, or www.amazon.com.  You can also go to your local bookstore and order it there as well.  Be sure to quote the isbn number: 1-4137-1921-X for local purchases:  Carol’s second book: Angels Watching Over is currently looking for a home. Stay tuned for details. 

If you are interested in other stories feel free to join her newsletter: Storytime Tapestry at: http://subs.zinester.com/98907 , or email her directly at winterose@videotron.ca and she will be glad to accommodate you.  Carol enjoys email and responds to every inquiry.