Shutter Sisters

Friday’s Featured Resource – Vision and Verb

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It was a time of hope and innocence. A time when the cries of love and peace rang louder than the thunder of distant war. We wore bell-bottom jeans and mini-skirts and long strings of beads. We rocked to the music of The Beatles, the Grateful Dead, the Rolling Stones and rapped to the rhythm of  the Motown beat. We ate cheeseburgers and fries and malt shakes. For under $1.00 we got to experience Mary Poppins in the big screen theater. We were Sesame Street’s first audience, and loved Mr. Rogers. We adored the Brady Bunch and dreamed of being as strong and  independent as Mary Tyler Moore. We played hopscotch and four-square and ran free as can be. When the first giant step for mankind was taken on the moon, we cheered. We cried when John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated. We were champions of equal rights. We were daughters of the feminist and sexual revolution. We believed that we could pursue our dreams and become whoever we wished and hoped to be.

We talked on hard-wired telephones with old-fashioned rings and busy signals. We listened to music that was recorded on long-playing records. Mail was delivered by our local mailmen and dropped in boxes by our front door. Dinner left over from the previous night was reheated in a conventional oven. The television that we watched was restricted to three local channels and rendered only  in black and white. The ‘Land of Oz’ what we knew, wasn’t brought to us in Technicolor.

We were girls of the 60’s.  We knew only what we knew and never imagined how the world might change.

Some  went to college, and pursued their professional dreams. Some got married. Some did not. Some had children. Others never had the desire or the need. Children grew. Marriages changed. Professions that once looked so glamorous and exciting turn out to be not quite as they’d initially appeared. That single solitary bar to which we’d clung so tight no longer felt quite as solid nor as secure. What we believed would fill and fulfill didn’t quite.

We are now of ‘that’ age. Not quite old enough to be truly wise, not young enough to be that innocent and naïve. Each on our own creative path and journey we stretch, we reach out, we look up to the sky in hopes for some sort of divine intervention and inspiration. Searching for our creative voice and style and coming from all parts of the world  we bravely put ourselves out there on this great world wide web, where anything and everything is possible. A universe that was once confined to our immediate surrounds opened itself to our searching fingertips. We believed.

Found through our shared but unique histories and our creative passions we connected. We’ve never met or talked live or in person.  We know nothing about each other’s daily lives.  We join our collaborative and collective forces and find a shared canvas on which to paint. Each in her own voice. Each in her own authentic style. We write. We photograph. We make sense and stories out of our lives.

We talk by email. Our music comes to us on MP3’s. We re-heat last night’s dinners in microwave ovens. And the television we watch is in full color and broadcast worldwide. The children we once were, we are no longer. The world that once  was, has changed. The bar we now swing from is longer and more far-reaching. We’ve grown. We’ve evolved. We have come to believe that we are better versions of ourselves than the ones we once were.

Still full of hope. Still believing that the sounds of peace and love will drown out those rumbles of distant war.

We are women of a ‘certain age’. Reconnected.

We are delighted that Marcie Scudder shared this guest post with us on behalf of she and her co-creator  Toni Johnson and the rest of the amazing contributors at their brand new blog Vision and Verb. Go girls!

Comments

  1. Wonderful post, Marcie and as I said the other day, it’s good to see more of you through your words having been a fan of your photography for quite some time. Born in 1960, I can so identify with everything you’ve said here and it’s nice to see a new blog that seems well suited to me.

    The vision and verb site is a great idea … well done!

  2. Thank you Marcie, for expressing so wonderfully how our world, and our perspective, has changed so much. Like Elizabeth, I’m enjoying getting to know you through your words as well as your wonderful images!

  4. Great post, thank you! Spent a few minutes on "Vision and Verb" and found it intriguing. Appreciate the link.

  5. I’ve just started reading this blog and yet this morning I feel like it was written for me! I think I’m going to like this place. Thank you.

  6. Oh my gosh. Marcie, I have chills, I have tears, my heart if full. What a wonderful essay and a wonderful introduction to this fantastic collaboration that I am so absolutely proud to be a part of. Incredible!

  7. i’m looking forward to following your blog — i too am a child of that era — born in 1958 — and it’s true that, in the words of the famous ad, we’ve" come a long way, baby."

  10. No wonder you were called to start V&V, Marcie. Every ounce of your being opens the door to Vision and to Verb, inspiring it in us by example, a Voice crying out in the Wilderness and preparing the way. It really doesn’t get much better than this, truly!

  12. what a beautiful tribute to our shared project marcie! i can’t tell you how gratifying it is to have found a group of women who have decades worth of life’s experiences to share. it is very exciting to me to be an integral part of this project and i thank you for your inspiration and encouragement.

  14. Somewhere through reading this I began to cry. Out loud. Real tears, and I thanked my lucky stars that only the cat was here to hear. I think this made it real to me, made me feel that I am really part of something bigger than me, made me understand why, made me feel happy & privileged to travel this road with you and the others. I like to think of us as holding hands across the internet. Thank you so much.

  16. You brought me to tears once again, Marcie. Yes, so much hope back then and now as well. Perhaps this is what "our time" gave us…. the belief that all possibilities will always be open to us and that we can truly make a difference. We are indeed, a privileged generation.

  17. I’ve been looking for a place on the web that speaks to "women of a certain age" with a creative bent…thanks.

  18. Beautifully said! I am also of that certain age. It’s nice to have a place to gather…so many online communities are made up of young mothers in the early stages of raising children. Not so many for us in the middle stages of life. I look forward to it–thanks for spreading the word!

  20. This made my heart beat quickly. It really is real, we’re doing it! I am so proud to be a part of Vision and Verb. Marcie, Toni and to everyone else involved – you rock! We rock.

  24. i love everything about this. your words, photos, this project. i really enjoyed reading this today.

    this post also reminds me of a book i read recently "Wednesday Sisters" and how time changed, and we did along with it… it’s beautiful to document the journey along the way. thanks for sharing!