PROMPTED TO POST | THE NAME GAME | KNOW & TELL
Meet Maribelle
Anatomy of Her Acronym
So excited to have Maribel join us. She's new around here, but an old friend in real life. Her first hurdle is connecting with 100 followers. Hoping our family will help her get there. Toni Greathouse ←🆘Sista Offering Support
Who my acronym says I am:
Mensch Alter Ego Ride or Die Indefatigable Becoming Eclectic Love Listening Entire
Mensch = I was honored to be designated a “mensch” by my dearly departed friend and mentor Ernie, a World War 2 veteran and D-day survivor who lost his parents to the Holocaust. A lifelong bachelor, Ernie entertained me in the twilight of his life with his vignettes of pre-communist Cuba, cattle herding in Alsace, and dance halls in the south side of Chicago. When I visited he’d ask “what did you write this week?”, sliding his thick glasses up to the bridge of his nose to read the paragraphs I was working on. “Not bad!” he’d say with a smile, after offering his critique. “Keep going!”
Alter Ego = Where does the writer end and the character begin? Storytelling happens through the prism of experience. I’ve had my share.
Ride or Die = Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around, and desert you…Rickrolling aside, The immortal words of Rick Astley demonstrate the Ride or Die principle: loyalty to your tribe through thick and thin. I unapologetically have my tribe’s back.
Indefatigable = I unexpectedly became a parent to my sister’s two children when she was murdered by her husband. The relationship we have forged while processing their mother’s tragic death has been healing for us all. Stepping into the role made me into a fierce advocate for domestic abuse survivors, and inspired me to start my own non-profit, named in honor of my sister: Liz’s Ark.
Becoming = has two definitions. As an adjective: Pleasing to the eye. As a noun: a process of change. As I hone my craft, I am becoming the writer I know I was born to be and producing works that are becoming to the eye.
Eclectic = I’m fascinated by diversity in ideas, people and cultures. I don’t need to agree with something to appreciate and write about it.
Love = The older I get the more I understand Jesus’ words that the kingdom of God is within. Embodying love is what Jesus taught and lived. The inner state matches the 3D perfectly. The universe aligns with vibration.
Listening = “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” This summer I made the pilgrimage to Key West to visit the home that Hemingway lived in when he wrote my favorite short story, The Snows of Kilimanjaro. After a day’s labor of writing, he would loiter at the bars and listen to fish tales as he enjoyed a drink. To honor the space to listen is one of the things I like the best about myself.
Entire = I have everything and nothing is lacking. I am a Child of God.
WHAT will you be writing about on Everything Fun?
I am writing serialized fiction from the perspective of a cat. I write what I would like to read. Stories with heart. The protagonist is a polydactyl cat named Tiki. He’s an alpha, Tiki has an attitude problem. The first installment will be published on Everything Fun on Wednesday, December 14th. Please look for them bi-monthly. The Christmas story will arrive on Wednesday, December 21st.
Tiki has an elevated opinion of himself because he descended from the family of cats owned by Ernest Hemingway during his years living in Key West, Florida. The story is about Tiki’s antics to eliminate any suitors that stand between him and his main squeeze, his mom/girlfriend/owner and dedicated servant Betty.
WHEN did I start writing?
I started writing when I was five, I think. I was fascinated with mythological creatures and would write about encountering them as I walked to school, or said my prayers before bed. I may have planted the seed of this experience as I am pretty sure I saw a Bigfoot in California.
WHERE am I located?
I slit my time between Illinois and Palm Beach County in Florida.
HOW do I Create?
I’m an introvert. I like to write in silence, on my couch. Second place goes to the pier at Juno beach, for as long as my laptop battery lasts.
WHY did you choose to write on Medium?
When I first met Toni Greathouse many years ago through her “Tuesdays With Toni” book club, at the Fountaindale Public Library, she encouraged all of us to write because she said almost all readers want to be writers.
I was in between jobs, volunteering and working with the USO and the elderly. One book club meeting Toni took out a timer and asked the members to participate in a writing exercise. The group really like my story.
Since that day Toni has been telling me that I’m a natural. She pulled me in on a project for the State of Illinois in 2018. She designed coloring pages for the State’s 200th anniversary and I wrote the articles that went with them.
Toni describes writing as my “gift” and “raison d’etre,” and invited me to write on this platform. Toni inspires me more than she will ever know.
Thank you, Hollie Petit, Ph.D.
