Reciprocation . . . five syllables . . . a word which has importance for anyone in this writing business . . . hell, for anyone in life.
Let me tell you a story.
We moved into our new home on 18th Street in Tacoma, Washington when I was five years old. My parents were seven years removed from Charles City, Iowa, a small farming town where seemingly everyone knew everyone else. There wasn’t much privacy in Charles City, but there also wasn’t much isolation either. If you needed help, help arrived in that town. Building a shed was a neighborhood occurrence back then . . . it’s just the way things were.
So when my parents moved us into this new neighborhood, my dad did what he was accustomed to doing: he helped neighbors with their chores. He would shovel walks for Mr. and Mrs. Conrad next door when it snowed. He would help load trash onto trailers when a neighbor was cleaning out a garage. It’s just the way my dad was wired. He didn’t mind doing it. Mom was the same. Someone sick? She was there at their door with a freshly-cooked meal, offering to run to the store if they needed anything.
So after about a year, dad decided to build a cement retaining wall separating our back yard with the empty lot next door. It was a big undertaking, one which would easily take him a couple months of hard labor after he got home each day from work.
The Saturday arrived when he was going to start this project. He got his tools together, ran to the hardware store to pick up things he would need, and came home to a group of ten neighbors who were waiting for him. They had come to help. They all had their tools, they were all dressed in work clothes, and a one-man job became an eleven-man job that morning and every evening until the job was completed eight days later.
That’s just the way things were back then.
And that’s what I’ve noticed, for the most part, in the writing community. Reciprocation . .. friends helping friend . . . friends sharing the work of others . . . friends commenting on articles and blogs . . . reciprocation, only five syllables but a ton of importance.
Bill
“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”
Billybuc
Artistry With Words 