The Story behind Black Beachballs...
The idea for Black Beachballs began with picking up a children's book to narrate the internal dialogue of a reader.
I flipped to a random page and began reading - pausing to make my thinking visible.
The page I read was a letter written by a black crayon complaining that he was tired of outlining things for everyone else - tired of being used only in the expected ways.
Something about that stayed with me.
Because that's what happens in writing too.
Students are often taught to follow intellectual colour palettes that already exist:
Use this structure.
Use this phrase.
Use this interpretation.
Write it this way.
But real thinking rarely happens that way.
Real thinking often begins the moment you notice something unexpected:
a strange connection,
an unusual question,
an interpretation no one handed to you,
a "Why do we do it this way?" moment.
A black beachball.
Not because it's rebellious for the sake of rebellion -
but because someone finally stopped assuming beachballs could only come in certain colours.
That moment matters.
Because once you realize you can choose the colour yourself, you being interacting with ideas differently too.
A thought to take with you...
Strong writing is rarely the result of perfectly following instructions.
More often, it's the result of noticing something - pausing - and taking a moment to sit with your thoughts.
The record of observation and the reflection that follows become the essay. And, that's the difference between an interesting and insightful essay and one that repeats back what was read -
the first writer asked, What do I notice here? and the latter, What did I read?
Black beachballs is a reminder that thoughtfulness happens in the pauses between the words we read and the thoughts we sit with.
