Date: Fri, 11 Jul 1997 17:19:46 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: "Aquestion of balance"


note: this is not even a pretense of a poem;-)
_______

This summer has been pretty "intense" for me (more than usual - and i
thought *that* wasn't possible:-)) in various personal/professional
whatever ways - different trajectories coming together - perhaps - in
vaious ways - results of my direct and indirect actions and decisions
these past 16years... but my intention in this post is not to discuss that
- at least not explicitly (i'm sure some of you have read some of this in
my so-called poetry - broken sentences - whatever- to both sa-cyborgs
and women-writing-culture).
   
I am just curious to know how many of us - both men and women - are doing
this balancing act bet. family and work( as if anyone's *not* doing it:-))
- in what way are we not able to perform creatively etc...


I am currently reading a book on "A Question of Balance: Artists and
Writers on Motherhood" ed - Judith Pierce Rosenberg.
But, for me at least, my son - the strength and courage i got from having
to look after him, perhaps (and once again i don't want to go into details
about the last 16years of my life...) - has been quite the *enabling*
force for both my wrting and my professional life, not a deterrent -
although our everyday routine was a little more structured than that of
other graduate students, and we couldn't afford to study late into the
nights or attend study-groups etc because both my husband and I (we were grad
students at the same time - give or take a year) ahd to be home for the
child..


 Anyone feel like unslumbering and
talking?:-)
I know i have lots to say on both mothering and fathering, being a
daughter-in-law (whew! *that* one takes the cake;-)), being a daughter,
being a wife - the pulls of
profession/income-need vs parenting...


______

A quote I can sorta identify with:

"Poetry was always in the interstices of everything else, the nooks and
crannies. It was always time stolen from other responsibilities.
Everything else in my life was being done for someone or something else:
someone needed me to do it or I being paid to do it. Poetry was the one
thing that I did for myself alone with the sense that no one on earth
except myself gave a damn whether I did it or not." - Alicia Suskin
Ostriker - in "A Question of Balance" - ed by J.P. Rosenberg

{and these lists are such wonderfully public nooks and crannies!;-)}   

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http://www.pitt.edu/~gajjala/
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