Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 09:52:14 -0700
From: Alpana Knippling <ask-AT-unlinfo.unl.edu>
Subject: Re: "Aquestion of balance"


After "slumbering" for a long time--roughly since my baby girl was born
in June 1996--I awoke to Radhika's request to share experiences of
juggling personal and professional lives. Please read on only if you're
interested in the topic because the topic has sparked my interest in a
way that may seem to make me ramble. . .
Unfortunately I don't have the outlet of poetry, though reading and
cooking have been serving me well as a kind of release from all the
pressures. But I am still reeling from the amount of work involved in
being a full-time mother while holding down a full-time job teaching.
Fall 1996 was spent pumping milk between classes--at least I had my own
office!--then rushing to daycare and rushing home. I came up for tenure
the same semester and had to complete a few writing deadlines. Now
things are better although extra teaching this summer has taken its own
toll. I don't seem to have any time off.
It helped to hear Toni Morrison (I played a video of her interview w/
Bill Moyers in one of my classes last week) talk about how she felt her
children asked of her things no one else did, that she was the only one
who could provide these needs, that they looked to her to be the kind of
person she deep down really wanted to be. I feel the same way abt my
baby girl, esp. having myself experienced all of the lack of care and
attention typically given to unwanted girl babies in India.
Incidentally, this is another thread I'd like to hear people talk about
maybe from their personal experience--the neglect of girl children. 
Thanks for getting me to think aloud about these things, Radhika!
Alpana Knippling
  
bhaatasari wrote:
> 
> 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).