Now this is writing

This. This book is amazing. I am only on page 35 and I am enchanted with the prose.
Will read as slowly as possible so as to savor the words.
Damn, this woman can write.

A writer, on rejection ....

"...And if you do get discouraged or tired, give those hopes and dreams to someone else for a little while, get some rest, then take 'em back and carry on."  ~ Arlo Guthrie

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm." ~ Winston Churchill

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~ Albert Einstein

"I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way." ~ Carl Sandburg

"If you want to be a writer, you have to write every day ... you don't go to a well once but daily."
         ~ Walter Mosley

Some thoughts on racism

 

Batter Up ...Game 4

It is still hard to believe that the Kansas City Royals are in the World Series. We were so bad for so long. Twenty-nine years long.
Last time the boys in blue were playing top ball, I was in the hospital having Laurie. On October 22, 1985, she was born. Hot-shot pitcher Bret Saberhagen's wife was laboring with their first in a neighboring hospital. I do not have specific memories of the I-70 series, as I was a new mom and therefore distracted.
Now, though, it's baseball, baseball, baseball. Our city's fountains are spouting blue. Practically everyone is wearing baseball garb ... the mild October weather is perfect for T-shirts. Strangers in line at QuikTrip are still talking about that heart attack- inducing Wild Card game that sent us to the play-offs with the Los Angeles Anaheim Angels. We swept three games. Going up against the Baltimore Orioles, we swept four. Of course, we swept. We have players Butler and Dyson. LOL
And now here we are, competing in San Francisco, against the Giants. First game, we got spanked (7-1).
Second game, we won (7-2). Last night's full-count score was a sweet victory.
It is true to say that before each game I say a little prayer that our long-suffering baseball team and city will once again rise to the top.
It's been a long time coming.

Boys in Blue!

And the Kansas City Royals just swept the American League Division Series! Incredible ball playing, offensively and defensively. One, two, three games against the Los Angeles Angels. So proud of our boys!

Elizabeth turns 23

On Friday, October 4, 1991, HAS and I welcomed our third child into the world. She came easily-- really, one push, and the labor and delivery was natural--no drugs--and she was born with a thatch of thick black hair, and dark-ish skin (why, she looked Hispanic, or Indian), and my first thought was, How did that happen? I am so white I repel the sun--but then I looked at her sun-tanned father,  he of German descent and progeny of proud Nebraska farmers--and then something glorious and profound happened: my brand-new baby opened her eyes and looked directly at me and smiled--I swear it was a smile-- my mother-in-law and husband witnessed it--and I knew at once she was mine and I was hers.
I am so in love with you, she told me, just last night, over her requested birthday dinner of live lobster (cooked), shrimp, boiled potatoes and corn, mint cheesecake for dessert (her sis made it: profanely delicious).
I am so in love with you, I said in return.

My Elizabeth, pictured here with my favorite son.

We looked directly at each other, twenty-three years after our initial contact.
She is mine, and I am hers.
#mamalove

On reading to your children

The Story of Ferdinand the Bull

by Matt Mason

Dad would come home after too long at work
and I'd sit on his lap to hear
the story of Ferdinand the Bull; every night,
me handing him the red book until I knew
every word, couldn't read,
just recite along with drawings
of a gentle bull, frustrated matadors,
the all-important bee, and flowers—
flowers in meadows and flowers
thrown by the Spanish ladies.
Its lesson, really,
about not being what you're born into
but what you're born to be,
even if that means
not caring about the capes they wave in your face
or the spears they cut into your shoulders.
And Dad, wonderful Dad, came home
after too long at work
and read to me
the same story every night
until I knew every word, couldn't read,
just recite.