The sound of one wheel squeaking: DAY IN THE LIFE

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Sirenland

My son just woke up from his nap and is sitting on my lap as I type this. So much for all the work I was going to get done. Not that I'm complaining, but let me share: he also forced me to watch "The Grinch who stole Christmas" this morning and just said, "I am the mommy and I know what to do." (direct quote.) So you can see I have my hands full.

But I can't wait to read everyone's writing.

Jack now insists I am misquoting him and wants to say 'hi': yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyjjjjjjjjjjjjjmmmmmmmm
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qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
qqqqqqqqqqqxxxxxxmmmmmmkkkkkkkkkkhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhh

THE Who/What/When/Where/Why/How

The WHO is Erin Ryan Burdette. The WHERE is Dallas, Texas, geographically speaking, but metaphorically? In my head, my heart, my 40-year-old wisdom and/or stupidity which has led me to this WHY. WHY? Because I like it! Like WHAT? Being a mother, a writer, and even an accidental activist who has somehow inhabited my body. In the wake of the current public education crisis in our country, specifically Dallas, where the school system is teetering on the edge of a $150M budget cut, leveled at teachers. But before I go there, which is its own WHERE, I shall tackle HOW. How? By the seat of my pants, the skin of my teeth, the words that like to tumble pell mell from my mouth. This is my truth. Nothing more, nothing less. One woman's account of how to do herself proud as wife, mother, writer, citizen, human being. Realizing our squeaky wheel is sometimes all we have to get ourselves heard. So cover your ears and your eyes, then, or what the hell, give it a listen.

Some favorite quotes

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect, but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." - Carl Gustav Jung "Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to combe back a short distance correctly." - Edward Albee "I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil." - Truman Capote "All good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath." - F. Scott Fitzgerald "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing." - Benjamin Franklin "Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself." - Tennessee Williams "You should go on stage as if to a hot date, not as if to give blood." - David Mamet "The truth in any genre never finds us unless we scrabble and peck and dig and reverse ourselves and undermine the easy truths we tend to swallow." - Mary Karr

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Thursday, March 1, 2007

Sirenland