Just listened to the This American Life episode, We Didn’t (first broadcast July 12, 1999) which includes an excellent rumination by Geoff Dyer on the subject of procrastination. And here I am, folding laundry when I should be on the phone to the media, But I haven’t folded and put away laundry in so long the heap in our bedroom is comical, spending the last month or two rummaging through clean clothes in hampers to the side of the bed as the heap grows.
Dyer describes how artists have children just so they will have someone to blame for their own inability to write that book, something they never would have accomplished anyway. I know I will never do that. In fact, I used to blame D. for holding me back, if it hadn’t been for D. I would have been such a success in my early to mid 20s.
And yet, it is so clear to me how Toni has encouraged me to accomplish more than I ever would have without her – and I feel I have helped her do more than she would have without me.
And the child. What will the child do? Keep me from directing, or acting, for a very long time. I will need to care for the child while mommy is at work. I don’t even consider resenting that. I think it is something I have always wanted.
Toni has made me feel experiencing life it is own work of art, from visiting museums, to watching people or listening in on their conversations, to watching plants grow and die, to listening to music to beautiful smells, to experiencing stupid roadside attractions. How could sharing that with a child be anything but bliss?
The election is in five days, and we are coming to the end of a great era in American history, at least I think so. An era of tolerance and acceptance.
Clinton's Era did so much that people are painfully ignorant of now, with two major losers running for President - and Nader, who I am voting for, let Gore lose, it's his own fault.
"What?" you might say. "But the early 90s were divisive and full of hate and vitriol, what about Waco, what about the OK City Bombing, what about O.J. and Monica and all the rest?"
Yes, yes, and what about a female Attorney General, one who lasted the administration despite continual calls for her resignation by the fear merchants. What about the female Secretary of State, negotiating Post-Cold War Politics as we know it? What about the Blacks and Latinos and gays who have risen to a level of visibility and prominence and acceptance in the 90s as never before?
Oh no, maybe we shouldn't give Clinton the credit, not personally, but the past eight years have encouraged discussions on hate and love and tolerance and respect - conversations and arguments about things which were never discussed at all in the previous era.
Bring George W. Bush on.
Me and Nick in a promotional photo for Cloud 9Now that "Cloud 9" has opened and I have a little breathing space, I am trying to be a better househusband. Toni goes off for such long days, I need to make sure more and better food is in her bag. She is ill from time to time (she has a little cold right now -- what does that mean?!) but she is also doing a hellish amount of work. I am very proud of her.
