New Project

Now that I tweet on Twitter and put updates on Facebook, I'm not nearly as good about blogging... (my publicist has found the coolest application that allows me to do all those sites through one place...)

But I've started a project that's worthy of a blog... Karen Althage, a breast cancer survivor, approached me about writing her story. She's amazing, and she's given me the motivation to write about something important, and something that ALL of us need to support. After several months of interviewing her, I participated in a "breast casting" event on Sunday that is exactly what it sounds like; women from Columbia came together to have their breasts immortalized in plaster of paris, and then artists from around the area will paint them. The final products will be sold at an art show in October. Many of the women have been touched by breast cancer in some way, and some were even breast cancer survivors themselves. It was amazing, and it puts life in perspective to see women embrace their lives, their futures when faced with such a challenge. It puts the pettiness of other things out on a limb and reminds us to focus on the tree, on the trunk, and those closest to us.

Karen and some other women are founders of the Vincent P. Gurucharri Foundation, complete with Karen doing a video for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and helping organize a fundraiser that had Carl Edwards giving away NASCAR memorabilia and signing autographs. I'm honored to now be part of something so significant and hope this book raises awareness that even though 1 in 7 women will get breast cancer, 88% will survive it...

Those Who Judge…

Hatred, I’ve learned, can come in pretty packages... And often it’s cloaked in ways that make it more than pretty, angelic even. It’s scary how many people have some elemental quality they hate in another human being, and that person or that quality often never intersect in any way. So where does the hatred come from? Psychologists would say it’s an innate fear of being the hated, but perhaps it’s a deeper chasm forming in our country.

I find it disturbing how divisive we’ve become. Our nation has gone extreme, on both sides, and that leaves most of us who hover in the middle left to wonder…why are we all so quick to judge, to hate, to try so hard to tell others how they should live? We knock anyone who doesn’t worship our God; we spit on anyone who loves a person we’re disgusted with; we feel compelled to judge to the point of hatred. And I use the pronoun loosely. I’m not an atheist, nor agnostic. I was saved and baptized when I was in junior high, but I subscribe first to the adage, “Take out your mirror before getting out the magnifying glass.” I believe that’s what God wants – for us to live a good life, to be good people, to be a good example for all those watching us. What message do we send kids when we pass judgment on others? No matter another person’s crime, no matter their indiscretions, their beliefs, their sins, it’s not for us to say. I cringe when I hear an outspoken Bush-hater, even more when I listen to a blind Bush-worshipper. We are no longer allowed to have our own unspoken beliefs, no longer left alone if we announce an allegiance to one side or the other. Instead, both sides insist on converting us, saving us from ourselves, even if we don’t want or need saving.

Just once I’d like to be able to say, “I voted for…” or “I think everyone should be allowed to marry…” or “The war in Iraq is…” without getting an earful of hatred from someone on the opposing side. As we’ve become so obsessed with being PC, we’ve also gotten too opinionated to carry on a real conversation about a heated issue. If we want our kids to form opinions of their own, how can we show them that if none of us ever really listens? How do we teach tolerance when a huge majority don’t practice it?

How will we change narrow-minded views if only the open-minded are paying attention? If we’re only preaching to the choir, then does that mean the choir doesn’t have a mind of their own?

To anyone out there who truly cringes at the thought of their child marrying someone of a different race, the same sex, or a card-carrying member of a different religion, why do you think you feel that way? Just once, stop and think about it, take a look at yourself, and ask, Why do I judge someone who has nothing against me?

We should all subscribe to the adage, “Take out your mirror before getting out the magnifying glass.” It would be a great place to live if we really judged not.

Spring Is Sustaining...

It has been a weird winter and an even stranger spring. But it's been interesting these past few weeks.

The Missouri Writers Guild conference was amazing... I got to meet Lee Goldberg, the writer of Monk (the series and the books, and he made fun of Missouri with no mercy!!), and some phenomenal editors, agents, and fellow writers (Kate Angelella, Annette Fix, Harvey Stanbrough, to name a few...) I have some amazing photos I need to add to my website, so keep posted there...

The Mizzou Tigers kicked some butt, only inches from the Final Four, and now Cardinal baseball is heating up (poor Chris Carpenter...but I think we're going to survive without him).

But the best part of this time of year is another Mizzou semester winding down. I'm nearing the end of my PhD coursework. Just two more semesters! So my life as an author can resume for the summer, thank God, and for those of you who loved Dregs, I'm working on a sequel. I'll also be facilitating the Missouri Writing Project, which is an amazing opportunity for teachers who love to write and want to incorporate it in their classrooms!

So happy spring to everyone and keep your fingers crossed that the warm weather is finally here to stay!

Team Angels

Having once been a college athlete – and only tackling sports I could not only master but be the best at – I’ve discovered something about skiing. I suck. Actually, that’s not quite right. My ski instructor, Priscilla, said I had all the techniques down, but I sucked at the confidence go-for-it part. I’ve bungeed, rappelled down steep cliffs, and done the Dragon’s Wing at Six Flags – but put my feet on two skinny strips of wood, and all my daring goes flying off the lift. Your feet aren’t supposed to move when you don’t want them to, right? Well, I certainly think so, because when I felt out of control, I panicked! J And I had to look hysterical.

So for any of you who saw me out there sprawled in the snow, I really was there to practice my snow angels, and I have to say, I had those down pat! Do they have a team for that?

It's a Great Time To Be Alive...

It was an awesome weekend to be a sports fan in my house… my nephew, Luke, played for the 5A state basketball championship and kicked some roundball butt. I hated that it was at the expense of Rock Bridge High School, but Chaminade, where Luke goes is a sophomore starter, displayed resilience in their quest to win the state championship. With a shaky performance against Rock Bridge, Chaminade came back in full, true-force form against Grandview and won it all.

And hand-in-hand with the Red Devils of Chaminade, the Mizzou Tigers won their first ever Big XII title… Several times the Big Eight champs, Mizzou overpowered everyone to finish the season as #9 in the nation, a #3 seed in the NCAA tourney, and hopefully, a chance to surpass their finest Elite 8 finish in the Big Dance.

With Cardinal’s baseball right around the corner, March Madness in full swing, the NFL draft only a month away, I’ve gotta tell you, it is a great time to be alive.

:-)

Shelby Knox…You go, girl!

I just watched an amazing documentary (in lieu of being able to attend the True/False Film Festival in Columbia this past weekend). The Education of Shelby Knox delves into a dilemma that both astounds and disgusts me. Shelby Knox, at the time a high school student, challenges her ultra conservative hometown of Lubbock, Texas, to teach sex ed. in the public school. The resistance rivals stone walls of historical proportion (the Wall of China comes to mind!)

Shelby, they discover, is an oxymoron. She is first and foremost a devout Christian. BUT (capital letters intended) she is also a liberal. It begs the question, when did the term liberal become a dirty word? My mother, a pretty conservative Republican, still sees liberal as akin to open-mindedness, while a staunch conservative friend sees the “L” word as radical and extreme.

My digressions aside, uber conservative Lubbock Public Schools teaches abstinence only in their district – period. If a teacher even attempts to offer any advice diverging from that philosophy is subject to termination, and there are situations that support this, and Shelby Knox wanted to change that. But the school board and the community slammed the door in her face, stating that to educate kids about sex would be to condone it and teach it to those naïve enough to know little about it. Yeah, right. The irony is, Lubbock has THE highest teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease rates in the nation. One in 14 girls get pregnant each year… gonorrhea rates are TWICE the national average. What does that say about a conservative view of sex education in our schools? I know as a teacher, I can’t understand the ostrich mentality. Why wouldn’t you want to educate kids? To know the consequences on all levels (physically, mentally, and especially financially), might open just one of those 1 in 14 girls’ eyes…

I just don’t get it…

My Celine Moment...

I’ve never been a huge Celine Dion fan. I’ve always appreciated her amazing voice, have loved specific songs like “Because You Loved Me” and her new “Taking Chances” (it might be one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard). But all in all, I would get tired of her, couldn’t listen to just her, so I’d throw her songs into mixes with other artists to really enjoy her.

That has changed. I saw her in concert Wednesday at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis…wow. She was beyond amazing, and if you’ve never seen someone who truly performs, she would be the perfect one to see. Cher does that – performs and doesn’t just sing. But Celine, with her sincerity and fun personality, made the thousands of people in Scottrade feel like her friends. And that voice…my god, her range is nothing short of phenomenal, and I truly understand that she is the Barbra Streisand of our era.

Few concerts leave me feeling like I’ve fulfilled some missing component of my life (Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Bob Seger, Melissa Etheridge, and Don Henley would be the other 5…). But even among those greats, I’d have to say Celine hovers near the top of the list. I seldom see a group or singer more than once, but if she’s back in Missouri again, she is a definite “must see” for me.