thinking about Carrie Snyder
A regular reader just read my last posts and emailed to suggest, jokingly, that I change the name of this blog to Born to Brag. Sigh. Yes, some bragging is going to appear sometimes. What is a blog, after all, but a giant ego trip? Here I am blathering away about my life, and for some reason, you're reading. For that, I'm grateful. Occasionally, there will be a brag or two. A student said I was lovely and funny and smart. I've repeated that to myself a few times today.
Those of you who drop in here regularly may have noticed that there on the left, among the other blogs I like to read and share with you, I've recently re-linked to Carrie Snyder's blog. I am a fan of hers - haven't read her very successful "Girl Runner" yet but am looking forward to it. I like her posts a great deal and find her fascinating, thoughtful, honest and a talented writer. Yet after reading her for awhile last year, I deleted the link to her site. Why?
She exhausted me. Some of my friends exclaim about how busy I am, but Carrie made me feel like a giant slug lazing around eating chocolates and gazing at the moon. I mean, the woman is extraordinary - she has four (four!) young children with demanding sports schedules, music, homework, stomachs, laundry and lives - a huge job in itself. She's a marathon runner, so even when she's injured she is struggling to exercise, getting up at 5 a.m. to swim (!!) or walk for hours or whatever. She writes on a treadmill and does yoga and meditation in her spare time. Oh, and she teaches and posts her own skilful photographs.
So all that would be a more than full life. But on top of it all - she has written a best-selling book that has won prizes, she keeps a beautiful blog that has also won a prize; she has been flying around the country to be part of readings and prestigious literary events. And yes, I have to say, I could do with a few of those. She writes about how difficult she finds all the attention and praise, and I want to say, Sister, it doesn't get better than that.
From my vantage point so many years on, trying to remember when I was in my mid-thirties with small kids and trying to get things done - well, I wouldn't even have attempted a quarter of what she manages to do, and still, she berates herself for not doing more. So for a while there, reading her, I did compare my younger self and found myself wanting. I felt, What was wrong with me? Was I so very lazy back then that I didn't even try? Well, no. I wasn't lazy, but I didn't have her professional and athletic drive, not remotely. I didn't have her confidence and self-discipline. I didn't - and this is a big part of it - have her kind of husband (or eventually have any husband at all). When I started trying to write with small children in the early eighties, I could hardly think of another writer who was a full time mother. Now they're everywhere. And what a wonderful leap forward that is.
I will go on reading Carrie's blog, and I hope you do too, because she's an interesting person and a terrific writer who has a lot to say about creativity, balance and struggle. And what I'd like to say to her is this: You're spectacular. I hope you see and celebrate just how much you've managed to do and be and accomplish. Learning to accept yourself, as you write today, is a great idea. Because a woman who's made such a success of her days, who has so many readers and fans and, more importantly, a rich family and inner life, is doing something very, very right.
Those of you who drop in here regularly may have noticed that there on the left, among the other blogs I like to read and share with you, I've recently re-linked to Carrie Snyder's blog. I am a fan of hers - haven't read her very successful "Girl Runner" yet but am looking forward to it. I like her posts a great deal and find her fascinating, thoughtful, honest and a talented writer. Yet after reading her for awhile last year, I deleted the link to her site. Why?
She exhausted me. Some of my friends exclaim about how busy I am, but Carrie made me feel like a giant slug lazing around eating chocolates and gazing at the moon. I mean, the woman is extraordinary - she has four (four!) young children with demanding sports schedules, music, homework, stomachs, laundry and lives - a huge job in itself. She's a marathon runner, so even when she's injured she is struggling to exercise, getting up at 5 a.m. to swim (!!) or walk for hours or whatever. She writes on a treadmill and does yoga and meditation in her spare time. Oh, and she teaches and posts her own skilful photographs.
So all that would be a more than full life. But on top of it all - she has written a best-selling book that has won prizes, she keeps a beautiful blog that has also won a prize; she has been flying around the country to be part of readings and prestigious literary events. And yes, I have to say, I could do with a few of those. She writes about how difficult she finds all the attention and praise, and I want to say, Sister, it doesn't get better than that.
From my vantage point so many years on, trying to remember when I was in my mid-thirties with small kids and trying to get things done - well, I wouldn't even have attempted a quarter of what she manages to do, and still, she berates herself for not doing more. So for a while there, reading her, I did compare my younger self and found myself wanting. I felt, What was wrong with me? Was I so very lazy back then that I didn't even try? Well, no. I wasn't lazy, but I didn't have her professional and athletic drive, not remotely. I didn't have her confidence and self-discipline. I didn't - and this is a big part of it - have her kind of husband (or eventually have any husband at all). When I started trying to write with small children in the early eighties, I could hardly think of another writer who was a full time mother. Now they're everywhere. And what a wonderful leap forward that is.
I will go on reading Carrie's blog, and I hope you do too, because she's an interesting person and a terrific writer who has a lot to say about creativity, balance and struggle. And what I'd like to say to her is this: You're spectacular. I hope you see and celebrate just how much you've managed to do and be and accomplish. Learning to accept yourself, as you write today, is a great idea. Because a woman who's made such a success of her days, who has so many readers and fans and, more importantly, a rich family and inner life, is doing something very, very right.
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