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January 31, 2007

I Could Have Written

There are so many things I could have written about here over the last several days.

I could have written about a lecture I attended on Monday, the heartbreaking story told by a former slave who was trafficked to the US from Haiti. She'd been a slave since she was 5 years old, and always at the hands of relatives.

I could have written about how rehearsals are going for The Option, the one-act I'm in that opens next week. And about how having a two-year-old running about during rehearsals is both refreshing and a great way to hone your ability to focus.

I could have written about the way my classes are going, about how smart my students are, how talented, how willing to work.

I could have written about the snow. And the cold. And the snow. And the cold. And the snow.

I could have written about how much fun the long-term improvs are. The ones I'm doing for the Law School. About how I teared up in several but only cried in one (the most nervous of all the students I worked with, poor thing), and about how much I enjoyed the challenge. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy long-term improv. I suck at the short stuff. I just can't think fast enough. But I can be in character for days if I need to be.

I could have written about how it feels to be trekking at midnight across a parking lot covered in snow, about being the first person to mark the whiteness and the experience of looking back to discover that you really don't walk in straight lines but in a series of gentle curves.

I could have written about all those things. I thought about all of them, even began entries in my head. But my life was so full of just going about the business of living that I haven't had the time to sit down and think about it and record it here. I have a wide open afternoon today, though. Maybe I'll be able to get to that stuff now.

Posted by sally at January 31, 2007 10:24 AM

Comments

Sorry, typekey wouldn't let me in for a few days.

The first sentence of this post strikes me the most. We have a huge national problem of child trafficing and slavery and people forced into prostitution yet all we hear about is the new Paris Hilton sex site from CNN. What the hell is going on and how the hell do we change it? Sometimes I get so upset, and feel so powerless, because I AM so powerless.

The rest of the post is touching as well. I was just sitting here at my computer in my regular daily haze and, if this makes sense, this post "woke me up" and pulled me out of it. My brain is working again. Wether or not that is a good thing, however, remains to be seen.

You life sounds lovely and full right now. I am very happy for you.

Posted by: Desiree [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2007 11:45 AM

Thank you, Desiree. It's nice to know I write stuff that moves people. (May you survive your new on-the-job alertness. Hopefully you won't be forced to kill anyone.)

The story of Micheline Slattery is awful. (She's the woman I mentioned in the first paragraph.) It's also hopeful. She's a nurse now. Her heart is full of forgiveness. Her story is also featured in the first chapter of the new book "Enslaved".

The best estimates are that there are 27,000,000 people in some form of slavery around the world. 80% of those are female. 50% are children. Too many (around 1 million) of those people are here. In America. HERE.

That's the part I can't get over. There are people in slavery in the US. It's appalling. Not that people should be slaves anywhere, but to know there are slaves in the "Land of the Free" makes me feel like barfing.

Posted by: Sallyacious [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2007 12:44 PM

I was going to write a comment about how cool the snow thing was, and then I read the rest of the comments and it kind of made my mind blow up and bummed me out at the same time. Anyway, whoa. Seriously, whoa.

Also I was going to say about not talking to me about cold. I walked to work in 9 degrees this morning, and the high on Friday and Saturday may be less then that. I need to hear nothing about cold. I am living cold, a cold that stings and makes a girl find a bus to take home just to break up the stinging into more manageable bits.

Posted by: fire4hairlady [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2007 05:52 PM

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