View Single Post
  #136  
Unread 06-08-2009, 07:53 AM
Laura Heidy-Halberstein's Avatar
Laura Heidy-Halberstein Laura Heidy-Halberstein is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Alexandria, Va.
Posts: 1,635
Default

I dunno - if "writer" is all someone wants to be, whether they're male or female, don't they make the sacrifices necessary? For most of us "writer" is not our full time occupation nor is it the only goal we've set for ourselves. Most of us have also chosen to be mothers, fathers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, Indian chiefs, and we parcel out our time accordingly. I don't think it's my husband's duty to "make time" for something I've chosen to do no more than I think it's my duty to fit his schedule into mine. Like all friends, we try to accomodate - if he's writing something, sure, I'll answer the phone or do the dishes. If I'm writing something he'll fend for himself.

No one lives in a vacuum - which is probably what they need to do if writing is all they want to do. If that's the choice, and it's non-negotiable and nothing else matters, then it would probably be wise for them to devote their life to the goal - and not marry and not have children and not have another occupation or interest. If that's the "all" then it would be the writer's responsibility to arrange his/her life around it - and not expect someone else to do so with or for them. It depends on what we love the most - the thought that, given enough time and space, we might be able to write a poem worthy of eternal memory or how much of our available time and space we wish to devote to our families or our other occupations.

That goes for men and women. Whatever our choices or dreams are it is up to us to find a way to fullfill them - it is not someone else's responsibility to give us whatever it is we think we need to make them possible.