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| ________Surviving the Lean Years | ||||||
| The
Downtown Writers Network is a resource for independent writers in central
Ohio. |
I didn't quit a job to stay at home or to live in an ivory tower surrounded only by books. I wanted to cram as much firsthand experience as possible into my life. Each job was radically different from the one before.
As administrator of the only correspondence course Ohio State University offered, beekeeping, I made metaphors from the lives of honeybees. Working within the Extension Entomology department taught me a great deal of scientific information and enabled me to avoid naive errors. Twenty-five years later, through the Internet, I reconnected with my former boss -- with elation. He and I adored each other. He taught me a great deal that I still use today to run this operation here at Pudding House. And now I've been able to tell him so. As Administrative Rules Liaison for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation, I began to study social justice issues, a sense of home, and fair work opportunities that I've written about ever since. There I added to leadership and workshop development skills. Accepting calls for comments on proposed administrative rules helped me consider details in language and the many interpretations readers can bring. I was Executive Director of the Disaster Research Center, where I was able to write or edit every day -- to read, analyze, and respond to the media and community leaders about what we'd published. This was my fourth major experience appearing in all major media (tv, radio, newspapers, etc.), and this benefitted me as a poet who was giving more and more public readings. As a result of these experiences I've never been nervous when giving readings.
As Director of Friends of the Homeless -- at the time, the most comprehensive program for the homeless in Central Ohio -- I wrote policies and procedures that paid attention to the word, each word, as poetry does. Our policy manual went on to become a model for many other shelters across the United States. These organizations paid me good money for consulting, sharing with them my expertise -- most of it writing related. When I left Friends of the Homeless, we had food on the table because of these writing/consulting jobs. As a result of not only being exposed to these various fields but becoming an "expert" in them as far as my directors or boards and the media were concerned, I have also published poems on insects and bees, bureaucracy, disasters, poverty and homelessness, and much more. I made poetry out of it all. If I were a playwright my work would have informed more exciting plays. I am working on a screenplay that will be far better than it might have been had I not worked so many wonderful jobs. Working in the real world assured me there were no lean years (well, no "poverty" years, at least), and it has given me a vast range of interests and expertise, as well as a pool of characters and behaviors to pull from. |
How
to Survive the Lean Years