Re: Freddie and Creativity

[Guest guest]

.....Funny you should ask how many of us are in creative fields. My nada

herself, before she got old and sick, was an artist, and she made us all

suffer for it: " why don't people appreciate expressionistic art? Why do they

all like Bob Timberlake's crap? Why can't I be more successfull? Why do all

the OTHER artists make money, and I'm a failure? " She was a histrionic,

self-absorbed, temperamental " creative " person. Had she been a movie star,

she would have been " difficult " on every set.

In order to try to be just the opposite from her, I forced myself into more

" practical " fields: got an MBA in finance, have had a 20 +-year, moderately

successful business career, BUT....on the side, I write---sometimes for

business magazines, sometimes for general publications and, for free, for our

neighborhood newspaper because there are a lot of well-known writers and

readers in this neighborhood. Writing is not an easy way to make a living,

but it's my sideline. I like personal essay the most, with some emotion and

history thrown in. I keep intending to write about nada, and have tried,

several times, in short stories that have remained unpublished. But she is

so hard to " reproduce " on paper.

I am reminded of a popular Southern writer, Pat Conroy. I read in an article

that yes, his father was abusive; yes, his brother committed suicide; yes,

his mother was manipulative and difficult and yes, his sister spent years in

a psychatric institution.......and he has made millions off his family

stories by calling them " fiction. "

Kathy