The Pitcher Cries For Water To Carry

I Was A Working Class Jewish Girl. In My Girlhood, Anti-semitism Was A Daily Fact Of Life In Detroit. I Did Not Come From People Who Had Many Options In Their Lives Or Many Choices Open To Them. I Was A Girl In A Family In Which Women Were, As In Society At Large, Very Much Second-class Citizens. I Did Not See Why I Should Accept These Forced Limitations Without A Fight. Being Free To Make My Own Choices Thus Became Very Important To Me At An Early Age.

We're Herded Into Schools And Terrified Into Behaving. Taught How We're Supposed To Pretend To Be, Taught To Parrot All Kinds Of Nonsense At The Flick Of A Switch, Taught To Keep Our Heads Down And Our Elbows In And Shut Off Our Minds And Shut Off Our Sex. We Learn We Can't Even Piss When We Have To. That's How We Learn To Be Plastic And Dumb.

I Don't Apologize For Being Sexually Adventurous. Why Not? It Was Often Fun. When It Wasn't - I Didn't Continue What Wasn't Pleasant.

We Must Shine With Hope, Stained Glass Windows That Shape Light Into Icons, Glow Like Lanterns Borne Before A Procession. Who Can Bear Hope Back Into The World But Us.

Writing Is A Futile Attempt To Preserve What Disappears Moment By Moment. All That Remains Of My Mother Is What I Remember And What I Have Written For And About Her. Eventually That Is All That Will Remain Of [my Husband] And Me. Writing Sometimes Feels Frivolous And Sometimes Sacred, But Memory Is One Of My Strongest Muses. I Serve Her With My Words. So Long As People Read, Those We Love Survive However Evanescently. As Do We Writers, Saying With Our Life's Work, Remember. Remember Us. Remember Me.