Speaking of childbirth (with author Mary Karr)

I've been writing and photographing peace and love a lot lately because it's Christmas, of course. Plus I'm an ardent advocate of peace and love. But there's really one more thing we must talk about since it is December 25.

Childbirth.

Since I have the luxury of having (now looking at my watch) four days off from work so far, I got to read. That's the thing you do with bound pages of ideas when you have more than five minutes of interrupted time while rocking in a chair next to a window of natural winter light that bounces off white snow. Turn on the fire place, if necessary.

I'm reading Mary Karr's "Lit." You may recognize Mary Karr as the author of the now famous "Liar's Club" which changed the way memoir was viewed in the literary world. Mary Karr was one of those who made creative nonfiction cool, and also credible. She writes her life like a painter paints. It's not self-absorbed, but totally truthfully, and painfully hilarious. She describes her rural Texas upbringing as being raised in the ring-worm belt. She makes trauma funny, while somehow maintaining the dignity of her characters, aka, her family.

She can write a metaphor like, like. . .I can't write a metaphor. I could concentrate for a day and not come up with a good metaphor. Her metaphors ooze out of her pours. She drips them from her eyeballs. She drops them from her fingertips. Pages and page of amazing, incredible metaphors and images. (She talks them too, pick them out in her video below.) For months I've been wanting to just sit and write them down. Finally, I sat down yesterday, the morning of Christmas eve, and wrote down Mary Karr's words from chapter 15 of "Lit," her story of childbirth, entitled Journey of the Magi:

Mary Karr's childbirth metaphors:

mythical mothers: "pop out babies like pieces of toast"
herself in third trimester: "rocking all night like some bulbous figure in a horror movie"
the hospital: "treating the mother like a piece of furniture"
husband's head while coaching delivery: "like a drop of water squeezed from a turkey baster"
delivery: "a good twenty hours of exorcism-quality dismay"
delivery: "the nurse with the tiny white head and garantuan blue eyes -- real crocodile-sized peepers -- leans over me saying, Breath. . ."
take a guess: "thunderclap of pain"
baby and mother's pulse: "they syncopate somehow like tom-toms from far off villages."
other baby: "this kid has a face like a caved in squash"
other baby: "his full head of hair lends him a werewolf aspect"
her baby, comparing with roommate's werewolf baby: "bald as a bubble infant"
baby in first week: "wails like a freight train"
to other mother with ugly baby: "smile welded in my face"

I didn't plan to read this chapter on the eve of the commemoration of the most famous childbirth in the history of the world, but since I did, I'm so happy I could write down the metaphors. And then color them in. And then blog about it.

The cool think about falling in love with an author in this day and age is you can follow her on Facebook, and watch her you tube videos. And suggest to your kid to apply to the college where she teaches.  (Actually Teen Girl came up with this idea all her own. One of the zillion campuses she's considering. I'm game.)And figure out if you can get to a writing workshop where she's presenting. Or possibly, just read more chapters.

Christmas vacation and me get along very well. I hope you enjoy this video I've uploaded, Mary Karr herself talking about her book, "Lit." I recommend.

Love to you and yours

Yours truly,

Natural Born Bleeding Heart