Graduation

Me and Tom French

Me and Diana Hume George



Okay, so I know that graduation has absolutely nothing to do with death, but I wouldn't have embarked on this journey had it not been for Goucher college and the pursuit of my MFA.  See that cute little lady up there?  It was a random phone call to her house that started it all.  I called her house and a funeral home answered.  That got us talking.  Who works at funeral homes?  And why?

From there, the project morphed into a personal journey of why I feared death.  I wanted to solve this mystery by being around people who worked with it and or faced it.

Tom worked with me during my most difficult semester.  I'm sure he wanted to pummel me over the phone on numerous occasions due to my constant hand wringing and apprehension over the simplest of tasks.  I was kind of a weenie.  But in the end, it all worked out.  Jacob Levenson, who was my last mentor wasn't able to attend graduation, but he was integral in making sense of all the research I collected.

It was a happy and sad day.  It was the culmination of two years of an emotional roller coaster ride.  In school, I loved that I was given permission to write.  I had to do it.  I was held accountable.  Now, I have to embark on the book proposal--solo.  There will be no hand holding, no early morning phone calls, and no one to say, "Pam, don't forget to hold the baby."

I'll miss that.


Would You Want to Live Forever?

Okay, like the rest of the world, I'm kind of caught up in the whole Twilight saga.  Vampires are everywhere--books, popular TV shows, and that whole Edward and Bella dilemma.  Granted, vampires are sexy, with the exception of this guy, who basically started the whole thing.

But, has anybody really thought about the ultimate problem of becoming one of the undead?  (Besides the fact that you have to suck blood in order to survive like a mosquito) Yes, you get to live forever.  Yes, you will remain young and good looking.  But, and there's always a but--you will see every mortal you've ever loved die.  Forever and ever.  So, either you will live a life of perpetual grief, or you will isolate yourself to tramp around the woods in some gloomy sun starved place to chase down furry woodland creatures for all of eternity.

No thanks.

What do you think?  Are you so intrigued by the world and its inhabitants that you want to stay here forever?  Do you like funeral wear?  Darkness?

Discuss.