Tantrums

I'm ashamed to admit that I was just reading an entertainment headline about the Desperate Housewives stars "flipping out" over a photo shoot. You know, who sits where, who wears what, who's on the inside flap of the magazine, etc. These women, according to the story, were really cutting up about the whole thing. And I was reading it thinking, what a bunch of babies--they should be happy that people will pay money to see them in a bathing suit, and that poets will PUSH ASIDE A DRAFT OF A POEM THAT IS GOING WELL to read about it.

It then hit me that poets and writers often behave in the same way. In my own life, I have been pulled into just this sort of controversy myself. And I am so dense that I thought all of us--and these are people I admire--were just trying to find a date that fit our schedules. What I really think is happening is that everyone is hustling for a better posiition on the program, and exclusive show . . . . whatever. My play is to duck my head and play dumb. I don't want to give up the gig, but I have no problems sharing, either.

I can't wait to see how this plays out. So mundane, and yet so interesting. I have to practice my cocktail party behavior so that I can see things in more than one dimension. Friends, that is going to take some work.