from “Writer as Parent”

When I queried my parent-writer friends about this issues [trying to manage parenting and writing], I was shocked by how quickly everyone responded, and I decided to read all the emails in one sitting. This session left me feeling a sort of gorgeous despair. There was a grandeur to our experience that was like reading letters from some besieged fortification– The Alamo maybe, or Masada– where everyone accepted defeat but still believed in the glory of the cause. My friends shared with me a kind of inspired cluelesness that speaks not only to the experience of parenthood, but also to the experience of writing.