My first

Here I am, feeling decidedly average today after having spent my weekend reading a book from cover to cover called In My Skin, a memoir, by Kate Holden. A journey through drug addiction and prostitution that that holds no punches or details. My interest was more than literary as I was part of Kate's extended family while she was going through her journey, in a sense standing on the one side of the fence listening to the fallout of this reckless young woman who was causing her middle class Melbourne family so much pain, to now discover a beautifully written book that describes her whole dire adventure. The first thing I did when I saw the book at Reading's was check to see the dedication, it was to her parents and sister, I can't tell you how happy I was to see that, there is a huge sense of justice in this whole story. A sense that people can trek through the most harrowing of times and come out the other end. The other thing that impresses is when someone can meander through a world so unlike their own and still be able to pen their thoughts in succinct, beautiful prose.
Years ago I remember an author who had walked out on her husband and landed on our doorstep with her two small children. She walked down the hallway full of apologies and bags of nappies. When she arrived at the kitchen table and she unloaded the sackful of baby paraphernalia that you carry everywhere when you have a small child, out of the blankets and the baby bottles she slammed a three hundred page manuscript for a novel on the table and declared "At least I got that out of the way" Being the most procrastinating writer on earth I just stared at the ream of typed pages on the table while the din of the situation continued around me. How can you write a novel about being seriously while being seriously ill with two small children?
I guess this just goes to show the kind of extraordinary strength that can be found in the average people of our little suburban existence. I alway wonder how this kind of strength and courage compares with the kind of courage that is depicted in films and TV, that gung-ho, Kill Bill style of courage. Because the style of courage I'm talking about, the resilience, and the will power is not particularly cinematographic or even visually interesting. Which is more fascinating when someone can turn in into a captivating work of art.
That's my first blog; I'll now look out of my window again...