The Problem of Special Interest Groups

I was watching The Colbert Report last night and the first interview Stephen Colbert did was with Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition for America.   They’ve been lobbying congress to stop spending tax payers’ dollars on religion.

Well, that’s pretty cool, I thought.  Finally someone to combat all those religious special interest groups.  But then I thought, well, wait, isn’t the Secular Coalition also a special interest group?  It seems that everyone has an agenda, and no two people ever have the exact same agenda, and so, each is a separate special interest group.  As long as there are interests there will be special interest groups and I’m tired of hearing people complain about them when what they’re really complaining about are special interests that aren’t in their own interest.  I’m equally tired of hearing people slam politicians for being beholden to some special interest group or other. 

Knee Deep in MFA Applications

I read a statistic today that a person has a better chance of getting into med school than an MFA program.  How inspiring.

Writer’s Block Has the Best of Me and I Start a Writing Workshop on Monday

I can’t write I can’t write I can’t write I can’t write I can’t write and it’s making me crazy. My life is an endless mess of started and never finished essays, of ideas I’m too lazy to follow through on, of frustrations.

My journal seems to be the only place I can write anymore. When I try to write anywhere else, I try too hard and the words come out all forced and mangled and misshapen. My journal is a freedom space.  If only I could figure out how to recreate that.  If only my ribs didn’t hurt.  If only I weren’t so lazy.  And if only I could remember that I’m better than I used to be and give myself some credit for that.

It’s like I’ve forgotten how to write and so I’m desperately reading essay after essay to remind me how and I’m failing. It’s scary. I’m afraid I’ll never remember, or I’m afraid that maybe I’ve read myself to death, over thought it all to the point where I’ll never be able to write again.