Last May I applied for admission to San Francisco State University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. I started in mid-August and completed my first four courses in mid-December.
In 15 weeks I wrote three short stories, a dozen poems, and an evening-length play.
Grades are posted, and I’ve established that I can be a top-notch Creative Writing student. I’m aware that isn’t the same as being a writer.
Along with passion and discipline, writing requires an individual voice, and that requires (for me, anyway) some deep digging into my own psyche—a search for self, for authenticity.
I spent the holiday with my kid and her mom, road tripping in California, and during that time I read The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate (just out late last year). I’ve been helped by much of what he has to say. In particular I’ve benefitted particularly from his framework posing a tension, in the course of childhood development, between attachment and authenticity—and how this plays out throughout our lives when the Self becomes lost or buried as we struggle to ensure our safety and survival.