A Real Hero

I know so few people that I truly identify with, but yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to meet a kindred spirit. Unfortunately, because of where I work and who she is, I can't say her name or reveal much else. You can find her on google if you type in the recent journalism prize being given by the P______er organization, which awards only one prize to an artist who is not a writer. One you find her name, you can type that all as one word, add a .com, and see why she's up for it. She's a genius. And I don't throw that word around. And not a socially indept genius, either, as is romanticed so often, but a real genius, a practical and practicing one. Perhaps a made, not born, genius.

She said that there are so few people like her that she has a small pool of about 25 people IN THE ENTIRE WORLD that even fully understand what she does, and out of them NONE of them really have the time to delve into her work and offer advice/comment because their so busy with their own work. She works all day, obsesses over her processes, has giant "maps" of her work plans, cannot distinguish life from art, etc. etc. She has chosen not to have kids because she would not have been able to achieve all of this if she had. Men in her field do the sexist thing where the wife at home takes care of them, and she doesn't have that privilege. Either way, she's glad, as having kids would have distracted her so much from artisitic creation that her entire world view probably would not have led her to her present status. She values isolation and loneliness, even from her own husband. Despite all that she has achieved, her greatest works "no one wants to listen to," even the ones commissioned for huge amounts of money. AND she's a teacher, too! She STILL works for a living and will continue to work even if she gets the prize money. "Even to be nominated is to basically win it," she says. At age 50 or so, she looks and seems 30: the loneliness that goes along with doing what she's most passionate about and what almost no one on the planet can or wants to do, I believe has added years to her life. So there's hope!