A Study in Contradictions and Normal as Apple Pie

At 55 years of age, I’m still searching around, trying to figure out just who and what I am and what I’m doing here. All this stuff’s been bouncing around in my head and I’m trying to sort it out, so I thought, “Maybe if you get it down on paper, Pamela, you can make some sense of it.” Maybe …

First and foremost, I love writing. It fills my heart. I’d rather write than do anything else. It’s the greatest gift God has ever given me, only I had no clue ‘til I was 54.

I go to church every week. Makes perfect sense to me: After all the incredible gifts I’ve been given, wouldn’t it just be the height of arrogance and ingratitude to not be willing to give up even one hour out of my life each week to say thanks?

"Finding Emmaus" is a fantasy, but it addresses some very real social issues, nationally and globally. Of course, like any author, I have fantasies of my book flying off the shelves and then having red carpets and rose petals beneath my feet. But what I REALLY want is to be able to look back on my life and know that the fact that I've lived and breathed amounted to something more than simply being here, taking up space and natural resources. If my writing opens the eyes of even a few people long enough to start some serious debate about these critical social issues, then I've succeeded.

Can just one person make a difference? That’s what I’m banking on …

Beyond that, I have the patience of a saint with a canvass and a paintbrush, or paper and pen, but do not suffer fools, gladly or otherwise. I am a deadly negotiator, a no-bullshit business woman who just happens to cry at Harry Potter movies and even G.E. commercials. Anyone who rapes a woman or molests a child should be shot on sight … after being gelded. And yet I believe that people CAN change, that as long as there is breath in someone’s lungs, salvation IS possible. Still haven’t figured out how to reconcile those two…

I love Frank Sinatra and ZZ Top, Vivaldi and Patsy Cline, wintry afternoons in my ‘jammies’ and evenings at the theater, Harry Potter and Humphrey Bogart. Blue flowers make me stop in my tracks and oil paintings of seascapes mesmerize me. “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” is an annual must-see and I never, ever pass up an opportunity to watch “Goodfellas”. I adore cooking for a crowd and serving my guests fine red wine … and when I’m alone in the house, watching an old movie with my cat Maxi curled up around my toes, I just love eating macaroni and cheese.

What I think I've concluded is that, though I know I am a unique being unto myself, the very fact at I am a study in contradictions makes me as normal as apple pie! Whew - thank goodness!


Copyright © 2009 by Pamela S. K. Glasner, All Rights Reserved