puppetmaker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
puppetmaker) wrote2009-01-14 10:03 pm
puppetmaker) wrote2009-01-14 10:03 pm
LJ Idol 5 Week 16 Coloring outside the lines
When I was a child one of the activities that I did with my mother that I enjoyed a lot was coloring. We would get a coloring book like the Beatles or Daktari or a random set of pictures. I would work on one page and my mother would work on the other. My mother could color within the lines very well. I was in awe of her ability. I, being young, was not that good at being able to go right to the line but not go over. I worked hard on it but never quite mastered the ability that my mother had for getting it just so. Eventually I outgrew coloring in coloring book or so I thought at the time.
When I reflect on what I have done in my life, I see that I have spend most of my time outside the lines. When I was in high school, with the full support of my parents, I took shop rather than Home Ec. That was rather unheard of at the time at my high school. So three other girls and I decided that we wanted to learn power tools more than ovens. There was some resistance but I did shop, graphic arts and two years of photography that has served me well over the years.
I went to the Yale School of Drama for a masters in stage management which for a woman to do it not that unusual. There are more female than male stage managers. My background was different from most of my fellow students. I didn't have a degree in theater but in history. My puppetry experience put me ahead of the curve when it came to anything that had to do with puppets. I was consulted by many of my fellow students about what could and couldn't be done with puppets. My knowledge of stage blood was such that I ended up teaching props a couple of my "secret" formulas which would also come out of most forms of cloth with relative ease. I had worked with a couple of magicians so I had a background in stage magic along with the piece of paper that stated that I agreed not to discuss how we did the tricks. I was an odd duck and I was informed by word and deed that I was such and therefore outside the lines.
When I started to work at Del Rey, I was a little older than most editorial assistants. I had a heck of a lot more life experience than many of the editors that worked at Random House. My background was diverse and I had connections both on my own and through Peter that gave me access to information and people that was useful in doing my job. I was quick to learn my job along with the jobs of the other people in Ballantine. I had to learn the hard way about the chain of command and stepping on political toes because I could do so much. So I had to pull back to working within the lines which was hard to do because I knew that I could do so much more.
Now I have a daughter. The other day we were sitting next to each other with a coloring book that had Disney Princesses in it. We had a box of crayons and were each coloring our own pictures. Caroline commented on how well I could color within the lines and expressed that she wanted to be able to do that. I looked at what I had done. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty good. I had become my mother and had learned, somewhere a long the way, how to color within the lines. Caroline leaned into me and continued to color her picture. I watched as she carefully tried to stay within the lines but didn't quite make it. I know in my heart of hearts that by the time she needs to know how to color within the lines, she'll figure it out because I did without known that I had.
When I reflect on what I have done in my life, I see that I have spend most of my time outside the lines. When I was in high school, with the full support of my parents, I took shop rather than Home Ec. That was rather unheard of at the time at my high school. So three other girls and I decided that we wanted to learn power tools more than ovens. There was some resistance but I did shop, graphic arts and two years of photography that has served me well over the years.
I went to the Yale School of Drama for a masters in stage management which for a woman to do it not that unusual. There are more female than male stage managers. My background was different from most of my fellow students. I didn't have a degree in theater but in history. My puppetry experience put me ahead of the curve when it came to anything that had to do with puppets. I was consulted by many of my fellow students about what could and couldn't be done with puppets. My knowledge of stage blood was such that I ended up teaching props a couple of my "secret" formulas which would also come out of most forms of cloth with relative ease. I had worked with a couple of magicians so I had a background in stage magic along with the piece of paper that stated that I agreed not to discuss how we did the tricks. I was an odd duck and I was informed by word and deed that I was such and therefore outside the lines.
When I started to work at Del Rey, I was a little older than most editorial assistants. I had a heck of a lot more life experience than many of the editors that worked at Random House. My background was diverse and I had connections both on my own and through Peter that gave me access to information and people that was useful in doing my job. I was quick to learn my job along with the jobs of the other people in Ballantine. I had to learn the hard way about the chain of command and stepping on political toes because I could do so much. So I had to pull back to working within the lines which was hard to do because I knew that I could do so much more.
Now I have a daughter. The other day we were sitting next to each other with a coloring book that had Disney Princesses in it. We had a box of crayons and were each coloring our own pictures. Caroline commented on how well I could color within the lines and expressed that she wanted to be able to do that. I looked at what I had done. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty good. I had become my mother and had learned, somewhere a long the way, how to color within the lines. Caroline leaned into me and continued to color her picture. I watched as she carefully tried to stay within the lines but didn't quite make it. I know in my heart of hearts that by the time she needs to know how to color within the lines, she'll figure it out because I did without known that I had.
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