TAKING IT BUG BY BUG

Tomorrow I will give a presentation to eighty-some Science Olympiad coaches regarding the insect competition I’ll be coordinating this spring. Overwhelmed with information, a majority of the rookie coaches will beg for advice on how to approach the material. This year I’m going to read them an excerpt from Ann Lamott:

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

Hopefully they’ll understand the message, that each child should have fun identifying the various insects and insect orders and to prepare ahead of time.

Tomorrow I will also lose thirty-pounds, put on a dress, and ride across the United States like Thelma or Louise, except instead of ending a troubled relationship, I’ll be heading straight toward resolving one. At least that’s my intention when I take on the House of Sternberg's latest writing assignment: Using a first person narrative from gender perspective opposite your own, write seven-hundred words about unrequited love using the title, “Head Rush.” Also, the character must have some deformity, imagined or otherwise.

Of course, neither task is related. That is to say, I will not be in drag singing show tunes at the Science Olympiad presentation. The second task is imagined; the first is real. Your comments will be greatly appreciated, especially on the writing assignment (and not on how you think I’d look in a skirt). Lastly, once my new writing assignment appears, the old one will self-distruct. Why? Because I’m reworking the story, taking the two dozen or so suggestions and reshaping and extending the fictional dream.