Friday, January 05, 2007

creative space

Man how time flies. Thought I wrote the last posting a few days ago, not last year. Work has restarted, tennis classes for junior, diet for me (yeah!), and work and more work and all the little things I have to fit in amidst the regular work.

And it is all ok. Elderly dad is creaking along. He has his routines and they comfort him. I send him flowers and those comfort him, too. Hubby's family has its ups and downs, but I connected with his daughters (by making them cry - I seem to have that knack) and things are up and down there all at once.

And I'm toying with the idea of being a housecall doctor. I don't know - three full time days a week with the possibility of benefits mainly seeing elderly housebound patients (like my dad?!). I'd have to pretend to be an expert at cardiology and diabetes and heart failure and all that. I guess I could brush up on it easy enough. My main plus for the patients is in collaborative care - working with them and their families to better define their goals and to fine tune things without the illusion of curing anything. Just don't want to hurt anybody or mess anything up. Guess I'll explore it.

Psychiatry is going ok. Some weeks, especially before Christmas, I felt especially incompetent. Nobody seemed to be getting better. But yesterday everybody was better and today they were half better. That was more like it. Wish I could get paid to give hugs and encouragement and not feel like I actually have to fix anything. coaching, maybe, rather than doctoring.

I've also been thinking more about an idea that L and I have tossed around. To have a woman's creativity center where women can go to rent quiet space for writing, research, study, arts, crafts, as well as a center where women can collaborate, network, or just hang out and relax. Rooms to work in could be rented by the hour, day, or month. A receptionist would take all messages, and renters could check them periodically, but would not be interrupted except for emergencies. A lounge would provide coffee, tea, and comfy chairs as well as meeting space for readings, talks, support groups, even therapy sessions.

I wonder if there are state or federal arts or humanities grants that might provide some startup funds for such an enterprise. I also wonder if writer's spaces in the larger cities could provide some information about how they started, fees they charge, services and facilities that they provide and maintain. Quiet space for writing, thinking, etc, is important, but hard to come by and even harder to create. It may be easier to provide white noise to block out sound than to soundproof a building that has normal construction. I wonder how on earth anyone who is busy can find time to work on such a project. I wonder how anyone who is busy can find uncluttered space if such a facility does not exist.

I was talking about this idea with a woman therapist colleague of mine, pondering the issue of gender separation. She suggested that men seem to have less difficulty working at home; they do not feel as pressured to meet everyone else's needs. Women tend to feel they have to get family work attended to and have a harder time focusing on their work in the face of others' needs. She felt there was no need to apologise for a womens only facility.

So what now? Any ideas out there?

1 Comments:

Blogger normanack said...

Hmmm, you certainly have a point about working at home without distraction. It is tough to write when the laundry buzzer pings, and the phone rings, and there's someone at the door, and the dogs are barking madly at a squirrel on the deck.

Perhaps to avoid writing, I've read a lot about writers (and other creators) and their habits. Seems like a place outside the home, even if it's a shed in the back yard, is important.

And it does seem like it's generally men who are largely unapologetic about getting the writing space they want, while women are more likely to worry about the cost or their "right" to have such a space.

Count me in. Really.

January 06, 2007 10:16 AM  

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