Friday, September 14, 2007
A Writer's Passion
My friend from childhood, Jamie Stiehm, stayed with me recently. She spent a decade at the Baltimore Sun as a reporter and earlier years covering Washington politics. Jamie has published more than 80 opinion pieces and has even written a play.
Never shy about dramatic touches, Jamie shares as much through her hands as through her stories. And, her stories center on people.
Whether reporting in 2007 on Jonathan Hamm's death in Iraq (Soldier steers out of trouble here, into deadly enemy fire in Baghdad) or on major political figures from her time covering Capitol Hill, Jamie has always oriented her writing toward the human element.
Often confessional (Capitol punishment: how the Hill's religion of the revolving door cost me my job in a Senate office) and at times controversial (Jamie is a "liberal's liberal"), Jamie has never been unclear that writing is her passion, her calling, her way to contribute.
I'll never forget sitting in Jamie's San Francisco apartment in 1989, after she had returned from a stint with CBS News in London. Jamie was working on an opinion piece about Virginia Woolf for the Christian Science Monitor.
Her piece had been rejected (again) by the editor, who nevertheless had seen something he liked in Jamie's work. This man, 3000 miles away on the other coast, repeatedly took time to pencil in his thoughts in the margins, giving Jamie valuable feedback, not once, but three times.
Jamie's piece was rejected three times before she finally got it published in a 2-page spread, complete with illustrations, in the Christian Science Monitor.
I remember being a little stunned by Jamie's tenacity.
Rejection is hard for most of us. Each rejection could have been the proverbial straw that broke Jamie's spirit. Instead, Jamie persevered toward mastery in her writing -- and in the art of getting published (she probably has close to 2000 bylines by now).
Jamie's story came to mind as I talked to her about my piece on "apprenticeship" and mastery and the distinction between "finding" a calling and "cultivating" one. Jamie nodded and shared the famous Quaker saying about how "way opens," which refers to finding ones path in life, when one truly engages.
My teacher, Daniel Silberberg, likes to ask people, "What is the difference between people who are successful and those who are not?" No Zen koan of a question, Daniel's answer is quite simple. Those who succeed persevere. They keep doing what they most care about and don't give up.
Indeed, the intersection of intention and repeated action (persevering) is where "way opens."
Never shy about dramatic touches, Jamie shares as much through her hands as through her stories. And, her stories center on people.
Whether reporting in 2007 on Jonathan Hamm's death in Iraq (Soldier steers out of trouble here, into deadly enemy fire in Baghdad) or on major political figures from her time covering Capitol Hill, Jamie has always oriented her writing toward the human element.
Often confessional (Capitol punishment: how the Hill's religion of the revolving door cost me my job in a Senate office) and at times controversial (Jamie is a "liberal's liberal"), Jamie has never been unclear that writing is her passion, her calling, her way to contribute.
I'll never forget sitting in Jamie's San Francisco apartment in 1989, after she had returned from a stint with CBS News in London. Jamie was working on an opinion piece about Virginia Woolf for the Christian Science Monitor.
Her piece had been rejected (again) by the editor, who nevertheless had seen something he liked in Jamie's work. This man, 3000 miles away on the other coast, repeatedly took time to pencil in his thoughts in the margins, giving Jamie valuable feedback, not once, but three times.
Jamie's piece was rejected three times before she finally got it published in a 2-page spread, complete with illustrations, in the Christian Science Monitor.
I remember being a little stunned by Jamie's tenacity.
Rejection is hard for most of us. Each rejection could have been the proverbial straw that broke Jamie's spirit. Instead, Jamie persevered toward mastery in her writing -- and in the art of getting published (she probably has close to 2000 bylines by now).
Jamie's story came to mind as I talked to her about my piece on "apprenticeship" and mastery and the distinction between "finding" a calling and "cultivating" one. Jamie nodded and shared the famous Quaker saying about how "way opens," which refers to finding ones path in life, when one truly engages.
My teacher, Daniel Silberberg, likes to ask people, "What is the difference between people who are successful and those who are not?" No Zen koan of a question, Daniel's answer is quite simple. Those who succeed persevere. They keep doing what they most care about and don't give up.
Indeed, the intersection of intention and repeated action (persevering) is where "way opens."
# posted by Cindy Marteney @ 5:05 PM 
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