Creative Birth

Juno is our queen, the most important
of the goddesses, the one who holds
the golden staff of sovereignty.
She is the light each child behonds
at birth; she is the mother who gives birth.
At her command girls are made safe
from the labors of childbed, in this way:
an old man sacrifices a male goat;
and from the goatskins, strips are cut;
and those strips are used to strike
the backs of fertile girls, a magic charm
to make them and their children safe.

--Roman poet Ovid, Fasti

Whenever we enact the creative power of the goddess, we open ourselves to risk and to potential loss.

I try to keep this in mind when I'm reviewing the books that I read... to try and see the positive even in the most difficult to read books - and there have been a few of those that I've read. I've heard other writers speaking of sending their creation out into the world like 'giving birth' and far be it from me to diss. their childlren.. When I put my own things 'out there' so to speak, there is a certain nervousness along with the sense of achievement at actually finishing something.

I try and do the same as well when marking the work that children do in school. Yes in some ways that is sligtly different, because as teachers we are having to look for specific things to be included in the work in order for the student to make the grade, but it's still their creation, and they're still putting it out there... and if I needed a reminder I just have to think back to when I was a child in school myself.

Anyone that knows me well enough, knows that I have watched Doctor Who all of my life, and so, when I was in the first or second year of school I wrote a story about a princess and a dalek. The teacher's comment was, "This is not a very good story." I remember being quite insensed by that, and so, beneath the teacher's comment I wrote, "Yes it is." I got into a lot of trouble for that remark.