Women on Writing conference

Again this year I went to the WOW conference. As usual, I couldn't believe a year had already gone by. Now my book has 300 more pages than it had back then. So a year did go by, but in some way, it felt like it was yesterday when I first attended that conference in Skyline College.

The first speaker was very inspirational: Rachel Naomi Remen. From her webpage:
"the first to recognize the role of the spirit in health and the recovery from illness" and "[she] has cared for people with cancer and their families for almost 30 years." She was ill with Crohn's disease since she was 15, and has had 7 surgeries. But she lives. Just what we would have liked to do. As I was listening to her, I thought you would have liked to meet her, and I have fantasized about how it would be if we had come together to the conference. It would have been so cool! But of course, if you were alive, we would never think of going to a writers' conference.

At lunch time, somebody at my table asked who the keynote speaker was last year. My answer was: "I'm bad with names, but I actually loved listening to what she had to say..." and went on to describe her. It turns out I hadn't said more than two sentences and the person who asked me already knew her. "Oh, Ayelet Waldman," and she went on to tell me more facts about her. When she addressed us last year, she referred to a column she wrote about how she loved her husband more than her children, and I connected with her right there. I never read the column then, but I did tonight:
http://www.ayeletwaldman.com/truly.html

I could have written the article myself. I understand why many won't agree, but I do believe in loving your partner over all things. Moreover, I believe that the best foundation you can give to your children is to love their father over all things. Only by the love they see in their parents will they learn what love is. And because my dear Nen won't be able to see it, I'm putting it into words that will always stay with him when he wants to read them.