Knowing Pains

[REGINA SEWELL]

An essay I wrote re: dealing with my mother and what seems to be alzheimers has been published in a book called: Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s.  It's just been released and I got a copy a couple of weeks ago.  It seems to be pretty "hot" out in California as lots of the contributors are from there and they are doing lots of readings and the like....  A lot of the writers come from a much more mainstream world than the one I tend to drift in but what strikes me is that, in combination, they bring a wide body of perspectives to what it means to be female.  

My fantasy, of course, is to use this idea as fodder for Playback Theatre or sociodrama or ...   but at a more practical level, I'm thinking of how knowledge of people's stories - strangers, fiction, literature, etc....  all that stuff that makes up the cultural conserve, is important in directing psychodramas and sociodramas. 

 I have this vivid memory of directing at an HVPI directing intensive and having Rebecca (per my invitation) step in with some piece that should have been so obvious... so rooted in the cultural conserve about motherhood, womanhood....  whatever that I totally missed because I live in a sheltered alternative, environmental, liberal, shatter the cultural conserve and create a new one sort of place.  

I realize that this is pretty disjointed... probably because I am admitting ignorance on one hand and on the other, struggling with identity politics as one who doesn't want to be part of the mainstream but wants to be able to be of service to people who embrace the mainstream.

We talk a lot about Moreno's ideas and other ideals on this list serve...   the catch is, how do I (we?) challenge the status quo when I (we?) avoid it like the plague?  The collection of essays -- on one hand, I can connect because I am female and some of the stuff is universal..  but other aspects are as foreign to me as the concept of watching American Idol.  How do we change the world from the fringes?  

peace,

regina sewell



I've been putting together workshops on writing and narrative therapy - one series using action methods, another, more traditional, and in the process thinking about the use of 

Ok, this is technically a spam mail because I'm sending this to you and just about everyone else I even sporadically e-mail.  But I like to think that it's a whole lot more because it's a celebration of my first major foray into the world of being a "published author."  An essay I wrote has been published in a book called: Knowing Pains: Women on Love, Sex and Work in Our 40s,  It should be available 10/1.  The other exciting bit about this is that all profits go to Breast Cancer Action Fund, a non-profit watchdog and advocacy organization.  (www.bcaction.org)
 The writers I've read bits from who are also in the anthology are mind blowingly good so it's pretty amazing that I made it into the club.

The proof of the cover is attached.  It should be available via amazon.com and ingrams.  You can also get your local bookstore to order it... the isbn is on the attached proof of the cover.

Love and peace,

reg

regina sewell, Ph.D.


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