Spit and Spaghetti #9

[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!

Melanie Faith

Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.

Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.

The Society of Professional Journalists

In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.

I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.

Maxine Greene

Philosopher and Education Scholar

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Pitches from Wind and Wall

Associate Editor at The Mindset

I am a 54-year-old woman living the 100th or so iteration of my dream. I have taught high school drama, completed a Ph.D. studying wide-awakeness, authored profiles and articles for universities, cultural institutions, government agencies, and non-profits, and written years of pieces for employers and clients across the universe of opportunities. All that living, paying attention, and writing informs my capacity to connect curiosity and wisdom, create and build, and fall apart and back together.

Speaking directly to the Associate Editor position, I live in a 50+1 body/world that strives to be healthy, relevant, vital, wise, and soft. I build my newsletter, lead a writing group for people 30-ish to 80-ish, and constantly explore what it means to “live the good life.” My questions get better every year and my commitment to “living the questions” grows moment-by-moment. I seek to understand the complexity and beauty and possibility of age. As a writer, I have a healthy respect for a sound editorial process that includes guidance, deadlines, feedback, and revision. I have developed content to tell stories, build connection, and raise awareness.

Creativity and Resistance — Ellipsus

Creativity has never been more important. A few years ago, I taught a writing class focused on gratitude at a men’s federal prison. It was then I began to understand the power of our words to lift each other up, share our common humanity, imagine an even better as if, and create our world together. This article will be a 1000-word exploration of creativity at this moment. It will define resistance as a creative act. It will respond to the question, “What is the artist’s role right now?”

I’m a writer, researcher, and lover of stories. I have trekked the Abel Tasman, bathed in the healing waters of Tirta Empul, and kissed the Blarney Stone in search of wide-awakeness. I have written about the arts and sciences for leading organizations such as the Blue Man Group, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, NASA, Ohio University, the University of Cincinnati, several state Departments of Education, and the United States Department of Education. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. A link to My Selected Publications — provides a comprehensive picture of my work. My newsletter, The Wide-Awakeness Project — offers a window into my current thinking.

About Genes and Gender: Fieldnotes From A “Deletion”— Fuller

I am 54-year-old women living with Turner syndrome. Turner syndrome, a genetic condition in which a female is missing all or part of an X chromosome. The syndrome occurs in one of every 2,500 live female births. Ninety-eight percent of babies with Turner syndrome are miscarried. The syndrome commonly manifests in extremely short stature and infertility. This 1000 — 1200 story will explore the fluidity of gender, the outskirts of “normal,” and the relationship between gender and motherhood.

This is a Fuller story because it will explore our foundational understanding of gender and motherhood. This is a Fuller story because it will celebrate including everyone in discussions of gender and motherhood. This is a Fuller story because it will initiate a pathway to justice and love because our words, stories, and actions matter.

This story is important right now because people are dying. Death by suicide. Refusal of healthcare. Politization of ignorance and cruelty. In this moment, we must tell stories that shift our foundational understandings of gender and motherhood. My foundational understanding of gender and motherhood was formed at the age of 15 when I was diagnosed with a condition that confirmed — chromosomally — I was not fully female (XX) and would not be a mother “by traditional means.” When those truths are shattered — at 15, right when truth begins to become complex— silence ensues. Ultimately, this story is my attempt to break the silence.

I will draw primarily from first-person experience and research into gender and motherhood.

I was diagnosed with Turner syndrome at the age of 15. I did not talk about my diagnosis until I was in my 30s and participated in a week-long study at the National Institutes of Health. I wrote about the study in the Washingtonian, The Unspeakable Gift — https://washingtonian.com/2013/08/06/the-unspeakable-gift. This story will be different. That story focuses on the NIH study. This story will focus on the weaponization of gender and motherhood, the beauty and gift of diversity, and the importance of telling our stories — in fullness and hope — to build a loving and just world.

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