Twenty Years After We Had Left So

Change, When It Comes, Cracks Everything Open.

Stories Are The One Sure Way I Know To Touch The Heart And Change The World.

I Did Not Begin With Craft, I Began With Strong Feelings And Worked Toward Craft.

And Of Course These Days I Feel Like There Is A Nation Of Us - Displaced Southerners And Children Of The Working Class. We Listen To Steve Earle, Mary J. Blige, And K.d. Lang. We Devour Paperback Novels And Tell Evil Mean Stories, Value Stubbornness Above Patience And A Sense Of Humor More Than A College Education. We Claim Our Heritage With A Full Appreciation Of How Often It Has Been Disdained. And Let Me Promise You, You Do Not Want To Make Us Angry.

My Heart Broke All Over Again. I Wanted My Life Back, My Mama, But I Knew I Would Never Have That. The Child I Had Been Was Gone With The Child She Had Been. We Were New People, And We Didn't Know Each Other Anymore. I Shook My Head Desperately.