Separation Anxiety and Braxton Hicks

Just finished the big article for the upcoming issue of SHM -- the issue we refer to around here alternately as the Tough Issues issue, the Going Out On A Limb Here issue, the So How Many Readers Are We Going To Lose With This One issue, and (more recently) the This Really Should Have Gone To The Printers A Week Ago issue.

This article was the hardest to write, and the hardest to let go of, because I want so much for it to be perfect and of course it won't even be close. And I'm not being modest. When it comes to modesty, I'm with Sherlock Holmes: "I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers." (In the interest of truth, rather than modesty, I freely admit that I remembered the gist of this paragraph, but had to look the passage up in order to repeat it here.)

I don't see myself, then, as lacking in decorum when I say that I think I'm a perfectly competent writer, any more than I would see it as boasting to say I have red hair. I do think my gifts lie more in the realm of the comic than the serious, and that's fine when it comes to scribbling bitter wish lists or mock-serious quizzes; but when it's time to address myself to the subject of how non-religious homeschooling parents can help our children cope with the idea of death, I worry that I'm simply not up to the job.

My comfort is that, when it comes to simply being able to present a quick, easy, comforting answer to parents struggling with the issue, no one is up to the job. There may be comfort to be found, but quick and easy are out of the question. If I can offer anecdotes I've collected on the subject, so that parents can know that at least they're not alone and the fact that their children are worried about or frightened of the idea of death doesn't mean their parents screwed up somehow; my own ideas and suggestions on the subject, gathered with the help of a lot of conversations with a lot of brilliant, caring secular homeschooling parents; and a heck of a long list of book suggestions -- well, that's something, anyway.

Still, emailing that article to my husband to typeset was painful. Wrenching. Never mind that I still have to proofread everything, and that he and I are going to sit down and figure out if it would be better to break it up with the book suggestions as separate pieces (or are they too integral a part of the flow of the article?); this felt like sending my child out in the world alone too soon.

At least I was able, against all odds, to write a funny piece on the subject as well. Maybe that could be one of the articles we post to read for free in this issue. But shouldn't the lead article be the one we offer up? Or, heck, we could do both.

Oh, I don't know. I've still got reviews to write. None of which are about death, if memory serves.

Wish me luck. The contractions have started.