Press Onward
With Mitt's impending placement on the GOP throne, I am getting my fair share of press questionings. Oh man, do I hate reading articles I've given interviews for, it's like hearing the sound of your own voice, a foreign, odd experience demanding,
Do I really sound like that?
A few weeks ago, in a correspondence with Jordan (Oh Happy Day) about how our little sound bites can turn into messy mouthfuls of misconstrued mentionings, I vowed never to talk to the press again,
"The longer I do this the more I think not talking to the media is a good idea. I always sound like a moron. And maybe it's because I am? Probably because I am,"
I wrote.
But what does an opinionated, eternal-attention-starved middle-child, do when her beloved religion is center court and she's got the ball? Maybe not the ball, but a ball, or, balls (I suppose) enough to take a phone call from the reporter in New York from Buzzfeed or answer the email from Religion Dispatches?
Then, when the article arrives like a loud whistle on web, there's the reaction! The drama! The scathing comments! The postulation! The ridicule from PEOPLE I KNOW IN REAL LIFE on the spaces meant for discussion of the masses. And the part where I run into a guy downtown who says to me,
"I was in a hotel room reading a really artsy magazine and there was a picture of you in a dress, with your arms out. It was a good article, I can't remember the magazine."
(This one perhaps?)
I just can't quit the press. It might be the best thing for the overall health of me (and my family) to stop returning inquiries, but it plays to the part of me who hopes for perfection, who wants to someday hear/read her own voice and think,
I like the sound of that.
One of the interviews I gave last week was for Meredith Blake from The Daily. I just want to clarify three things. (I always do everything in threes, it's a weird tendency, but it keeps me from yelling at my children SO LET ME JUST DO IT.)
1. The term "Bloggernaccle" is misused in this article. The Bloggernaccle is a group (or choir, so to speak) of Mormon-written blogs discussing and debating the doctrine, history, current events and ideas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's all Mormon, all the time. There aren't posts about the sensuality hair loss or vlogs with Whitney. We went to battle on this here and here. It's also a place for my people's best writers and thinkers and I'm honored that someone would think my blog could belong to it, but alas, it doesn't.
2. It must be said time and time again, I didn't take over my sister's blog when she was in an airplane crash. I wrote about my experiences with it on my own blog. Writing/blogging was an important coping mechanism for me during that time. But I didn't touch her blog much, except to repost some of her old content for readers who were just being introduced to her blog/readers who missed her postings.
3. I love being quoted alongside Nat and it's happening with greater frequency these days. I think of the conglomerate of bloggers named in the Salon article about Mormon Mommy Bloggers, (the source from which much of this press originated) Nat and I represent the writers.We should have our own wire service--me and Nat taking calls, answering emails, taking no press-oners.
Press-oners.
Get it?