I was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the second of ten children. We were poor. My father was out of work for a year or two after I was born. He and my mother filed bankruptcy, and we ended up living in a public housing project. Skip ahead 60 years. I worked full-time with few breaks for 47 years. I acquired five college degrees -- BA (Russian, U of MN), MA and Phd (Slavic Languages and Literature, U Mich), JD (SMU, Dallas), and MLIS (Saint Catherine's/Dominican University, Saint Paul). I toiled, among other things, as a college professor, a lawyer, and a law librarian. Guess what? I am poor (but extremely happy). I sell my books because I'd like people to witness the babies for whom I've been midwife. Making money off them would seem to me like exploitation. I hope that someday I will find public housing. What do they say about trees and where the apples fall? What did Shelley write in "Ozymandias?" Whoever or whatever created star systems and galaxies and the sun and the earth, has an ironic sense of humor and a love of the absurd. So do I.
