Reaching for the Brass Ring
By Beth Boosalis Davis, author of Mayor Helen Boosalis: My Mother’s Life in Politics
Flat on my back and sick as I’d ever been, I managed to write on the back of a nearby dental reminder card a specific timetable to do something I’d never before considered – write a book about my mother, Helen Boosalis, and her political life. Days later, after I recovered, I studied my scratchy bedside notes expecting to dismiss them as some delusional sickbed rant. Instead, I realized writing my mother’s story had not come out-of-the-blue but rather from a desire buried deep within. Perhaps my illness had knocked me into a rare state of stillness, a state where something deeper than the next to-do item on my list could command my attention.
Even with clarity of purpose I still had practical matters to consider, such as the fact that I knew nothing about what was involved in writing a book. I may not have doubted the goal but I certainly doubted my ability to achieve it. That’s when I recalled advice my mother was given when she hesitated to jump into her first race for mayor: “the brass ring may not come round again.” I had my timetable, I had my parents still with me, I had my husband’s support. Time to reach for the brass ring.
I didn’t presume to think I could just sit down and type out a book, no matter how familiar the subject. First I converted a little-used 8 X 9 feet space to a “room of my own” for writing. I started journaling, and on my daily walks along Lake Michigan I practiced by writing three descriptions of the lake each day. I bought several books on writing and even read a few, hoping the rest would be absorbed through osmosis.
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