Brazen Careerist

I don't have much use for Penelope Trunk's career advice. Her blog, Brazen Careerist, is chock full of observations that I find vague enough to qualify as horoscopes.

But I subscribe to her RSS feed. Why? Because she also writes stuff like this:

Then, one night, the baby was screaming and our three-year-old wouldn’t go to bed and my husband was telling me that I needed to get the three-year-old some milk and I was saying that he should and I’ll get the baby and he rolled his eyes, and then I took a knife out of the dirty dishes and stabbed my head.

I don’t actually remember doing it. I remember my husband saying, “Oh my god. There’s blood everywhere.”

Here’s how crazy I was: I just put the knife back in the sink and went to get the baby.

Whatever her shortcomings are as a career adviser, it's pretty clear this woman can write.

I'd argue it's also pretty clear that she needs to write.

Her story detailing her 9/11 experience at Ground Zero is one hell of a narrative. She describes being engulfed in the cloud of the collapsing towers, then:

There was complete quiet. No one could talk because no one could breathe. Then I heard cracked glass. I moved toward the noise until I saw a glow coming from a broken window. Somehow, I lifted myself into a broken window that was above my shoulders. I found air. And then I thought only of water. I found my way to a bathroom in that building and inside there were debris-covered men in ties drinking out of a toilet. I drank, too.

It's clear that she's pretty messed up - and I'm sure the causes of that go deeper than any blog post would tell you. You read some of the posts that flirt with those causes - and you want to root for her.

At a minimum, you want her to write more. Pour some demons out onto a page until she's done with them.

At least I do.

So, I keep checking the feed.

Call me a misery hound if you want - but there's a little inspiration there, too.