[The Stage is on Fire] is a page-turner in which, much like life, there are no easy answers and yet each step of the journey yields insight and hope. This work of heart must not be missed!
Melanie Faith
Creative Writing Teacher, Essayist & Poet.
Katie Steedly’s first-person piece [The Unspeakable Gift] is a riveting retelling of her participation in a National Institutes of Health study that aided her quest to come to grips with her life of living with a rare genetic disorder. Her writing is superb.
The Society of Professional Journalists
In recognition of receiving the Dateline Award for the Washingtonian Magazine essay, The Unspeakable Gift.
I thank you … It is the authenticity of your “class notes”; and it is the delicacy and skill with which you present the nuances of classroom life and the actuality of your students’ and fellow teachers’ lives.
Maxine Greene
Philosopher and Education Scholar
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Speed of the Sound of Loneliness
So what in the world’s come over you?
From Nancy Griffth’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”
And what in heaven’s name have you done?
You’ve broken the speed of the sound of loneliness
You’re out there running just to be on the run
Loneliness is more common than we think. Being surrounded by people, swimming in seas of conversation, forgetting how quiet feels can be the loneliest place. Connections lost amidst noise. Walls keeping everyone and everything out. Running just to be on the run. Naming loneliness — experiencing loneliness — can be hard in a world where simplistic definitions of community mask the work of a social contract founded on love. In that space, loneliness is powerlessness.
I think about loneliness a lot. An existential loneliness hangs over our world. Loneliness as a result of isolation. Loneliness as a result of fear. Loneliness as a result of pain. I know it is possible that when we step back from the edge of loneliness, we can ask ourselves a few questions. What is the relationship between loneliness and solitude? What can we learn from loneliness? What is the speed of the sound of loneliness? The answers might sound something like loneliness is grief and scar tissue, or loneliness is fear dressed in a suit of armor, or loneliness is grace felt knowing we have loved. I am not sure. What I do know for sure is we all feel loneliness, no matter what labels — extravert, introvert, social butterfly, shy, outgoing, quiet — we embrace. I find solace in the thought that loneliness is shared by us all. It makes it easier to experience and talk about as we connect and commit to building the loving world we need.
About Katie
From Louisville. Live in Atlanta. Curious by nature. Researcher by education. Writer by practice. Grateful heart by desire.
Buy the Book!
The Stage Is On Fire, a memoir about hope and change, reasons for voyaging, and dreams burning down can be purchased on Amazon.
