Don't set the bar too high

I linked the other day to Katia's post about opening, as it were, for Michelle Tea at a reading in L.A. on Sunday where M.T. was treated like a rock star by a packed house of glamorous dykes.

Every author deserves to be treated like a rock star at least once in their career. Especially Michelle, who not only has put in the work as a writer, but is genuinely generous with her time and encouragement of other writers.

But just now I ran across some woman's list of about twenty "life goals," including:
      - PhD in linguistic feminism
      - Learn Russian or Arabic
      - Have babies
      - Have coffee with Michelle Tea

The fact that the last one is much lower on her list than the others means it's either less important than the others, or she thinks it will be harder to achieve. Perhaps she thinks she needs a PhD in linguistic feminism to have coffee with Michelle Tea. I don't know about the coffee date, but all you have to do to have a word with Michelle Tea is go to a bunch of readings and literary events in San Francisco, because she attends a lot of them, and just go up to her and chat. She's really nice and gives time to everybody.

Hero worship is okay if it motivates you. If you think Michelle Tea or StarryShine or Benjamin Bernanke would want you to get that PhD, by all means go for it. But most people are approachable*, especially if you have something even slightly interesting to say to them.

*Famous people I've met who were extremely nice and approachable:
     George Romero, director of "Night of the Living Dead" and many other zombie films
     Jane Hirshfield, poet
     Phoebe Snow, singer-songwriter
     David Bromberg, singer-songwriter
     Kathy Acker, author

Michelle Tea, writers, George Romero