Corissa Morales

As you may know I’ve decided to join this year’s Pine Street Knit-a-Thon.

The Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon achieves two goals: First, it raises money to benefit Pine Street Inn’s Supportive Housing Program. This program provides permanent housing to women and men whose lives have been derailed by homelessness, giving them a new lease on life.

Second, the participants knit 9” squares that are sewn together to create afghans for the Supportive Housing Program. Upon moving into their new home, each tenant receives a beautiful, unique, handmade blanket. Last year, they received thousands of squares, made 40 blankets in one day and raised nearly $20,000 to support the program.

My goal is to knit at least 25 squares and today is day one!

If you’d like to sponsor me please visit my fundraiser page www.firstgiving.com/corissamorales It would mean a lot to me!

Inferno has now come to me four times, and while I don’t believe in destiny one bit, I do now feel compelled to read this poem. I can’t deny the concentrated exposure I have had in such a limited span of time.

Inferno came to me:
1. The week before Christmast as a brief mention in the book Her Last Death
2. Christmas Eve as a literary symbol in the book The Gargoyle
3. On Christmas day as the theme of a book my brother-in-law gave me for the holiday (The Dante Club)
4. As the theme of The History Channel’s show The Seven Deadly Sins just the other evening.

This memoir dives into the life of a young woman who stands in the shadow of her mother, a woman seasoned in the arts of sex and lying. When faced with a late night phone call and her mother’s possible death the author is forced to make the difficult decision of whether or not to put aside all of the bad memories and join her mother at her bedside, again.

The outwardly sexual nature of this book made me very uncomfortable at the deepest level. It was refreshing to read the work of a female author who is very comfortable and proud of her sexual being; and not have to buy that book in a special section of the store. My deep seated discomfort arose from the source of her sexual energy; confusing that delicate balance between lust and love and an ill-placed desire for closeness through the use of your body.

In all I found this to be a very quick read and despite some of its themes hitting a bit too close to home I enjoyed it thoroughly.