Here is one of the finest columns ever written by Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow. The subject is a can’t win topic: half the people who read it will agree, half won’t. But Steve Brown did such an excellent job of letting the narrator, Nicole Stewart, tell the story, her story, it’s almost as if he is in the background, serving drinks like one of the footmen on Downton Abbey.
With a story like this, that’s how it should be.
Regardless of how you feel about the controversial subject of abortion, you will find that this story pulls at your heartstrings. It is a realistic portrayal of what thousands of women go experience when a pregnancy does not “go right”, and why I personally believe abortion should be left as a personal decision between a woman, her physician, her partner, and no one else.
You may disagree, and I respect that tremendously.
Nicole is the founder of Oral Fixation, a local theater series featuring true-life storytelling on stage by real life Dallas people. This is no open mike: every story is curated and edited, under Nicole’s guidance. Each show is loosely themed on a figure of speech or theme, such as pregnancy, or an upcoming performance called White Elephant.
“Every word is earned,” says Nicole, the show’s creator. “There are no ums and likes.”
She works with the writers behind the scenes, almost like the producer of an album, providing notes and teasing out the best stories to ensure there’s “not a single stinker” in the batch. I saw “Bun in the Oven”, stories on pregnancy, abortion, and one entrepreneur who actually changed his life and career with a “bun in the oven” in the form of pizza dough. The performances range from gut-churning to riotous, from dark, horrifying stories of rape to confessionals of awkward sexual intimacy. “You’re getting to see behind the mask of someone’s face,” she says.”
Indeed, you are, and I love this stuff.
You may wonder why I have jumped on this story for a real estate blog? Nicole happens to be the grand-daughter of Henry S. Miller, Jr. one of Dallas’ most revered real estate developers and leaders, who bought Highland Park Village in the 1970’s, and who was a huge contributor to Dallas charitable landscape.
