A Day
in the Life!
B Y A S H L E Y A LT
The life of a spa professional is a continuous cycle of daily
responsibilities that help make the spa world go round. Pulse
asks ISPA members to give us a sneak peek into their daily
lives to help us understand the roles they play and the
difference they make on a daily basis.
“Unquestionably the most
important moment of his life
pertaining to his career was the
day he received a phone call from
the White House with news that
he had been chosen as President
Obama’s inaugural poet.”
RICHARD BLANCO, POET
T
hey say every poet is writing one
poem all their life, meaning
figuratively, that every poet’s
work is rooted in some kind of central
obsession.
If this is true, Richard Blanco’s
obsession comes down to one word –
home. “All that big word calls to mind
with respect to my family, community,
cultural identity, sexuality and all much
more,” Blanco says.
“I have been searching for ‘home’ all
my life, personally, and through
poetry.”Richard Blanco is one of the most
beloved and influential poets and story-
tellers of today. Traveling the world
uniting people to reconnect on the
human experience, Blanco encourages us
to embrace our differences in one another
and find the beauty in diversity.
As the poet, memoirist, public speaker
and teacher likes to say, he was “made in
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Cuba, assembled in Spain, and imported
to the United States.”
As much as Blanco loves writing
poetry, it can be terrifying and frustrating
and difficult to do so.
Those are the challenges, though, that
make the thrill of communing his self
with the world all worthwhile. As a child
Cuban immigrant raised in a working-class
family, poetry wasn’t exactly encouraged
growing up.
“Art, and especially poetry, was not
part of our lives,” Blanco remarked.
“When the time came to decide on a
major in college, I chose civil engineering
and tabled my creative impulses for the
moment.”
And oddly enough, engineering is
what paved the road to poetry.
“I knew poetry was more than a
curiosity or casual interest—it was love, a
vocation,” he recalled.
Unquestionably the most important
moment of his life pertaining to his career
was the day he received a phone call from
the White House with news that he had
been chosen as President Obama’s
inaugural poet.
“At first, I was bewildered, wondering
if it was some cruel joke a friend was
playing on me,” he said. “Before any
apprehension or pressure set in, I thought
of my father, my mother, my grandparents
– all their struggles and hard work to make
a better life in America for themselves and
my brother and me. I began to weep
thinking, ‘This is because of them.’”
Understanding that his story, along
with many others, will always be a part of
the American narrative is essentially what
Blanco would like for people to take away
from his poetry; that America is ever-
changing and fluid.
“While sitting at the platform waiting
for my name to be called to read my
poem to the entire nation, for the first
time in my life I knew I had a place at the
American table.”
In his day-to-day routine, writing is
undoubtedly Blanco’s favorite part of the
day. “I’m ‘addicted’ to poetry because
every time I write a poem I learn
something new about myself, my life and
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 54)