Thursday, September 18, 2014

Thoughts of the Day and a Photo of Marcello***





When I opened my back door this morning to let the dog out, I was surprised to feel that the impossible heat had broken. I could almost hear the cogs of my little brain working, freed from the apocalyptic stasis of the past few days. I might even cook tonight.

Wasn't it just a short time ago that the NFL thought that the admission of gay players into its hallowed, manly ranks would bring it down? I hear the tinny sounds of dirt hitting a coffin, a grave being dug, and I can't help but think hmmmmmmm.

My friend Jeneva Stone, the brilliant writer, poet, advocate and mother of a severely disabled young man, wrote a post on her blog the other day that is living inside me. You should hop over and read it at Busily Seeking 2.0.  Oh, it has nothing to do with football.

Jeneva's post made me sit up in my own bed where I'd been lying, yellow wallpaper in my mind. I am strengthened, galvanized. I was also made whole by the incredibly generous favor from my friend Cara. I can't reveal what it was, but it came along with a tub of Lalicious Sugar Kiss Extraordinary Whipped Sugar Scrub that I dragged myself out of bed for, took a shower and slathered all over my body. When I slipped into bed, I was reminded, again, of how small the measures are that one must take to feel replenished.

Absent anything interesting to binge on as far as television, I've been on a bit of a reading frenzy. I finished Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, and am making my delighted way through We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas. Next up is Tana French's In the Woods, a genre that I generally don't like but recommended by my friend Vesuvius whose taste is impeccable and for whom, despite our age difference, I aspire to be more like. This morning I discovered newly crowned MacArthur poet Terrance Hayes' poetry and can't wait to read more of it.

Christy Shake, a beautiful writer and advocate, my soul sister in Maine, has been making THCa oil to give to her son Calvin whose seizure disorder is as devastating as Sophie's. She wrote a letter to her doctors this morning that ya'll should read, too. Here it is: Dear Docs: Calvin and Cannabis.

It's amazing what a bit of cool air, literature, poetry, feminism, NFL-bashing and freedom from seizures can do to one's little brain, isn't it?








***I'm going to see La Dolce Vita tonight on the big screen for the first time since college. I am so excited I can hardly bear it.

8 comments:

  1. Cooler here today, as well, which gives a sweet effect to the mind.
    I adore Anthony Doerr. Wrote him once, via e-mail. He responded.
    I haven't read that book though. Why? I will.
    The blog posts you linked, I read. Thank you.
    We share our stories. We live larger because of them.
    Love always...M

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  2. Such a great post. So much to chew on. I'm happy the heat has broken. Life may resume!

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  3. Oh, La Dolce Vita, what a film. I'm glad you have some "me" time! :-)

    Best wishes to youa nd your beautiful family.

    Greetings from London.

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  4. Tana French is my FAVORITE. And that's saying a lot, coming from me. If you haven't read Anne Fadiman's collection of essays about books and reading, they are like chocolate bonbons and make excellent bedtime reading--the book is Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. I loved All The Light We Cannot See. Also quite enjoying the Forsyte Saga on Netflix.

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  5. Excellent! So glad the heat broke! Thanks for the reading recommendations, though I find that it takes me a ridiculous amount of time to get through a book these days. And La Dolce Vita on the big screen -- woo hoo!

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  6. thank you, eee.
    what i would give to see la dolce with you on the big screen.
    fuck.

    here in maine waiting for you.
    can we talk?
    xoxo

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  7. I am reading We Are Not Ourselves and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

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  8. I loved Into the Woods! Let us know what you think, ok? I just finished reading Cloud Atlas. First I watched the movie, then I read the book, then I watched the movie again. Both are brilliant. Now I am bereft, my usual post-good-book state, and I don't know what to read next, so thanks for telling us what you're reading. I have both of these other books on my list. And I'm listening to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, read by Jim Broadbent. It's wonderful.
    Thinking of you today as the clouds build, suggest rain, blow a little wind on us, and run away calling Nyah nyah nyah!

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