{"id":286,"date":"2008-02-01T14:25:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-01T19:25:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=286"},"modified":"2015-03-13T20:24:50","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T01:24:50","slug":"tom-chapin-does-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=286","title":{"rendered":"Tom Chapin Does It Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 1, 2008
\nFriday<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want it, you can get it,
\nBut to get, you’ve got to want it.
\nAnything you want to try \u00e2\u20ac\u201d just let go, fly high!
\n<\/em>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201dtheme song for Make a Wish<\/em>, 1970s Sunday morning children’s program
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0performed by Tom Chapin,\u00c2\u00a0b.\u00c2\u00a01944, American singer-songwriter,\u00c2\u00a0
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0text by Lester Cooper, 1919-1985, American television writer and producer<\/p>\n

The piece I posted\u00c2\u00a0on\u00c2\u00a0Wednesday\u00c2\u00a0about how Tom Chapin saved my life<\/a> was triggered by the piece I wrote about my history with keeping a private diary<\/a>. During those\u00c2\u00a0years of depression, when I would watch Make a Wish<\/em>, I would also from time to time write in\u00c2\u00a0those artist’s sketch books I mentioned,\u00c2\u00a0confess my misery, wail my longing for connection, beweep my outcast state. “Outside my window it’s like black and white tv,” I remember writing. Maybe it’s good none of that material survives.<\/p>\n

Despite my lethargy\u00c2\u00a0these past weeks\u00c2\u00a0and my difficulty concentrating, I did manage to meet a deadline. I prepared a manuscript and an admissions\u00c2\u00a0application for a residency at the Blue Mountain\u00c2\u00a0Center<\/a> in the Adirondack mountains of New York. This required a 30-page writing sample and a\u00c2\u00a0proposal for work to be accomplished while in residence.\u00c2\u00a0Although writers are\u00c2\u00a0encouraged to send “their best work,” I find that each application requires a certain degree of consideration and shaping of the work I choose to send. I got everything together and put going to the post office on my list of things to do.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have time to do that before my regular Thursday morning women’s\u00c2\u00a0study group meeting.\u00c2\u00a0When the\u00c2\u00a0meeting broke up I stopped at home for a little before some\u00c2\u00a0afternoon appointments, the application package still in my car. The mail had already arrived,\u00c2\u00a0 and in it was an envelope from the Millay Colony<\/a>, yet another residency program to which I had applied in October. The envelope was dishearteningly flat, and I know from the process with Jentel that\u00c2\u00a0were I to be offered a spot they would probably have\u00c2\u00a0called to determine which in the range of dates I’d\u00c2\u00a0given suited us both.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rejection was stated in the gentlest and most encouraging of terms. They get many more applications than spots they have to offer (this is a smaller operation than Jentel),\u00c2\u00a0they thank me profusely for my interest in their program, and they encourage me to apply again at a later time.<\/p>\n

I certainly wasn’t unprepared\u00c2\u00a0 for this. I applied to and was rejected by two other programs at the same time that I sent\u00c2\u00a0virtually the same material to Jentel. Being one for four now (two for five if you count Bread Loaf) still gives me a pretty high ratio of acceptances to rejections. But still, it’s not the news you want to get on a gray January day when you have\u00c2\u00a0another package (again, with\u00c2\u00a0almost the same content that Millay saw) waiting in the car. What’s the use, I asked myself? Wouldn’t the $20 processing fee be better spent on a pound of chocolate covered cordial cherries or Clinique Happy To Be body wash?<\/p>\n

I took a deep breath, filed the letter (every writer I know has made a wry or amusing piece out of their history of rejection), and went\u00c2\u00a0to check e-mail and surf the\u00c2\u00a0Web a bit before my dentist appointment.<\/p>\n

I thought about Tom Chapin again. I checked his tour schedule. He’ll be appearing nearby\u00c2\u00a0in a few weeks. B-day card for Tom Chapin<\/em>, I wrote on my To Do list. Make a Wish<\/em> is not available on video. Too bad.\u00c2\u00a0In the mood I was in, any vendor would have had an instant sale. I Googled some more. (And it looks like you’re going to have to Google it yourself. Or You-Tube it. The code keeps getting corrupted between my applying it and publishing it. Search for “Make a Wish Tom Chapin” on You Tube<\/a>. There’s also a link from Tom’s site. Click on “Cool Stuff.”)<\/p>\n

I want it. And I can’t have it unless I try. I watched the video a few times, and went to the post office.<\/p>\n

Thanks Tom. Again.<\/p>\n

Love it? Hate it? Just want to say Hi? Leave a comment, or e-mail me:
\nmargaretdeangelis [at] gmail [dot] com (replace the brackets with @ and a period)<\/em><\/p>\n


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