{"id":5795,"date":"2016-12-01T09:17:57","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T14:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=5795"},"modified":"2016-12-01T09:27:04","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T14:27:04","slug":"begin-with-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=5795","title":{"rendered":"Begin with a Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"holidailiesbanner\"<\/p>\n

December 1, 2016
\nThursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

. . . Blue sky lolling<\/em>
\nbeyond the window<\/em>
\nframe \u00e2\u20ac\u201d eyes open.<\/em>
\nJust a way of looking.<\/em>
\nBegin with a change.<\/em>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201d Marci Rae Johnson<\/a>, American poet<\/p>\n

Happy Holidailies, in medias res,<\/em> where everything happens.<\/p>\n

Here is poet and critic Stephen Burt, writing in Boston Review<\/em><\/a> on Tuesday: “Like many of you, I have spent the days since the election in a combination of frantic distraction; intermittent, flailing activism; attempts to focus on my private and professional life; and fear.”<\/p>\n

That’s pretty much what I did, at first. Election day came while I was trying to straighten out a snafu in scheduling a biopsy for some suspicious new spots that appeared on Ron’s previously unaffected lung. Then Leonard Cohen died. I got a stomach virus that laid me out for two days. I had to skip a book discussion I had been looking forward to because I couldn’t make any sense of the text when I sat down to read it. I began charting my mood every hour, saw depression approaching, and made an appointment to discuss adjusting my medication.<\/p>\n

But even before that interview, which has yet to take place, something shifted. I read the book, we got good news about Ron (the new spots are a benign granuloma, and there remains “no evidence of disease,” on this, the first anniversary of his first chemo treatment), and I got a smile of recognition and a “Joey hug” (he touches your face and pulls your forehead in to touch his) from my grandson, now five months old.<\/p>\n

The flailing and the fear have resolved to focus as I make decisions about what to do in response to the events of November 8, and I’ve gone back to work on my writing. During the early aftermath, I came to understand that the main male character in my linked stories would probably be a Trump voter, and I want to learn to write him without stereotyping him, and without rancor. (Although, to be truthful, he has disappointed me.)<\/p>\n

I’m back to the blog. Happy Holidailies.<\/p>\n


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