{"id":877,"date":"2009-01-01T10:04:44","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T14:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=877"},"modified":"2009-01-03T10:10:35","modified_gmt":"2009-01-03T14:10:35","slug":"ten-years-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=877","title":{"rendered":"Ten Years After"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>January\u00c2\u00a01, 2009
\nThursday<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Today is the day I start the new me!”<\/em>
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d George Booth,\u00c2\u00a0 b.\u00c2\u00a01926, American cartoonist
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 from a 1991 New Yorker cartoon<\/a> showing a man in a bathtub sipping a martini
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0and talking either to himself or to the twenty-five cats in his living room
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 pasted in my private paper journal at January 1, 1999 (Volume 8, p. 10)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

From my paper journal:<\/p>\n

“January 1, 1999
\nFriday<\/em><\/p>\n

An old copy of the “new me” cartoon, copied and pasted in over and over. What does the “new me” do?\u00c2\u00a0 She writes every day, never misses a friend’s birthday, a deadline,\u00c2\u00a0or an opportunity, has a clean, orderly,\u00c2\u00a0and attractive home to which she frequently welcomes guests for simple suppers of soup and bread,\u00c2\u00a0is slim and beautiful, and is beloved by everyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a combination of Martha Stewart, the Princess of Wales,\u00c2\u00a0and Mother Teresa.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I’m coming up on the tenth anniversary of the start of my online\u00c2\u00a0journal. On February 13, 1999, what would have been my mother’s eighty-eighth birthday, I posted an essay called “Keeping and Holding the Rapture” <\/a>in which I quoted Sylvia Plath\u00c2\u00a0on her reasons for keeping a private diary. I didn’t know then that I was joining a small but growing community of\u00c2\u00a0journallers (not journalists)\u00c2\u00a0who would become known as bloggers. I didn’t know that I was in the vanguard of a trend. I was only trying to do what the editor of Plath’s journals said the poet was trying to do, “to chart a life, to pique a memory, to confirm inner life and perhaps to dispel the doubt that one exists at all.”<\/p>\n

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.\u00c2\u00a0After nearly thirty years I’d left the classroom and was determined not to use the “R” word to describe my status. I had more than enough interests to occupy my time \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I was the mother of a seventh grader involved in many school and church activities, I was active in the Emily Dickinson scholarly community, and, of course, I had my writing. I had a well-begun novel about domestic life among the Pennsylvania Germans of nineteenth century Berks County as well as some other fragments of fiction. I also had some autobiographical material and a box of letters that Ron’s\u00c2\u00a0uncle had written to his family during World War II that needed to be transcribed and studied.<\/p>\n

And I also had weight to lose, clutter to clear, art projects to complete, family administrative details to manage, and friendships to maintain. I had, in essence, the Six Goals of a Quality Life I have been pursuing ever since.<\/p>\n

And I’ve been pursuing that “new me” since before 1991. The publication of the Booth cartoon only gave me a visual reminder.<\/p>\n

So here I am on another New Year’s Day, still trying to meet the Six Goals of a Quality Life, still trying to keep and hold the rapture that is my life, still charting a lot of it online.<\/p>\n

In my first post I quoted Sylvia Plath on her belief that she was doing the best work of her life, writing the poems that would make her name. I invited readers to follow me while I made my name. Plath gave herself only four months after that pronouncement to do the work that indeed did make her name.<\/p>\n

I’ve been at this ten years. I’m a better writer than I was when I began. Two years ago I said I was at the beginning of the ten best years of my life. I still believe that. Come with me again, into the new year and the new me.<\/p>\n

A year ago<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0I visited the cr\u00c3\u00a8che at the church of my early childhood.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, I did not post on the first of the year.<\/p>\n

Three years ago<\/a>, I took another photograph for my “A Tree Grows in Harrisburg”\u00c2\u00a0project.<\/p>\n

Four years ago<\/a>, I wrote once again about longing to\u00c2\u00a0visit Wyoming.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

To be included on the notify list, e-mail me:
\nmargaretdeangelis [at] gmail [dot] com (replace the brackets with @ and a period)<\/em><\/p>\n


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