A blog I love...

 It's been awhile, huh? 

But sometimes you run across something that just fits so well - you gotta tell folks about it.


This time it isn't a book or a short story, but a blog: Just Another Damn Thing to be Strong About.

She writes about a son with a mental illness, surviving cancer, losing her parents, being an art teacher, adoption, Colorado, a teenage daughter, and everything else that just comes with life.  She tells her story.  And her story is enough. 


Check it out.  It's good stuff. 

"Silk Brocade" by Tessa Hadley

This story can be found in the July 27, 2015 issue of The New Yorker magazine.

First Line: "Ann Gallagher was listening to the wireless, cutting out a boxy short jacket with three-quarter-length sleeves, in a pale-lilac wool flecked with navy."

Last Line:  "A jacket hardly mattered, in the scheme of things."

I write literary reviews.  And yet, I loved this short story so much I do not want to write a literary review of it.  

"Analysis destroys wholes.  Some things, magic things, are meant to stay whole.  If you look at their pieces, they go away." (Please ignore the fact that I just quoted Bridges of Madison County.  I know it is not a "literary" delight, but I read it in high school and this became my senior quote.  It has become imbedded deep in my cerebral tissue - not to be denied because of snobbery.)

I do not want anything to be moved, shifted, or reworked in my brain about "Silk Brocade".

There is a feeling that came over me when reading this story - a sense of magic - as when I read Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.  Maybe it is similar timing and setting.  Maybe similar themes - but I don't want to know.  I just want to continue to love it. 

 A brief synopsis?  Very brief.  A young woman is a designer and seamstress, moving her way up in the world, especially when an acquaintance is to marry a rich man with old and lovely materials in his home.  He is willing to share.  With these, Ann can make beautiful, and unique clothing.  There is a drunken picnic, an upcoming wedding, a death, a child, and a silk brocade.

The first and last lines cradle the content of this tale, letting the story naturally sway - move - from moment to moment.

Please read this story without ay intent to dissect or judge or critique. Just experience the fact that this story is enough.

Photo Credit: https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/507556079_640.jpg

Today is TED day: Mac Barnett

"Why a good book is a secret door" by Mac Barnett

I love this TED talk.  It made me laugh, and it talks about how fiction - lies - teach truth.

Mac Barnett quotes Picasso: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” 

We "realize" truth through art.  Just as children do, we discern our world through fiction.

Mac Barnett is an "author of books for children". He teaches us that children can suspend disbelief (Coleridge) in order to tangle out what is needed to grow...  I love this concept.  "We get there when we read".  

He says "kids are the best audience for serious literary fiction."  We need that same innocence when we read in order to glean all we can from novels.

The story is enough.  




 

Today is TED Day - Dave Isay

On Fridays I will post a TED talk that I find supports my claims that the story is enough: enough to teach truth and create connection.

"Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear"

Dave Isay is the founder of StoryCorps.

I first found StoryCorps on NPR.  It is an oral history project - but it is one of the largest ever.  Recorded conversations - casual interviews - are preserved and shared.  Because "everyone around [us] had a story the world needs to hear".  Because talking and sharing our stories is how we learn about each other - that our lives are not meant to be lived in "quiet desperation".  

The story is enough to help us discover how similar we are.  We discern collective truths.  We find we are not very different when it comes to the heart.

Reading Stories

What do we learn about life - our life - by reading stories?  

EVERYTHING!

How to fight dragons.  How to survive in the wilderness.  How to be still.  How to wait.  How to love.  How to be sad.  How to dance.  How to kiss.  How to cheer.  How to "boo" and "hiss".  How to cry.  How to give.  How to take.  How to create.  How to apologize.  How to hide.  How to destroy.  How to ride a horse.  How to destroy a species.  How to classify and subjugate.  How to lie.  How to steal.  How to tune a piano.  How to feed a cat.  How to feel.  How to see.  How to hear.  How to know.


How to honor ourselves.

How to  honor another.

How to be a hero or heroine.

How to allow someone else their turn.

How to tell and be the truth.

The story?  It is enough.