burning like matchsticks in the face of the darkness

When Thom came over last night, one of the library books I had out was Aaron Becker's board book You Are Light. Thom commented on it, so I walked them through it and commented on the weird "This light is you. And you are light." pivot at the end.

I referenced "you are the bread and the knife" and so then I pulled up the Billy Collins poem and then also the "fool to be in love with you" one -- which led to assorted Billy Collins Internet rabbit holes, including Smith College Poetry Center readers, which led to Martín Espada's "Imagine the Angels of Bread." For two English majors in love, we don't actually talk about poetry much, but we both like poetry, even though we don't read much of it these days.

Oh, Joy Harjo is going to be Smith's Commencement speaker this year. (And Ruth Simmons will be Harvard's -- which is a Smith connection, not a poetry connection, to be clear.)

In other news, DRFD (the umbrella I'm under at work -- Division of Research and Faculty Development) has a book club, and this month it was Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns, which I went to for the conversation even though I haven't read the book yet. Next month, it's Gabby Rivera's Juliet Takes a Breath, because Amy (my direct manager, and the one person of color in the entire ~8-person management team) loves it. I started reading the book today, and about a third of the way through the book, one of the things Juliet learns about in her "thrown into the deep end of queer hippie Portland, Oregon" is polyamory -- which means that my manager has at least some context for polyamory (and so will everyone else at work who reads this book). :)

My 15-year (virtual) College Reunion was this weekend, and one of the few bits of not pre-recorded programming was the class-specific "webinar" -- which turned into a regular Zoom (they upgraded us all to panelists) and was largely just catching up. It started out kind of awkward but ended up being mostly kind of lovely.

Jennifer Walters was the Dean of Religious Life when I was at Smith, and she's now Dean of the College at Bryn Mawr, but she was bonus surprise on our Zoom.  I had not realized/had forgotten that she started at Smith in 2001 with us, so she's sort of honorary class of '05.  She started at Bryn Mawr in 2016, so this year's graduates were her first class at Bryn Mawr, just like we were her first class at Smith.

She read us this poem, from a collection she was reading when she started at Smith (Joy Harjo's The Woman Who Fell from the Sky):

The Creation Story

I'm not afraid of love
or its consequence of light.
 
It's not easy to say this
or anything when my entrails
dangle between paradise
and fear.
 
I am ashamed
I never had the words
to carry a friend from her death
to the stars
correctly.
 
Or the words to keep
my people safe
from drought
or gunshot.
 
The stars who were created by words
are circling over this house
formed of calcium, of blood
 
this house
in danger of being torn apart
by stones of fear.
 
If these words can do anything
if these songs can do anything
I say bless this house
with stars.
 
Transfix us with love.

seen on facebook this morning:

(1) The Naked I: Monologues from Beyond the Binary
OMG I love this show so much! (I saw it when it debuted at Smith and then again at UMass Amherst)
returns to Smith (Hillyer Hall) Tuesday, March 23 @ 7:30pm
Also: Social Justice Week (sometimes I love my alma mater)

(2) Australia may have made gender history this week, as the New South Wales government lays claim to being the first in the world to recognise an individual’s sex as officially “not specified”.

SCBC

9:00-9:30am prayer group.  Ross invited us to write down a couple of prayers we have for the church and then a couple of personal prayers.  I, um, did my usual list of personal prayers, and I managed "for "All Means All" to be a reality in the Church" as a church prayer.  Because there were only 5 of us, he invited us to share our prayers aloud.  I explained that I had listed lots of personal prayers, because that's how I am, and that I didn't do much about prayers for the church, since SCBC isn't my church, and also because a lot of the prayers I have for the church "I wouldn't want to impose on people here."  (Ross had explained that we would swap papers and pray throughout the week the prayers on the paper we got.)  I literally said, "One of my prayers for the global church is the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual persons."  So when we said them aloud, I just said a few of my personal prayers, and I said my one written church prayer and explained that "All Means All" is United Methodist language about how the church should be open to all people, "you can interpret that however you wish."  We still had some time, so we swapped papers and then went around and prayed aloud some of the prayers on the paper we got, and Ross took mine and his praying around "All Means All" really focused on sort of bringing people to Christ -- reaching out to the unchurched and all.  Oh well.

I like getting the practice at extemporaneous prayer, but I had hoped that this would be time to really sit down and devote oneself to "pray without ceasing," surrounded by other believers who are also praying with you.  Though the ideas of praying someone else's prayers throughout the week and also of developing a small group where we hear each other's prayer concerns each week, definitely have value.

David did the incessant "Father God" praying again.  When I prayed, I opened with "Generous and Loving God, Mother and Father of us all" and closed with, "in the name of God the Creator, Jesus our Redeemer, and the Spirit our Sustainer, Amen."

I am jealous of the classes Ross is taking this summer --
(1) Hebrew
(2) an Old Testament survey class which requires he read the entire Old Testament, twice

***

CHPC

Karl was at a conference, so Kelsey and Kristy led service.

Kelsey's Words of Assurance she invoked the story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' garment.  Jesus said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well.  Go in peace."  Kelsey said, "Hear the Good News: Your sins are forgiven."
I was SO STOKED to hear Words of Assurance that were succinct and straightforward (I can't focus on Karl's Words of Assurance to save my life) and clearly rooted in Scripture (I don't necessarily disagree with what Karl says is the Good News, but I would like a clear actual source).

Scripture Readings:
Psalm 89:5-18
Mark 4:35-41
      I read from the NRSV, but swapped out "Adonai" and "God" (or "Jesus" in the Mark reading) for some of the "LORDs" and "he's."  In the receiving line, Kelsey praised me for having done a good job of reading with emphasis and everything.
      [I also liturgized the presentation -- saying, "The first Scripture reading is from... Hear what the Spirit it is saying to the church. {reading} The Word of God for the people of God."  (And the second time I did that, some of the congregation responded "Thanks be to God" -- which I had sort of said under my breath both times.)]

Sermon: "Stormy Weather" ( crossing borders )

Closing Hymn: "Guide My Feet"
It's all high-energy, and I was loving it.
[I'd forgotten that I used to sing this song to myself a lot -- "for I don't want to run this race alone in vain."]

***

After service, I was complaining to Kelsey about how I've been really dissatisfied with worship at CHPC recently, and I think she really didn't know what to do with me.  Then I was complaining to Katherine and she told me I should talk to Kristy (who's on Session, which meets this Wednesday).  I actually had really good conversation with Kristy.  She talked about the various factors contributing to fatigue on the part of the Session (which all made a lot of sense to me) and she told me about various committees.  And then I talked to Katherine some more, and it was really useful for me to rehearse articulating the things that are bothering me about CHPC, and I came home and wrote up a whole email (at first I was gonna write a bunch of different ones -- one about worship, one about outreach, one about the podcasts -- but stuff was so connected that I decided it made sense to just make it all one email).  When I was coming home from CWM I was worrying that I had come across as hurtful and etc., but I am trying to not stress about that, because I am not good at doing the very politic couching language, and I talked about positive steps and even things I was willing to help out on, so it's not like I just made a list of things I hate about CHPC.

( CHPC committee list, for my reference )

( email I sent to CHPC )

( email I sent to Laura Ruth )

CWM

"We make the road by walking."
-Myles Horton

( sermon -- David and Goliath, Jesus calming the storm, courage, faith in ourselves, making new paths )

We blessed fathers and then sang "Fathering God" -- a slightly edited version of "Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth," because Tallessyn pointed out that the queerest thing we this congregation could do was to take this attributes which have been traditionally attributed to mothers and attribute them also to fathers.

Then we had Reception of New Members.  Tiffany talked about how United Methodism doesn't require that you go through weeks of classes or anything, because while knowing about church history and etc. is important, what's primary is the Holy Spirit moving in you (hi Wesley's "I felt my heart strangely warmed"), and so if you feel moved right now you are welcome to come up.  I felt like she was talking to me, but not only am I stubbornly (and probably somewhat immaturely) committed to Not Officially Being a Member anywhere (When I was telling FCS-Ian about Annual Conference and mentioned that I can't vote since I'm not actually a Methodist -- though admittedly at Conference I think only delegates get votes -- and he asked if I was a member anywhere and I said no and he said he supposed that made sense since I'm involved so many places.) but I am also not willing to commit to supporting the UMC.  CWM is my home church, more and more this feels true, and I know more about Methodism than I do any of the other denominations I'm involved in, and I've started thinking of Methodists as "my people" when I encounter someone who grew up Methodist, but to actually commit to that institutional church...

***

Rev.S. said that the disciples don't ask Jesus, "Fix this," but "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" that when people reach out to us in crisis, they are not necessarily looking for us to fix thing (though that may be our instinctual response) but rather to care that they are suffering.

For anyone braving the Job portion of the lectionary, may I recommend a Radio National "Encounter" program called "Ashes," looking at the Book of Job (hat-tip: Heidi).  I still really like Robert Eisen's take on the "happy ending" of Job.

***

( joy sadhana )

SCBC Adult Ed video was on Luke 5:17-26 ... Jesus heals the paralytic ... "Faith From The Roof"

Notes:
Capernaum: "Jesus' home for the remainder of his time on Earth"
"Having Jesus around could be expensive -- especially if you invite him into your house."
"Jesus loved having his church services interrupted by people with faith and determination."
"Jesus saw the faith of the man's friends and was touched."
Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven," and the narrator asked if he was ignoring the obvious in favor of the spiritual (commenting that this is something many pastors nowadays do) and said no, explaining that in those days people thought if you were sick it was because you had done something wrong, and so Jesus was saying, "God is not angry at you."  I was really impressed, because you have to work to get that interpretation from the text -- have to go in with the agenda that Jesus is not just saying, "Your sins being forgiven trump any other problems you have," and that is not a theological agenda I would have expected from this series.  I was, however, uncomfortable with the way that the narrator kept being like, "THE JEWS had a system wherein you had to make a sacrifice (which you would usually have to buy) to have your sins forgiven," though yes his message that "Jesus freely forgiving sins upset the economic structure and took power out of the hands of people who didn't want to give up their power" was totally a message I hear a lot in my leftie churches.  (In discussion later, Owen was talking about how preachers often don't challenge their parishioners, preach this tame Jesus, and I was like, "Actually, in a lot of my churches, especially in my evening church, we often talk about how Jesus was really radical, turning over the established order -- though we try to do it in a way that's not so negative on Judaism, by the way ... I was kind of offended by that in the video ... just wanted to put that out there," and Owen nodded understandingly, like, "Yes, I too noticed that very problematic aspect of the video.")

At one point Owen told a story of being at a funeral during the Iran hostage crisis and everyone being all, "Let's wipe those people off the map," and he was like, "I don't think that's what Christ would want, I don't think that's what our grandmother taught us," and he said, "We just wanna have a powerful reaction because we have the power."  I was really impressed and surprised given my impression of the post-9/11 Christian Right.  (Yes, for all that I'm, "No, the people who are on the other side from you are not necessarily scary," my time at SCBC has been frequently reminding me that just because people are not socially/theologically left-of-center in the way that I'm used to doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to hold all the opinions that I expect them to.)

We talked about how even nowadays people will often say that if you prayed to be healed and you weren't healed it's because you didn't have enough faith or whatever.  (I commented that Jesus was moved by the faith of the friends, and we don't know anything about the man's own faith, and that's really interesting given our traditional ideas about forgiveness being something that comes through your personal relationship with Jesus/God.)

Apparently they had done a session on the Prosperity Gospel (and agreed that they didn't think that was actually how God works).  Owen mentioned the Book of James "ask without doubting" bit, and I said that that exists in tension with other parts of the Bible, that for instance the Great Commission we read that "some doubted" but Jesus empowers and sends forth ALL of them.  (Yes, Mark Allan Powell's Loving Jesus is clearly one of the most influential books I have read.)

Owen asked us if we'd have negative consequences of out choice to follow Christ, and after the second person talked about their moment of accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior and whether that created a rift between them and some of their loved ones, I commented that the whole "accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior" is really not a part of my personal theology and while I can see how it could cause rifts between people (though I don't think that's what Christ wants -- which I said), what I was thinking about when I was thinking about Owen's question was how as followers of Christ we are called to do HARD things, that we are called to love EVERYBODY, that we are called to give up everything we have and follow Jesus, and we argue around that, saying that people were more nomadic in those days and they actually had Jesus with them in the flesh and they could trust in the kindness of strangers, but we are told the story of the rich young man who did so many good things and he asked Jesus, "What's the next step?  What do I need to do to get to heaven?  How can I truly follow you?" and Jesus said, "Give everything you have to the poor and follow me," and he couldn't do that, the rich young man went away sad.  I actually felt bad that I'd gotten into the economic aspect, because the whole question of how we can best use our money and should we trust that God will provide for us like He does for the lilies and the sparrows is a whole nother conversation I wasn't even interested in having ... I'd initially meant to focus on the fact that we are called to do really difficult things like LOVE EVERYBODY, but thankfully no one continued the discussion in the "What should we do with our money?" vein.

We talked some about how people get so fixated on "enjoying" worship, and I didn't get to bring up Mark Allan Powell's "You would die for Jesus but you won't give him an hour of your time on Sunday morning?" (worship is for God, not us) versus the analogy I heard from Ari that God appreciates our worship like a parent appreciates gifts from a small child.  Owen at least does seem to have a good balance between, "Yes, you should find a place to worship that works for you ... but it shouldn't just be about 'how you feel.'"

Owen mentioned that Arch Street Church [Googling, I think he means this] used to have ads on the T specifically reaching out to be people who felt marginalized/outcast/whatever (only I don't think he quite used those words), and he said they had a lot of street people attend.
Ed said, "We could put a sign out."  [as in, put a sign out front saying that all are welcome or whatever]
Owen said, "But if they come in and they don't get it..."
I agreed, "Welcome is hard."
I actually would have been interested in a conversation about how we embody welcome in the church.

I will be sad for this to end for the summer (next week is the last one until after the summer).

Owen asked if anyone wanted to close us in prayer, and I volunteered.  I opened by saying, "Great and Gracious God, Father and Mother of us all..." partly because when David (who wasn't here today) did the prayer last week, he said "Father God" like every other clause, and it was really bothering me -- plus Molly had emailed the listserv about this weekend:

Beloved,

We're midway between Mother's Day and Father's Day, and so it's time to honor our own version at First Church: a post-gender Mothering Fathering Sunday.

Mother's Day, some of you likely know, was founded as an antiwar effort by mothers who were tired of losing their sons in violent conflicts. How times have changed...This Sunday, we'll celebrate mothering and fathering not as an exercise in materialism, but as a spiritual practice: to remember the Mother and Father of us all, to stick our finger in the side of those images of God who created us.

I'll be preaching, on the idea:  "why does it seem like the default image for God in our imaginations is old, male, white?"

***

I totally fell asleep during Karl's sermon.  This needs to stop happening.

Coffee Hour was really nice, though.

Jill asked me if I'd heard about Smith getting rid of all the chaplains, and I said I had, though I should have asked her what she had read, 'cause she was complaining about the President having made statements which implied that as a strong academic institution our students didn't "need" religion.

***

CWM's Scripture Lesson was John 17:6-24 and John 17:24ff -- as paraphrased by Walter Wink (which, heh, is on TextWeek -- link; we ended with the penultimate paragraph on that first page -- last sentence: "When they discover that power, their joy will be boundless.")  It felt a little too much for me -- some of the same feelings I get when I hear The Message version ... like it doesn't register as if I'm actually hearing The Bible, it just feels like a contemporary person talking.

Tiffany's sermon was much longer and more repetitive than I felt it needed to be, which is unfortunate since I usually really like her sermons.  [Addendum: blogspot version of her sermon -- edited down from what she preached at CWM.]

Tiffany kept talking about the status quo (Walter Wink had translated the Greek word "kosmos" as the "Domination System"), and I couldn't help thinking, "the status is not quo," even though  I don't even really like Dr. Horrible.

She said that Judas allowed betrayal to trump love -- he was alienated from relationship/God.

She mentioned that today is Ascension Sunday but that she wasn't going to be preaching on that -- "because I don't buy it ... I don't believe that Jesus ascended into Heaven and is sitting at the right hand of God ... because I look around and I see Jesus all around."  I would argue that this is a different kind of "seeing Jesus."

txt msg exchange before church:
Michelle: Hey are you going to CWM tonight?
me: I am indeed.
Michelle: Cool I will see you there!
me: Yay!
Michelle: So you support and validate my decision then? :-)
me: :P  I do indeed.  :D

Apparently she'd also texted Eric to ask if he would be going, and he said maybe, so when he saw her at church he asked, "Did my text message reply help you come?" and she said, "That's a loaded question," and he said, "No, that's a loaded answer" :)

I'm watching/listening to Harvard University Commencement afternoon activities on streaming video, and the President of the Harvard Alumnae Association just referred to "Gaudeamus igitur" as an ancient student drinking song. Who knew?

Edit: They recognized the two oldest alums in attendance -- one man and one woman, both Class of 1929, both age 99. There's also an (male) alum, Class of 1923, who will be 107 this July but was unable to make the trip from NYC.

[Also, the President of the HAA says "theerter" (for "theatre") like my mom does.]

THANK YOU, Drew Faust for correctly pronouncing J. K. Rowling's surname ("rolling").

From JKR's Commencement address:
- [Now I just have to take deep breaths] "and convince myself that I'm at the world's largest Gryffindor reunion."
- [Casting my mind back to the Commencement Address at my own graduation] "has helped me enormously, because I find I cannot recall a single word she said."
- "See, if all you remember in years ahead is the gay wizard joke, I've come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock."
- "There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong discussion."
- [on poverty] "It is not an ennobling experience."
- "Failure taught me things about myself I would not have learned any other way."
- [The people I sat with at graduation have been my friends for life. They are my children's godparents...] "The people who have been kind enough not to sue me when I took their names for Death Eaters."

A recent Sophian article opened:

"I am not here as a firefighter trying to put out the flames of this racial incident or to give a Kumbaya-My-Lord-We-Are-All-a-Big-Happy-Family speech to make most people at Smith feel good about themselves," he said. "I am here today to speak truth to power about race matters in contemporary America and, in the process, connect the dots about this 'incident,' an incident and an aftermath which I believe are emblematic about how race works in post-civil rights America."

Those were some of the opening words of Professor Eduardo Bonilla-Silva's speech titled "It's Real! Racism, Discrimination, Color Blindness and Isolated (Racial) Incidents." The Duke University sociology professor spoke on Jan. 29 to a nearly packed house at John M. Greene Hall. The meeting was an all-campus meeting called last semester by President Christ in response to a blackface incident at a Smith party last November.

I only sort of followed the blackface party incident, but I love the opening "I am not here as a firefighter trying to put out the flames of this racial incident or to give a Kumbaya-My-Lord-We-Are-All-a-Big-Happy-Family speech to make most people at Smith feel good about themselves."

***

Unrelatedly, polymexina recently posted:

Reduced to the Small Screen
Incident, Reaction, Forget, Repeat: Formulaic Entertainment Replaces Serious Discussion on Race

By DeNeen L. Brown and Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 11, 2007; M01

( Excerpts )

On the theme of politics as entertainment: My dad sent me this link.

He also sent me this one -- which is not about politics as entertainment, but rather about politics and hypocrisy.  Interestingly, my immediate reaction was to defend the Left's position -- but yeah, it is one of those instances of "When my side does it, it's okay," which was the kind of thing I called people on a lot at Smith.  (I'm actually not entirely averse to people making the "When my side does it, it's okay," argument, I just want them to acknowledge that that's the argument they're making.)

I just found out via musesfool on the flist that Madeleine L'Engle died last night.

Link goes to a Publishers Weekly page where L'Engle is a line item below a longer obit about a woman who died August 31, which initially confused me as apparently I have no reading comprehension.

Edit, from friendsfriends: NYT writeup and a 1998 essay on her work which I haven't read. /edit

I went to the Smith website to see if they had a news item up about it yet and learned that Newsweek Magazine names Smith as "Hottest Women's College."

We didn't have any bread, so I bought lunch today.  I asked for a calzone and the woman said, "It has meat in it.  Do you want this instead?"  (Gesturing to the peppers and cheese stromboli.)  ♥  The stromboli wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either.  The calzone sign said broccoli & pancetta, and having never heard the word "pancetta" I just assumed it was a kind of cheese.  Dictionary.com, AHD, tells me it's "Italian bacon that has been cured in salt and spices and then air-dried."  And gee, isn't this attractive: "Italian, diminutive of pancia, belly"

We got a letter from the Farrs yesterday.  The were ministers at UCN when I was wee and had daughters who bracketed me in age.  We haven't heard much from them in ages, probably since before Phyllis [bestest old lady evar] died, which was when I was in junior high.

"Ron and I are in our sixteenth year at Emmanuel Lutheran UCC in Watertown.  We think you'd both love this lively, progressive church family.  This past year our church voted to become an Open & Affirming, multicultural, multiracial congregation -- which was no surprise because for over a decade our church has attracted a wealth of diverse people from all walks of life, and we are truly enriched by the miracle of each person here.  We also have become a Green Church (earth-friendly, etc.) and are endorsing as many Fair Trade products as we can.  We feel privileged to be the co-pastors of such an intelligent, open-hearted, open-minded family of faith."

My dad says becoming an Open & Affirming church is what all the cool churches are doing nowadays, and it is so true :)  Still makes me happy, though.  The list reminded me so much of First Churches.  And it occurred to me that if they had stayed I would be having recurrent conversations with wisdomeagle about how it made my brain hurt that her ministerpeople experience was so not mine even though we had such similar ministerpeople, and yeah, potentialities are weird.

Speaking of potentialities, classes at Smith are starting up again, so I get to be jealous (though honestly, I'm really not jealous much at all; look at e go, rocking the contentment).

I missed Children's Lit by one year!  *pouts*  (Plus of course mt's modern poetry seminar last semester, which I was bitter about starting like a year ago now.  I'm over it by now, though.)

(Simmons has a graduate program in children's literature?  Oh, and I don't think I ever linked to it, but kidlit & femslash -- discussion in fox1013's LJ.)

I'm also mildly jealous of Catholic Philosophical Tradition.  Except, oops, it's taught by Carol Zaleski.  Not so much.


thistlerose got a Vermont Teddy Bear Company catalogue in the mail today, so she posted a bunch of picture links.  The Wedding Bears come in m/m and f/f as well as m/f, which is pleasing.  I was reminded of the Hallmark kissing bears debacle of February 2002.  [Sidenote: Not being at Smith means no Anti-Valentine's Day party for me :(  But hey, I do have good memories.]  And most are available in 4 different fur colors.

Pride Bear? I, um, may have made him my desktop at work.  I thought of buying some but, um, $80 = meep!  My mom says I should just get a cheap knockoff in the South End.  Oh, and if you wanted to be subtle: cowboy bear ;)

This afternoon I got an LJ comment from Dec. 28/29.  It was a reply to a fic feedback comment I'd left, so no big, but still, weird.

Hey, Ari, up for remixing Sherlock Holmes fic?  remixredux wants you.

( some political talk )

Tammy Bruce is speaking at UMass this Wednesday (7pm, Student Union). If i'm gonna grow up and be the child of Tammy Bruce and Eugene Volokh, i think Tristan Taormino should be my crazy aunt, for the balance, 'cause otherwise my radical queerness (such as it is) seems rather out of left field (though i blame most stuff on my lineage, and it's a left-fielder in actuality too). I'm jealous of Brown for getting her "My Life as a Feminist Pornographer" lecture (this Tuesday. 5pm). And Wooster in Ohio gets "Sexploration on College Campuses," which title makes me wonder what Tristan thinks of Katie Roiphe.

Emma was complaining about her history teacher offering a perspective not usually heard at Smith, which Ruhi said was "refreshing." Normally i'd be inclined to agree (see above re: Tammy Bruce), but having listened to Emma, it didn't sound like he was presenting a particularly reasoned perspective, which made me sad. Speaking of: a reminder that Canada is not perfect. (No i'm not deeply interested in a discussion about whether Canada is on the whole better than the USA, i just get irked when it -- or any other country -- gets presented as Heaven on Earth, and also when the USA gets presented as Worstest Baddest Nation Evar.)

redredshoes talks about the fact that bullimia is what really killed Terri Schiavo and how this isn't getting any media coverage.

The Marines wanted my brother, though he's disqualified due to his unfortunate gene pool. We're gonna have interesting and very disparate lives whatever happens (and yet i expect we will continue to get along well) but that would have been particularly interesting and disparate. I am now deprived of the chance to say, "Hey, my brother's a Marine and he's not scary." ( from my mother's e-mail )

MAT class tonight, Meg presented on Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art" and gave us a copy of a first draft thanks to another prof (you can read most of it via this essay). Generally i think the published version is a better poem (though it's very different) but there are some bits i wish could have been left in. ( cut for spoilers? )

I haven't read much Elizabeth Bishop, but poking around i find i really like "In The Waiting Room".

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in six words. The result: "For sale: baby shoes, never used." It's rumored that Hemingway thought it was his greatest work, and it's invariably offered as the standard to which micro-fiction should aspire.

Other 6-word-story attempts here.