Eudora Welty said: “We are the breakers of our own hearts.” She talked about how Southerners live their narratives in their connections to people, place and time. Yesterday, a priest asked if he could stay in the Tin Shed to write because he needed to get away from his home to do it. I said, I know, I have to leave too. Three weeks ago, I flew to Mexico City to write, to work on…
Earlier this year, watching the Superbowl in a room full of friends, in unison, we repeated what the announcer said about a player – who he described as showing “relentless quality.” I don’t know why that characteristic was suspect to me, but I do know I’ve spent the better part of the last years exploring trauma and how it has affected my son and myself. The culmination of this investigation has been a real distrust…
I stepped into a friend’s antique store to hang Hall event posters, and she called to me, hidden behind shelves of curiosities, “Hey, how are you? How’ve you been?” I called back, “Tired.” And she said, “Uh huh. I don’t remember when I got tired, but I got tired one day and I’ve never gotten untired.” I nodded. “That doesn’t bode well considering you’re younger than me.” In this tired state of mind, I went…
In my ACA meeting the other night, one of the members spoke about a team he was coaching who had been on a losing streak. He had the team members lie down on the grass, heads touching each other in a circle, and he said now close your eyes and create a highlight reel — think of winning and what that feels like and what happens as the crowd comes down from the stands to…
In the past few weeks, I have been isolating. Not only isolating, but fantasizing about a trip alone, abroad, where I might even isolate further. I’ve searched land.com for vacant land to pull Wild Thing to and be in the middle of a forest to retreat. I’ve looked at flying to Mexico City and Puerto Rico to be immersed in a Spanish speaking environment – to walk the streets and sit in a cafe or even…
I read that Bad Bunny was born in Bayamón, and that is where I lived as a child. My sister, brother and I all went to Academia San José, which we would walk to each day going down streets that had houses interspersed with abandoned, overgrown fields teaming with wild grasses and shrubs. It was at Academia San José where I sold donuts to raise money for the nuns and their charity. I would eat…
I met a woman on the island of Lastovo in Croatia many years ago. She had retired to that isolated place because she inherited her father’s house there. She said she had everything she needed – I asked what that was? – she said “Two chairs. One to sit in and one to put my feet on.” Sage advice to the still young-ish. Today, I woke anxious. I was thinking about walking into my next…
Trayvon Martin would have been 31 years old today. Instead, he was murdered by a racist. The rally for Trayvon in 2012 was the first of many rallies Tin attended – he snapped this photo of himself. I think of Trayvon Every. Single. Time. I. See. A. Black. Boy. In. A. Hoodie. Because that’s why we were at the rally – racist folks believed Trayvon’s hoodie was just cause for being shot. I remember President…
I channeled MacGyver this past week – remember the TV character who was the global icon for resourcefulness and invention in the face of adversity? That was me. On Friday, I left my house at 6AM to drive to Oxford, MS to arrive at noon to pick up Tin from Stonewater. He was ten days past his 90-day stint in their program after having left In Balance Ranch in Arizona mid September and traveled to…
In the chapter on individuation is a sentence – don’t manage their feelings. There is another sentence, all of your feelings are valid. And to sum it up, what you believe, feel, think is valid because it is your feelings, your thoughts, your beliefs. What might seem ordinary to ordinary people is not for me. When I was young, my father would say Jump! and every one around him JUMPED. My mother would say –…
