For more than half of the country today, today is a good day. For the other half, we’re in mourning. There’s nothing that I can say that hasn’t already been said better by someone else so I’m not going to dwell on what today isn’t and instead I’m going to keep on keeping on because at the end of the day, that’s all that any of us can do.
This is a bust of John G. Bullock, of Bullocks Department Store. On the back of this sculpture, per my mom, is my grandfather Brad Keeler’s signature.
I’ve revamped the Brad Keeler Artwares website because it was long overdue for a makeover. I’ve written a post about how this bust came to be, and how I came to learn of its current whereabouts. Have a look and drop a note in the new guest book?
What I’ve been reading:
I’m on track to finish at least 52 books this year. That’s about one per week. I started the year with the hard stuff: A Mother’s Reckoning and Columbine, both about the Columbine massacres. Since then, I’ve read some other hard memoirs: Erin Keane’s Runaway, Lilly Dancyger’s Negative Space. Lydia Yuknavitch’s The Chronology of Water. Natasha Tretheway’s Memorial Drive. Know My Name by Chanel Miller, aka the Brock Turner trial victim. I’ve read a little bit of fiction: Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler, The Last Confessions of Sylvia P. by Lee Kravitz. I did a version of the Sealey Challenge that didn’t have me reading a book a day in August but did result in me reading more poetry than I ordinarily would have. Maybe I’ll write something at the end of the year about which books affected me the most. It’s been a mix of formats—eBooks, audiobooks, physical books—and genres, and subgenres. It’s been a year of burying my head in books, in hope, in optimism. I had hoped today would be the best day.
What I’ve been writing:
Or more like, what I’ve not been writing, and that’s poetry. Fortunately, having a poetry group that meets monthly means that I’ve averaged about a poem a month, but I haven’t felt that any of them are astonishingly good or insightful. They’re just keeping up the practice. My focus has been on finishing Clay Bodies.
What started as an inquiry into the lives of my grandfather and great-grandfather has morphed into a memoir about my relationship with mom, the complications and sweetness arising from divorce and remarriage, and how history has a habit of repeating itself. There’s a ton of material about both Brad and Rufus Keeler and I keep exploring that too, like the bronze bust of Bullock. There’s also a long list of places I want to see, resources I have yet to tap, and chapters that still need writing. Ultimately, I may wind up with two books: the memoir and another more straightforward nonfiction book. I have fantasies about taking a sabbatical from my work with Inlandia to finish it but that’s not really an option at the moment.
I’ll leave you with this: If you’re unhappy with the way things went with the election, make a plan now to do something. There will be more to fight for than ever. Even if you’ve never thought of yourself as an activist, think back on all the times you’ve fought for what you believed was right in the workplace, at the PTA, with family who occupy the opposite side of the political spectrum, with where you choose to shop, what you choose to buy, who you choose to associate with.
There’s an activist in all of us. Small changes add up.
And I’ll suggest you pick up a copy of Inlandia’s book, Riverside Women Creating Change, which is a collection of oral history interviews with women in the Riverside community who have fought for what they believed in. You don’t need to live in Riverside to learn from what they’ve done and adopt their strategies as your own.
Great reading list (loved Klara and the Sun).
I really needed to hear these words this morning. You are indeed a bright light, Cati. It will take me a while to arrive at your level of positivity and optimism, but I will try.