Yesterday's Lupins and Daisies
Hello again dear friends and new subscribers,
The days of lupins, daisies and afternoon campfires have yielded their place to drought-dried grasses. Things change, and transform again, all within the daily rhythm of two dog walks a day. I’m busy keeping up with all things inside and out, while continuing the deepening Platonic study and expanding work on my novel - details on that coming soon.
Now, July is over, Summer has spoken, and we all lay down in her honour. Heat dries us, desiccates the green grasses. Arbutus leaves fall through the air, cascading down as if from the cornucopia of Providence. I feel like writing in a bit of a fancy way, with curls inside the words, tendrils extending past the mind into vines of natural wonders hardly held within them, yet perhaps inferred. This blooming blossoming great solar summer! In the warm afternoon, I will follow my pen down into the well, to bring up some cool refreshment for the care of the soul.
But all this summer writing isn’t what I’m putting into the newsletter. Why not? I’m still sorting it out.
I considered keeping the rhythm of the newsletter by recycling old posts. Isn’t that cheating? It’s like serving this 3,300 year old Hittite tablet as if it were a fresh-baked cookie!
Personal Papers: Five-Year Report
Five years ago I took the plunge to begin this Substack. The challenge of sustaining this regular newsletter over that time through external world events and my own internal processes has given me insights into my creativity, how I respond to changing circumstances, and what it is that actually changes me. Still, often there would be a friendly resurfacing, getting some air between deep dives, posting to you, keeping up.
I was struck by a New Yorker article on The Long Run: A Creative Inquiry by Stacey D’Erasmo. She says. “A vibrant long run might be sustained not by armoring oneself inside an even bigger and more expensive fixed narrative, but by morphing through a varied series of them over many years,” … “Against the monument, the mobile. Against the hammer, the leap.”
Over the years, this newsletter shifted from weekly to a few times a month, to intermittent and back again. The relationship between my idea of what I was doing and the Substack rah-rah go expand and reach out agenda began to chafe. The more I felt held and tied in the platform, the less I was able to post. Comparing myself to others was something I could manage and learn from, and there are some amazing new substacks out there now. When I launched into paid subscriptions, the introvert within me panicked hard. Grateful for the support, I felt I owed paying subscribers something more - but the situation confused me, seeding an internal dilemma. I felt a bit like work was commissioned but I didn’t know what was wanted. Why can’t I be more clever, skim the surface a bit more, lighten up? These days my writing seems to lead into depths and unknown areas - not exactly popular or link-worthy. Each time I’m writing more deeply, less marketably, less able to be categorized in a clear genre.
And then there is this: The imagined social self, or built-up personality forged over the years is one of the first casualties of this process. Falling out of the pattern was paralleled by new life on this island - starting out I thought I was the same person in a new place but discovered I was becoming a very different person. So my internal transformation and emergence was rapidly casting off cloaks one after the other. Cloaks removed to reveal a face even I can’t recognize. Write that in a regular newsletter? Nope. That’s for the journal only.
Maybe those hard old crunchy Hittite cookies are still good after all. “Yesterday’s Gone” but the memory is still shimmering. I have more to share on this five-year overview next time. Till then, feel free to take a dip into the archive here. I’m proud to say there have been 138 articles so far!
Ceremony of Privacy
“Ceremony of Privacy” is the artwork James K-M is now exhibiting in the Provocation show here on Salt Spring Island. Shrouded in white samite, or as if blessed by a Tibetan white scarf, a stack of media theory books from the late 1900’s that is supported on an old wheeled typing table becomes a mysterious inaccessible figure.
About the work, James said: “My intention is to question the pervasive nature of this technology and offer artistic interpretations for our metaphysical reflection. … Our concern for privacy, free speech, security and identity in a digital age is a simulation of a metaphysical concern.”
Read his full Artist Statement HERE.
This year, I began sharing some of the early Plato study notes as the series, Riffing on Eternity. At first, I included these in each post, but now they’ve expanded to their own space. Please link through to read if this is your interest. Here are the latest:
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I really appreciate you taking the time to read, share and comment. As always, special thanks to you dear supporters whose paid subscriptions support my work.
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Thank you, Carol. Appreciated as always.
Everyone I know is going deeper . The snakes are coming out into the open and shedding their skins. It's partly the transition of Pluto from 14 years in Saturn-ruled Capricorn to Uranus/Saturn-ruled Aquarius; and, then, Saturn in Pisces opposing the South Node conjunct Black Moon Lilith in Virgo, dissolving old forms and resurrecting rejected parts of ourselves for reevaluation and reclamation. I've been busy and not reading your posts. I came here today, thinking I might as well cancel my paid subscription, but really looking for a reason to sustain it, as I have found in your true confession.