SCARE: watching water drip from my study ceiling onto the router positioned on the floor. Drop. Drip. At first I thought the router was clicking. But, no. 
The pipe that carries condensate from the attic furnace down to a well in the basement had frozen.
GRATITUDE: K was NOT in Asia or Russia and knew just what to do. It appears to be fine now.
TRICK: to walk Finn and then write a chapter set in 1744 from the point of view of an enslaved mother. Meaning : to save reading the middle portion of the Fusion gPS transcript for later.
TO DO: find a company-worthy Miso Cod Chili recipe. Go for a glazed fish with bok choy on the side or a soup with soba or udon noodles, bok choy floating?
COMMENTS, please: what is your view on how and when posting to social media becomes a life force drain? Drop. Drip.
Can’t shake this interview in the literary journal, Rattle, with poet Maggie Nelson (that was the fourth book completed for #theunreadshelfproject last week).
Or put another way: how can you use social media in a manner that DOES (fairly consistently) engage the parts of your intellect (or creative process) that is most important to you?
I’m okay with it being a little hit or miss. And maybe I value your and my posts about French toast more than Nelson does.
So it’s about balance, then?
What ISN’T about balance?
Ciao.
I’ve been away, with family … an exhausting, but beautiful racket. I’ve missed being “connected” … and I haven’t. Where to strike the balance still eludes me. i value the ruminations you post here and the comments made in response. Thank you for that …
“A beautiful racket” could be a movie, no? I love that I knew you were away without even being told. Just from spending time with you online.
so good that the drips are fixed in your beautiful old house! re social media, I enjoy reading blogs and visit half a dozen every day, don’t like Facebook but it’s good for rallying awareness and hope, have found Pinterest good for seeing variations on any theme & Instagram for seeing work of the folk who don’t blog & have no idea what Twitter is for! I love the internet for the way we can each show what is happening in our corners of the world and how we can gather together for change but it can be addictive so I don’t follow or subscribe to anyone or anything, gives me a semblace of freedom.
I use twitter for the up to the moment headlines, links to relevant journalism, and for the hilarious gifs in many comment threads. That’s one forum I don’t give any thought to followers.
“What isn’t about balance?”. Truth?
Truth can be a sword through butter. You’re right: not about balance. Certainly the version of so called “balanced” coverage mistakenly indulged in by the MSM is not about truth. Nor was it actually balanced, IMHO.
I’m still ticked off at the New York Times for giving Trump so many headlines in 2016 (negative yes, but many more than Clinton)
Me too.
How and when posting to social media becomes a life force drain? I figure each of us have our own leanings and needs. I, for example need to see what’s happening to others I’ve been following around on blogs and FB but don’t get involved in twitters except very exceptionally when something is pointed out to me by a regular correspondent. As for wasting time…well, I think more in terms of spending time, time with others I care about, time keeping up with major news stories, time looking back to what’s relevant still like the re-risen feminism of the moment with Me Too and Time’s Up and all the ethical considerations being discussed regarding keeping a reasoned assessment of the differences between Youthful folly, catcalling, intrusive groping, rape and systemic systems that discriminate against women…the emotional and financial toll that takes on women and the overall effect it all exacts on world culture. Sometimes I like a good joke, a clever recipe or a personal anecdote too. We all need relief. I also love sharing music.
I am mostly with you Michelle. I love the community I find online. It is meaningful and grows over time. Holds interest, humor, spiritual reflection. You name it.
It’s just sometimes the way I check this site and that site can start to feel a little like a “Black Mirror” episode — the one where people are ranked in terms of the kind of service, partners, apartments etc that they can get based on their publicly-visible “likes”.
The more I think about that poet’s comment, the more it smacks of ignorance (unfamiliarity with the beneficial relationships one can find and build online) and of condescension.
I’m back to point you to a mighty interesting article http://msmagazine.com/blog/2018/01/10/mary-kathryn-nagle-fights-for-sovereignty-and-womens-rights/
Powerful history and use of art to tell the untold stories. Thank you for the link.