Okay, CoSo.
This week's #newsletter is a reflection from Wednesday's walkabout, when I took my grief and anger for six hours through the city, and reminded myself (if of nothing else) of all the ways in which human beings can live in service to their rich and diverse surroundings.
Even if it's too much to ask that any one life or livelihood will ever alleviate all the wounds in our hurting world, it is enough that we are here.
(CW: Genocide and suicide do come up!)
https://open.substack.com/pub/mlclark/p/walkabout-or-when-the-world-is-too
@MLClark You never fail to expand my vocabulary. 😘
"contrapuntal"
"palimpsest"
"take tinto" (is this a local colloquialism?) ... ah, explained later in the column
"vallenato"
Comments in my next post ...
@MLClark Your response to grief and despair is different from mine, although (like everyone) I have my moments where I contemplate suicide.
For some reason, I accept grief as a natural part of the human mind processing a loss. I'm meant to cry, to feel wronged by the universe. So I embrace it and say, "Let's get started!"
In a way, it's a sign of sentience. I know lesser species grieve in their own way, but we make it an art form. (1/x)
@MLClark I have my moments when I muse about suicide. It's usually triggered by a feeling that I'm unloved, taken for granted, or of course the universal constant, vengeance. "I'll kill myself! That'll show 'em!"
(The problem being, you're never around to enjoy the vengeance part.) (2/x)
Carl Sagan had a quote about how utterly meaningless each of us are to the universe, yet at the same time we are unique because another one of us can't be found anywhere else in that universe.
When I go on walkabout (usually in DC), I'm struck by this contradiction.
Each of us goes about our day as if it matters. It matters to *us* but it doesn't matter to the universe. (3/x)
@MLClark As for your struggle to finish your novel ...
I once visited Harlan Ellison's house. I saw his infamous Olympia typewriter. He refused to use a word processor, because "writing should be painful!" Um, okay.
The point being, it's not you, it's the universal constant of all writers.
I know well-accomplished writers who've been working on something for years, if not decades. It's done when you decide it's done.
Uh oh, Star Trek anecdote coming ... (5/x)
@MLClark Harlan gets accolades for "City on the Edge of Forever," but that's not his version. He disavowed it. In fact, he wrote a book about the experience.
TV runs on a clock. Harlan kept trying to perfect it, but Gene Coon told him to wrap it up, we have to go into production. Harlan's version was too expensive and had other issues. So it was taken away from him.
So unless you're under contract, finish your novel when you decide it's finished.
Fin. (6/6) 😘
Honestly, the list of things Ellison *didn't* disavow is probably shorter. 😅 Thanks for the fun example, though!
@MLClark
I see the universe going about its business, its purpose and meaning lost to us.
Who do I think I am to figure out why the universe is doing this?
I just know that I have a finite amount of time left to enjoy the show.
Hopefully the universe won't present me with a bill on the way out ... (4/x)