Everything is Beautiful
and irony is everything
Hello my pretties:
This post is about feelings.
Did you run screaming? I don’t blame you one bit. I hate this topic. I had a fantastic two hour Zoom with my brothers (I have three, and each one of us gets extremely irritated with each other one for a different specific thing, but love is everything and the other two always step up to defend/explain before the emotions ramp out of control, so as a cluster of siblings, we are terrifically close) — but on this call, the conversation became personal and this dialogue happened:
Sibling 1 related a difficult exchange about their own behavior with a person not on the Zoom, ending the story with “and they are right.”
Sibling 2: “So, what do you feel about it?”
Sibling 1: “They are right.”
2: “That’s not what I asked. I asked what did you feel?”
1: “I already said: They’re right.”
2: “Are you listening to yourself? I asked how did you feel about it.”
1 (not missing a beat): “Well, feelings aside, they were right.”
And then we got into a hilariously weird discussion about putting your own experiences into the third person so that you can be more objective about them. Have you ever done this? Try this. Take some extremely difficult problem or situation that you’re in and put it into third person.
It’s almost like writing a story.
And speaking of story: I had the glorious opportunity to attend that little Philosophical Salon again! This time the gathering was an opera director, a journalist, a scholar of 17th century France, a conductor, a founding member of the CS Lewis Society, and me. The theme was STORY and my favorite bit was when the journalist and I got into a huge discussion of the difference (if any) between a story and a lie.
Good times!
Writing News
Speaking of good times: I have good news! Many things are going right in the writing world - I’m moving forward on novel edits and besides booking my Japan ticket (and some freaking AMAZING hotels plus I am so so so excited to see my college friends including my college roommate! but the whole entire itinerary is just all of my favorite things one after another - it’s going to be so great!) I am also delighted to tell you about the following:
My new poem “Speechless” was accepted into The Raven Anthology - which means I get to participate as a VIP in the Poetry Downtown “Poetry Train” celebrating Edgar Allen Poe. Click here for more info on how to attend this cool series of Poe-themed events. I’ll be reading my poem and another Poe-adjacent short story at the Poe Cottage in the Bronx! I’m so excited - I have never made this pilgrimage though I have intended to FOR YEARS. How thrilling that the first time I go, I am going as a poet and story writer myself.
READING: New York City on September 28 at 1:30 - at Edgar Allen Poe Cottage in the Bronx - sponsored by New York Historical Society
READING: - Baltimore on September 29 - 8pm - 10pm at Protean Books & Records near Federal Hill.
My short story “J. F. will never read this” which originally appeared in Lithuanian Heritage Magazine, along with this longform interview by Laima Vince from Vilnius Review will be reprinted in her forthcoming academic book Heritage, Connection, Writing: Conversations with North American Lithuanian Diaspora Writers (Peter Lang, Ltd, 2025).
Come say hello at the fancy cocktail party Pen Parentis is hosting to celebrate The Sandell Morse Author Ambassador Fund in Battery Park City in NYC. You’re invited!! It’s going to be full of writers & industry folk - pull out your much-neglected cocktail attire! Find out more.
Did another interview of some great authors on Zoom. I have gotten so used to doing these once per month that I have forgotten what an absolute privilege it is to get to meet these people. I’ll post the playback when it’s ready or you can subscribe to the Pen Parentis YouTube channel and see them when they drop.
I GOT MY FIRST ROYALTY CHECK for my story collection! Yes! this year has been stupidly, supremely eventful - so much so that I completely forgot any anniversary events. In fact, I could not tell you even the year this book was published. Has it been out a year yet? You tell me.
Random Final Thought
Which is more true:
that bad things lead to good things, or that good things lead to bad?
Answer in the comments.
But before you do… consider this… might some “consequences” be subjective—merely a function of seeking a satisfying narrative by imposing meaning upon things that are sequential or coincidental?
Because my follow-up is this:
If a bad thing led to a good thing, is it really bad? If a good thing led to something bad, was it actually good? Where’s the line drawn?
Enjoy your pumpkin spice lattes!
Well, if no one else will take on your question, I will try. I see the "bad to good" path more clearly because, much as I hate to admit it, I think we learn from change, and I think good is likely to come among change. For instance, I had a rough August medically, first breaking my collarbone and then having oral surgery. The broken collarbone enabled me to discover I had more flexibility in my health insurance than I realized, and could see a doctor who could help me with the arthritis in my other shoulder. The oral surgery made me go without coffee for a day. I realized I was drinking way too much, and am finding I sleep significantly better without it.
Emotionally, however, I must say that I'm a frontrunner. I don't tend to get complacent but just encouraged and even more energetic when things are going well. If things are not going well, they look hopeless to me, and without that prospect of success, I struggle with motivation. I have also experienced the phenomenon where, if I behave badly toward someone, I sort of take on that character and continue that, in some sort of perverse bid for consistency. Or maybe this just reflects lowered self-esteem resulting from the initial bad behavior.