Little Sparkly Things
a prescription from a real doctor from a real place called Iowa
Well, hello there, my little ones:
The light was spectacular at my favorite bar the other day. I took a lot of stunning photos. (I don’t quite know what to do with my stunning photos. I love taking pictures but posting them on Instagram feels like bragging, on Facebook feels like the wrong platform and on Twitter feels as ephemeral as just leaving them on my camera.)
This post is about fairy hair tinsel. I don’t have photos because by nature fairy hair tinsel is subtle and you wonder if you saw the extra twinkle or if you’re just going mad.
I went to a birthday party this weekend and many people complimented the sparkle in my hair. I have about four strands of fairy tinsel left over from Lithuanian Camp, at which this brilliant doctor (MD) from Iowa quite practically brought fairy tinsel and taught herself to weave it into the hair of the campers who were depressed, homesick, feeling out of place, or just had general malaise…and this $12 purchase off Amazon left her bunker-style MASH unit the coveted place at the camp, with joyful people young and old lining up for some old-fashioned simple gifts.
What I love about this is that the doctor, with an arsenal of meds at her fingertips, and the ability to say “you’re not actually sick, nothing is wrong with you, go back to your bunk” instead goes for the gift of an inexpensive and frivolous thing that does absolutely nothing except sparkle. (Lithuanian camp is for another post. (But here are some pictures.)
So where do you need a little sparkle in your life? Maybe instead of redoing your whole kitchen again, all you need to keep your inner balance is a little glitter in some small corner of your daily life where you can glimpse it every day.
Or even better, you could look with compassion and creativity at the stressed-out people who constantly current through your own life, and wonder what thing you can put your talents to that is outside of your job description and could leave people with a lasting smile. (This doctor’s bonus? The tinsel is tied onto an individual piece of hair and only falls off when that hair falls out… This means that for weeks or even months, random campers will text her to tell her they still have sparkles in their hair. I know I will - I feel so grateful to her for the compliments I got all night at the party!)
Me, I feel a tiny victory because Saturday night when my son and I were both moping around after midnight, feeling sick with the loss of so many people (his girlfriend, our bunny, our Nana, my husband, our neighbor, even his sister/my daughter who went off to college: all of these are personally significant losses ranging from as recently as two weeks ago to going on two years—and for some reason, maybe the dark gray clouds and sudden cold rain bursts) —into this room full of pain, I channeled the power of the fairy tinsel and coaxed him to dance like a fool. The bleak and dimly-lit house was quiet. Instead of a putting on a song, I chanted silly words at him to a beat. First he half-smiled, then he laughed and shook his head and when he finally tossed his pride on the castaway pile of my own and rose to his feet to move it move it, we ended up stupid and breathless and laughing and both of us felt significantly better.
And then, because it’s in our neighborhood and we didn’t have anything else to do, and the rain had broken the humidity, he asked me if I might want to take a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge for no reason.
So we did.
Writing News:
Now past page 200 in the editing of the novel. (yay!)
Big Pen Parentis stuff coming up this week. I’m hosting the Pen Parentis Literary Salon with Christina Chiu on Tuesday night Sept 10 at (7pm ET - we will be done LONG before the debate) and our Season Opener is open to the public - just RSVP. We are interviewing three incredible authors on the topic of Siblings and Rivalry. Join in and chat your questions to the authors - here’s the lineup! Watch from anywhere!
Thanks to our Season Sponsor: The Writers’ Room! Also:
Saw a new play at an industry reading Thursday - if you get a chance to see Open, Stay, absolutely go. 75 minutes no intermission, lots of caffeine if that’s your jam. It’s charming and uplifting and the singing is terrific.
Oh - also big news - a new poem of mine was selected to be in an anthology called The Raven celebrating the 125th anniversary of publication of that poem. (Thrills me, fills me with fantastic terrors never felt before.) More details coming soon!
Random Final Thought:
Is this giant merch plushie being put out because it is adorable and we should enjoy it, or is it part of a larger attempt to move Halloween Season from October 1 to begin on September 1?
So here’s my question: if all the holiday seasons are going to be moved up an entire calendar month, doesn’t it mean the holiday’s season is….well…out of season?