My disappearance from my blog has been a good thing. My last entry was in January 2021. Now it is April 2022. In the between time, we all dealt with bad stuff – disruption, fear, illness, and sadly for too many death. We managed life through isolation, zoom, masks, and whatever else stuck or failed to stick to our psyches, bodies, days. I had a slight advantage. I was a West Nile Virus long hauler, my symptoms differing little from Covid long haulers, but I’ve had six years post infection to haul me and my life toward normal.
My lasting reminder is a bum leg ( I gave the same disability to William, the protagonist in HER PHANTOM PARTNER.)
The thing that saved my mind and soul was writing.
Parked at my desk, I write two to six hours nearly every day. I’ve produced a novel, am drafting a second one, finished a story collection, wrote a monologue, and a bunch of essays about my infection and recovery. Now I must do the hard work of getting published. I can’t promise when I’ll do the next blog. I am at my desk, writing, editing, and submitting. There’s a song with this line: “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.” I’m clapping.
One big part of my reappearance happened out of the blue, last month. Danny Seim created my portrait, along with portraits of 39 other people whose images, blown up to 38” x 40”, will hang in downtown windows this summer in a project called “Windows Into The Community.” We are being recognized for roles we “played in shaping and progressing our Louisville community.” I’m going to be hanging around with Thomas Merton, Anne Braden, Will Oldham, and other folks I admire. Thank you Patrick Piuma of Urban Design Studios for my reappearance. Now, you can play ‘Where’s Waldo’ in the illustration below. No prize offered for finding me or someone else you know.
