Looking for a quote about the body among the discarded proposals, half-written essays, early book drafts buried in the recesses of my “files” folders, I came across this piece, labeled “Prologue?”
I love what you say here about "Me Too," about the lack of subtlety in reactions to what is meant by "power," and to your refusal to be bullied into silence by the moralists who ganged up on you for writing about your affair.
I read this prologue idea, as usual your writing is challenging yet jargon less. It brought up three or four body memories and unresolved questions, memory of being injured by yoga, which I was doing to help injuries sustained while doing carpentry work. Memory of the difference in culture and body care between men who do physical labor for work and those who don’t; how each spends off time. Working out, or not working out after work. Risking your body to repetitive injury and calculating how much of it you can do for how long without medical insurance..
Remembering my girlfriend from when I was 22 and she was 19. We dated, broke up. She married a schizophrenic French guy, got divorced, we got back together, broke up, both dated other people and it went on for years. Finally she said we have changed each others bodies memories profoundly... then the situation changed and we never finally pulled it together. And I’ll always wonder and have a part or my body still at her side.
These are just some of the body things I pass through. Always defining myself as a maker of things and in the last six months find I have always had eczema, but had a strong body to resist it. Getting older it’s effecting my hands! How dare it challenge who I think I am as a maker. I’m getting treated by a great dermatologist, but it’s not the same.
I laid low on your posts about Succession because I may want to watch it someday, and didn’t want to know the story. But this writing about the body is bringing up the body stored memories.
It’s so great to hear from you! Your body reflections make me think a lot about my daughter, who does physical labor all day long and has such a different relationship to space, pain, the movement of her body, and her whole experience of being in the world than I do. She has so much knowledge from a life in which her body is constantly engaged in lifting bales, fixing broken things, building fences and jumps, grooming the horses, etc. etc. And she also finds it difficult to be still—partly due to ADHD, but also because her “normal” (and very effective) way of being in the world is through movement and action on the world. And the eczema issue is one I identify with, as I’ve had two injuries to my right hand (broken wrist from a fall; nail completely torn off from another)—so I have some sense of what it’s like to have the part of oneself that “who you are” is challenged. “How dare it”—I love that. There’s an essay there for you to write, if you wanted to, about being a “maker” and how that affects your whole being in the world. As usual when we communicate, I get a pang wishing we were geographically closer!
I love what you say here about "Me Too," about the lack of subtlety in reactions to what is meant by "power," and to your refusal to be bullied into silence by the moralists who ganged up on you for writing about your affair.
I know you’ve had your share of run-ins with the moralists too!
Susan,
I read this prologue idea, as usual your writing is challenging yet jargon less. It brought up three or four body memories and unresolved questions, memory of being injured by yoga, which I was doing to help injuries sustained while doing carpentry work. Memory of the difference in culture and body care between men who do physical labor for work and those who don’t; how each spends off time. Working out, or not working out after work. Risking your body to repetitive injury and calculating how much of it you can do for how long without medical insurance..
Remembering my girlfriend from when I was 22 and she was 19. We dated, broke up. She married a schizophrenic French guy, got divorced, we got back together, broke up, both dated other people and it went on for years. Finally she said we have changed each others bodies memories profoundly... then the situation changed and we never finally pulled it together. And I’ll always wonder and have a part or my body still at her side.
These are just some of the body things I pass through. Always defining myself as a maker of things and in the last six months find I have always had eczema, but had a strong body to resist it. Getting older it’s effecting my hands! How dare it challenge who I think I am as a maker. I’m getting treated by a great dermatologist, but it’s not the same.
I laid low on your posts about Succession because I may want to watch it someday, and didn’t want to know the story. But this writing about the body is bringing up the body stored memories.
Best to you and family, plus dogs
It’s so great to hear from you! Your body reflections make me think a lot about my daughter, who does physical labor all day long and has such a different relationship to space, pain, the movement of her body, and her whole experience of being in the world than I do. She has so much knowledge from a life in which her body is constantly engaged in lifting bales, fixing broken things, building fences and jumps, grooming the horses, etc. etc. And she also finds it difficult to be still—partly due to ADHD, but also because her “normal” (and very effective) way of being in the world is through movement and action on the world. And the eczema issue is one I identify with, as I’ve had two injuries to my right hand (broken wrist from a fall; nail completely torn off from another)—so I have some sense of what it’s like to have the part of oneself that “who you are” is challenged. “How dare it”—I love that. There’s an essay there for you to write, if you wanted to, about being a “maker” and how that affects your whole being in the world. As usual when we communicate, I get a pang wishing we were geographically closer!