Good news all 'round yesterday!
The nonfiction books I wrote for the school library publisher disappear into school libraries, not fertile ground for authorly ego, so I was thrilled to receive my first ever fan letter for one of my books (the toilet history one) after 11 years.
Then, the Public Health people responded like champs to my
criticism of their assumption that everybody drives cars:
They added bus & bike info to their direx! >
Wow! I could weep with appreciation of their reasonableness.
I've written before about how I am prone to resentment, an emotion that feeds on feelings of powerlessness. So when I take action, I feel less resentful....
Instead, I feel terrified!
Terrified of repercussions: most terrifying of all, of some kind of humiliation, of shaming.
So I not only appreciate this civilized response, I'm deeply relieved. My fear (and so, my relief) are irrational of course, because one of the reasons I risked writing PH in the first place is because I knew they are well-meaning and reasonable people.
But still, my frightened self feared they'd write back and tell me I was a social malingerer.
__________
Finally, I came home from working at the thrift store and my pal who owns the house (she & her family live here, and Mz and I live in half of the upstairs), my pal was tearing up the stair-runner carpet.
The daughter of the house has a dog that dribbles, and they just moved out, so my pal is on a roll with refreshing the place. And with Mz out of town, I'm on a similar roll.
So, we pulled up the truly disgusting carpet together.
Fun!
< The wood underneath is beat-up, but you can see it looks nice anyway.
I feel refreshed.
The nonfiction books I wrote for the school library publisher disappear into school libraries, not fertile ground for authorly ego, so I was thrilled to receive my first ever fan letter for one of my books (the toilet history one) after 11 years.
I'm going to frame it:
"Your Book is awesome!" + toilet image.
__________________________ They added bus & bike info to their direx! >
Wow! I could weep with appreciation of their reasonableness.
I've written before about how I am prone to resentment, an emotion that feeds on feelings of powerlessness. So when I take action, I feel less resentful....
Instead, I feel terrified!
Terrified of repercussions: most terrifying of all, of some kind of humiliation, of shaming.
So I not only appreciate this civilized response, I'm deeply relieved. My fear (and so, my relief) are irrational of course, because one of the reasons I risked writing PH in the first place is because I knew they are well-meaning and reasonable people.
But still, my frightened self feared they'd write back and tell me I was a social malingerer.
__________
Finally, I came home from working at the thrift store and my pal who owns the house (she & her family live here, and Mz and I live in half of the upstairs), my pal was tearing up the stair-runner carpet.
The daughter of the house has a dog that dribbles, and they just moved out, so my pal is on a roll with refreshing the place. And with Mz out of town, I'm on a similar roll.
So, we pulled up the truly disgusting carpet together.
Fun!
< The wood underneath is beat-up, but you can see it looks nice anyway.
I feel refreshed.
