This is a holiday letter…?
I’ve been treading in the waters of nifty iPhones, iPhoto that captures every human gesture and wrinkle in slo-mo, bursts, pano, movies—and my computer’s bag of tricks ad infinitum. I understand none of it.
When I complain, D gets annoyed. Yesterday I dared asked him why, and he spat that he too butts his head against these indispensable devices. Suck it up lady!
Ay carajo.
All this to say that I’ve spent way too many hours of these quiet weeks dumping files and apps from my “old” computer, making room for updates that I don’t want. I do have a patient IT guy with a job, family, new puppy, and endless projects who gave me his morning to help identify any bloated files. Thank you A.
For a moment I considered my son’s suggestion of going cold turkey, “e-mail bankruptcy,” he called it. Delete all your e-mails, every year, every day. Ay caramba. And on Apple Support, “Noah” texted me a link that would fix my non-working Mail app—and gave me the secret to deleting photos on I-Cloud permanently (he said).
My real skin, pen-and-paper-and-colored-folders world looks no better. My drafting board is groaning under the weight of papers—book life, poetry study, design, miscellaneous miscellany. Should I declare “brain bankruptcy,” and get rid of it all? Start the year fresh?
I’m grateful I can write these odd thoughts to you and that some of you will read them, and some will even respond.
I am grateful, too, that the air is warm inside my mask
thankful for the sweet peacefulness of my Taiji instructor, Nikki, over Zoom
for the odd neighbor walking on our street with a dog or a spouse, although we’re walking less because it’s cold
for Gringo the cat that rules our roost and walks across D’s neck when he’s sleeping but knows to keep away(!) from my neck.
for orchids that will thrive on my kitchen window all winter
for family and friends and you. I’ve been thinking lately about my Aruba/Amsterdam first cousins, their unique voices, their self-prickling sense of humor. (Let’s meet in Amsterdam in 2021!)
for the creative spark in all of us
for the excitement of strangers—and for all the good people in this world
for the me of me in my head
Dear readers and friends--I wish you peace, hope, and love in these end days of a painful year.
Felices fiestas y feliz año nuevo!