Charles E. Burchfield: March Sunlight (1926-1933)

I Hope To Never Fully Recover
The cost of travel these days seems to be the illness one experiences after an excursion. If we could just stay put, I imagine we might live forever, but we’re nosy by nature, and so feel we must go adventuring. While sightseeing, invisible forces stalk us. We should understand this by now, especially after That Damned Pandemic ravaged us. Those of us able to keep our heads down and huddle experienced significantly fewer ravages than those who weren’t. Travel now seems to broaden as well as flatten, the quality of these experiences filtered through the usual negative externalities. The day we decide just to stay safe might be the day we finally accept ambiance as our native state. If we weren’t supposed to change, we’d be more solid and much less fluid. If we weren’t supposed to get ill, we might never have to learn or unlearn anything we’d come to hold sacred, and none of us might ever experience the sublime sensation of getting Better or Well Again. I hope to never fully recover from this writing week’s realizations, even though I end the week two stories short. Thank you for following along!
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Weekly Writing Summary
I began my writing week appreciating the Noisemakers among us. “Democracy in the form of technology continues to undermine the hegemony various would-be monopolies have always attempted to maintain. Throughout history, creators have mostly been judged Noisemakers by their contemporaries.”

Unknown artist: Ivory Grogger (noise maker), Middle East or India (20th century)

" … almost all the actual effort should seem lost in rounding."

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After missing two days of posting stories, I reported on my condition with Better. “I can feel better without feeling well.”

Denman Waldo Ross: Portrait of a Young Man (19th-20th century)
"Maybe by tomorrow  …"

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I considered my experience of feeling ill when finally (almost) recovering with WellAgain. “Some of life's best and most essential elements come from … disruptions. I would not want a world free from misfortune because setbacks seem necessary to support liberty.”

Urs Graf: The Healing of the Man with Dropsy (1511-15)
"We could not have experienced healing had we not first caught that terrible cold."

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In Easing, I reported some difficulty when reentering my activities of daily living after feeling ill. “I jump right in as if I remembered how to swim when I might be reasonably sure that I will have to learn all over again.”

Charles E. Burchfield: The Back Street [Two Houses under a Viaduct] (1931)
"It might be inhuman to learn this obvious lesson."

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The announcement that I would not be publishing a story due to my illness proved by far my most popular posting this period!
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Even in a week where I miss posting two stories, the result still seems similar to what I post when I offer my usual full complement. I fear missing writing days. I understand that these cannot be recovered. I cannot create a Sunday story the following Tuesday. Days missed must forever go missing, and too many missed days translate into an absent author. Still, I’m proud of my Noisemaker story because I believe it captured something meaningful. The usual measures of success tend to miss something much more significant. Better never was a fully resolved condition. It compared itself with something past and, therefore, no longer existing. I might catch a cold so that I can experience salvation again. One day, I might learn that the only way to engage involves Easing into the engagement. Thank you for following along this week, and be grateful you were outside my sneezes’ effective range. They were epic!

©2024 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #iAlogue