Cornelis Visscher: Lievens van Coppenol, Writing Master (1658)

Muster An Effective Resistance
As Winter approaches here, a persistent inversion layer appears. It brings low cloud and consistent temperatures that very slowly work their way downward toward freezing. For weeks, temperatures might hover in the low thirties without actually freezing. The petunias have not yet been frostbitten, nor have the geraniums. Their days will come as December unfolds. Genuine cold will arrive, and the fireplace will become the center of our lives again. This old house becomes its coziest when it's coldest outside. Sure, a place this ancient leaks a lot. A more or less subtle yet constant breeze discloses its respiration, but it's nothing that can't be cured by putting on another sweatshirt.

The Muse becomes even more the South Dakota Farm Daughter when this weather arrives. She bakes her pies and buys a hog's head to render into head cheese and souse. She finds poppy seed for Stölen-making, and we continue experimenting to find better ways to shell fresh chestnuts. The outside world seems as though it's upside-downing itself, preparing for a new administration spouting absolutely insane notions. Another inversion, with temperatures hovering just above chilling. It remains out-there as it has always been in-here. This time of year, we might just as well celebrate something as collapse into tears. We celebrate being here, at the right time and place for a change, rather than Exiled. Exile might come again next year. For now, we're still here, having so-far survived. The outside might rage in impotent insistence. We can muster an effective resistance.

——

Weekly Writing Summary
This Exiled Story found me struggling with the *DelicateBalance I inhabit. Each Exile seems to start with a disrupted DelicateBalance. This was this week's most popular posting!

Peter Sheaf Hersey Newell: Old Father William Balancing an Eel, from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (c. 1901)
" … whimpering like a wounded puppy."
—
This Exiled Story found me floating through a succession of LostDays. Not every Exiled day proved to be productive. Plenty were lost to evaporation and never registered or counted. We were not always engaged after being Exiled.

John F. Peto: Lights of Other Days (1906)
" … a familiar part of our regular repertory."
—
This Exiled Story caught me SnappingBack from my recent loss of my DelicateBalance and resulting LostDay. Recovering from such setbacks became imperative after we were Exiled.

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita): enriched bread (1965)
" … still in more or less one piece."
—
This Exiled Story explains how The Muse and I became Explorers after we were Exiled. Surrounded by undiscovered territory, we became Explorers.

Oskar Schlemmer: Three Figures with Furniture-like Forms [Drei Figuren mit Möbelformen] (1929)
"That wanderlust has largely left us since we returned from Exile."
—
This Exiled Story recounts when I realized The Muse and I would never return from Exile. I eventually learned that one inexorable feature of all Exiling would have to be Never_Returning, so we never returned.

John Steeple Davis: Rip Van Winkle's return. (1879) Charles Maurand, Wood Engraver
"We returned sequestered and suspicious if we ever returned at all."
—
This Exiled Story finds me reframing my notions of possession to embrace a different understanding of Mine. I traded in an Exile-fueled obsession with an uncertain future for an acceptance of what and where I was.

Kate Greenaway: Baby Mine (1910) Edmund Evans, Wood Engraver
"I haven't quite yet gotten over it."
—
This week's writing reminded me of what a Delicate_Balance I maintain. Between creating these stories and compiling them into manuscripts, I manage to stumble into some threatening pitfalls. I do not know the way, and the cues I rely on to inform my passage often confuse me. I lose a few days to fear and indecision before inevitably (so far!) SnappingBack into Explorer mode. This writing week's most remarkable discovery involved when I finally realized that my Exile would never end, that I'd be Never_Returning from the disengagement. This realization reframed my understanding of what qualified as Mine and what didn't. It might be that the whole Exiled experience was mostly illusion or delusion, the conviction that I could have somehow been divorced from myself by outside forces. I might have 'just' Exiled myself if I was ever actually exiled. Thank you for following along through this sometimes confusing excursion!

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Tags: #Exiled, #PureSchmaltz