Ampersand Gazette #11
Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered—
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.
from “Hymn for the Hurting” by Amanda Gorman
in Opinion from The New York Times
May 27, 2022
Amanda Gorman is, of course, the Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, and a gifted spoken word performer. Her poem appeared in The Times soon after the school shooting (now there are two words that surely do not belong together) in Uvalde, Texas. Having lost a child myself, and knowing that peculiar devastation, I cannot begin to fathom what those parents are feeling now.
Columbia University linguist John McWhorter had a piece in The Times this week as well. He’s known for taking somewhat controversial positions about racism in particular. As a Black man, it seems to me, he has a right to offer nuance—which is what he really does—over broad strokes. His piece made the point that yes, racism, systemic and otherwise, is a problem, but that he thinks the far more urgent issue needing our immediate address is gun legislation. He posits that such legislation would go a long way in addressing racism.
Hymn for the Hurting. Sweeping gun legislation. Both/and. Yes, let’s do both.
I take gentle issue with one word in Ms. Gorman’s piece. Consider the penultimate line: But only when everything hurts. That is a line that could only be written with the certainty of youth. The truth, like Mr. McWhorter so often opines, is more nuanced than that, Beloved.
Do you see what’s implicit in her words, as poignant, and as touching as they are? That everything must hurt before change is possible. Gently, come with me. That’s not entirely true. In fact, it’s only a little bit true.
Everything doesn’t have to hurt in order for change to occur. We can learn from our own mistakes, from the mistakes of others, and from the mistakes—and triumphs—of history, but there is, indeed, a cost to that learning. We must pay the price to stop, listen, learn, observe, and conclude before we can ever have any benefits from mistakes or triumphs or even meh outcomes of the past.
I think Ms. Gorman is implicitly implying that now, at last, not But, no, but Because everything hurts / May everything change. We don’t have to let it get this bad, Beloved, if we’ll act on what we’ve learned, what we know, and what is likely to be our future if we do not.
Please pray with me for all of our country to have a collective wake-up to the need for a change with respect to guns.
&
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.
Studs Terkel, author and broadcaster (16 May 1912-2008)
from Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day email
May 16, 2022
This is part of the path we must relearn in order to create change in our world. We must learn anew to talk to one another. And to listen anew to one another.
There will be differences of opinion for as long as there are humans. So? That’s part of what makes this world such a fascinating place.
&
Spiritual media is way bigger than social media, Susan. And instantaneous.
The P. S. from Mike Dooley’s “Notes from the Universe” www.tut.com
May 16, 2022
The email I read after Anu Garg’s above had a P.S. Spiritual media. Even the notion brought a smile to my face. This is the awakening that’s actually already underway everywhere, whether we can always see it or not.
Let’s post to spiritual media this week instead of social media and see what happens. Maybe that prayer about a change will be facilitated exponentially.
&
“In the living room, a homemade banner declares: ‘Holding multiple truths. Knowing that everyone has their own accurate view of the way things are.’”…
“Mazel-Carlton’s motto is, ‘If I’m controlling, I’m not connecting’—and connection, for her, is everything. It defines hope.”
From a New York Times Magazine article by Daniel Bergner
“Doctors Gave Her Antipsychotics. She Decided to Live With Her Voices.”
May 18, 2022
What struck me most about Ms. Mazel-Carlton’s words was “If I’m controlling, I’m not connecting.”
My Mary Engelbreit page-a-day calendar bore an image of two trapeze artists this week. The words were few: “Only connect.”
I am a fan of the remarkable work on drug addiction and healing therefrom that Johann Hari has done and continues to do. His thesis is simple: the user doesn’t need treatment in isolation. No, what the user needs is what we all need—enough connection to want to stay connected.
Connection is all around us it would seem. Or, me, anyway. We spend so little time really connecting with others. Really connecting.
And yet … we all know that to thrive, human beings need connection.
For me, that’s the true devastation of social media. It’s pseudo-connection. Curated, manicured, perfected. What Ms. Mazel-Carlton would call “controlling.” Instead of real connection which is spontaneous, messy and so imperfect as to be laughable in the very best possibly impossible ways.
Some time in the next two weeks, would you reach out and really connect with someone you’ve been meaning to call or visit, but haven’t been able to take/make the time to do? Consider it your service to humanity.
&
“All across the world, customized facts are the rage. Truth has left the building.”
from an Opinion piece by Maureen Dowd
“Johnny Depp and Other Pirates” in The New York Times
May 22, 2022
Maureen Dowd might just be my very favorite of the Op-Ed columnists. As she’s gotten older, she’s pulled fewer and fewer punches. I really like it. Could it be that I, too, am getting older?
Customized facts? Uh, what? Same old, same old—curating reality. Can’t be done, Beloved. Not really possible.
You know, I got to thinking about this practice of customizing facts to suit what we want our reality to be, and it occurred to me that this is actually a perversion of the very real, vital process of creating our reality. It’s just that it’s focused on the wrong place.
We all create our reality. We do this by desire, choice, and action.
Have an old car? Need a new one? Great. What kind? Go test drive it. You like? Excellent. Now, how to finance it? And get it in the garage at home. Creating reality.
But we create reality, Beloved, in order to improve our futures, not to rewrite our pasts. If we rewrite our pasts willy-nilly, we will miss the learning and the healing from our pasts. We will make the same silly mistakes over and over again. Ultimately, we will forget how to create our reality.
So if Truth has left your building, stop what you’re doing right now, and invite it back in. Only when we stand on the solid ground of the past can we actually invite the change we truly do want in our lives for the future.
&
“The left these days gets a bad rap for policing language. It can be irritating to feel like you have to watch how you say things or keep up with the latest lingo when the old lingo still seems perfectly fine. This is especially the case with counterintuitive ideas such as referring not to “pregnant women” but to “people who are pregnant”—a phrase now used on Planned Parenthood’s website—or the even less intuitive “birthing people,” which we’re asked to embrace as inclusive, and therefore progressive, despite that both reduce women to being biological vessels.
“I’m certainly not arguing for intolerance toward those who can become pregnant but don’t identify as women. I’m saying that even if we’re not being forced to use the new terms, the way they’re introduced, almost as if by fiat, can make it seem as if sticking with the old ones is a kind of thought crime. But it isn’t that those on the left have some weird, childish yen for control. Rather, they seem to be operating under an attractive but shaky idea that language channels thought: Change how people say things and you change how they think about things and then the world changes.”
Linguist John McWhorter
From his Opinion Essay in The New York Times “Every Day, We’re Told to Use New Lingo. What Does That Really Accomplish?”
May 24, 2022
Um, no, well, yeah, I mean—kinda. Yes, changing vocabulary can seed change in the culture. No question. But changing vocabulary, I agree with Mr. McWhorter, doesn’t really change thinking, except over a long period of time.
Thinking new thoughts is what changes thinking.
You know this, I’m sure, because we’ve all tried to change our thinking from the outside in, and whilst it can work for a short time, it’s most likely to fall by the wayside when it really counts. Real change, lasting change, for-keeps change is best undertaken from the inside out.
That’s why I wrote the Energy Integrity Workbooks. To facilitate that inside-out change we all want. So let’s take a moment together to “ampersand” Mr. McWhorter’s claim, and say to ourselves instead that, yes, we can use new words to invoke, prompt, and seed new thoughts, and that actually spending time and thinking the thoughts themselves makes the change smoother, faster, and a whole lot more fun.
On this Memorial Day weekend, I wish you a great deal of ampersandian fun. Do something inclusive for yourself.
&
And in personal publishing news …
I have begun to pursue podguesting opportunities, and I have a shameless brag to make here. I got my first invitation to be a guest within just under thirty minutes of my sent inquiry! If there are spiritual or queer podcasts you like, would you please drop me a line with their details? I’d so appreciate it. susanATsusancorso.com.
I’ve been working on creating a Lifetime Chakra Quiz—you know, a questionnaire that helps you determine which of your chakras you lead with in life, and how to figure out your life plan of learning through the chakras. If you would like to be a beta tester for the Quiz, please send me an email, and I’ll gladly send it to you. Again, susanATsusancorso.com.
We are diligently reading Jezebel Rising aloud for a final proofread and copy edit. We’re almost halfway, and it’s a lot of fun. After that I’ll do a timeline/continuity read, and then it will be ready for beta readers. I have two or three already lined up. If you are a fan of historical speculative fiction, drop me a line and I’ll be glad to include you on the team. susanATsusancorso.com.
I am studying a book I learned about on Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn Podcast. It’s called 7 Figure Fiction by Theodora Taylor and it’s about what she calls Universal Fantasy—these are meta-themes that go way beyond tropes for book appeal. It’s fascinating. And I highly recommend it. I even asked my editor to read it, and that’s sayin’ somethin’.
The Energy Integrity Workbooks are starting to sell, even in the UK, just as I am only beginning to promote them, which thrills me. I swear by all that’s holy that if we all just learned how to manage our own energy systems, the entire planet would be better off by far. Dip into the workbook that appeals to you, and see if you don’t discover that I’m right! Here’s how to decide where to start:
Seeking to be more alive? Start with Energy Integrity Red Root Chakra.
Seeking to be more passionate? Start with Energy Integrity Orange Sacral Chakra.
Seeking to be more powerful? Start with Energy Integrity Yellow Solar Chakra.
Seeking to be more loving? Start with Energy Integrity Green Heart Chakra.
Seeking to be more creative? Start with Energy Integrity Turquoise Throat Chakra.
Seeking to be more intuitive? Start with Energy Integrity Indigo Brow Chakra.
Seeking to be more abundant? Start with Energy Integrity Violet Crown Chakra.
Seeking to be more compassionate? Start with Energy Integrity Rose Thymus Chakra.
And finally, recovering corporate executive and New Zealander Sue Fitzmaurice was quoted on my Mary Engelbreit calendar this week, and I just had to share it with you:
You must go on adventures to find out where you truly belong.
Adventures can take you wherever you want to go, Beloved, without even leaving your favorite chair.
From my favorite chair to yours, Be Ampersand, and I’ll be back in two weeks.
S.