Earlier this week, on Facebook, I posted Snoopy's message (even if I didn't believe a word of it): Chaque fois que tu trouves de l'humour dans une situation difficile, tu gagnes.
une broutille (broo-tee)
a trifle, a small matter, a little thing, nothing
Audio File: Listen to Max Download MP3 or Wav file
perdre son temps à des broutilles = to waste one's time on unimportant matters
se préoccuper de broutilles = to focus on insignificant details
s'inquiéter pour des broutilles = to worry about nothing
se disputer pour des (ou une) broutilles = to fight over nothing
A Day in a French Life… by Kristin Espinasse
On Monday morning I quietly packed an overnight bag and left it on the edge of my bed. Next, I drew a few deep breaths, clicked open my blog, and began searching the archives for a post to rerun. Though I have gone to work and written stories under more nerve-racking circumstances, this time the energy-fueling crisis could not be put to constructive use–not even for sentence construction (emotional turmoil can be an adept wordsmith).
As I searched for a story to repost, I stopped, now and again, to contemplate the packed bag. If it eventually disappeared from the edge of the bed, it would be the first time in 19-years of marriage that I dared employ Plan B (a night spent alone at a cheap hotel…to think things over). But what would a little room cost? I wondered. I'd spend 60, at least… Surely I could get an off-season room in Bandol for 60/65…? Maybe they'll offer a discount if I stay a week. Will I stay a week?
Don't think about that right now, I told myself. Wait for that "still small voice" inside to guide you. Meantime, one step in front of the other… Get your work done and then you can decide what to do.
I walked on in ignorant bliss until, suddenly, my smile fell and I froze in my tracks. The drain? He is not going to put that vacuum attachment down the drain!
Electricity is a big bone of contention in our household. Over the two decades that I have lived with Jean-Marc, I have watched him dabble in DIY work. He is no good at it, he admits, but that doesn't take away his enthusiasm–nor do the trips to ER when he slips! Lately, after long discussions with my mom, I have learned to see Jean-Marc's DIY adventures in a new light: not only is he extremely curious, but such projects are his way of expressing himself–unleashing his inner-artist! Thus, we have the velcro-taped GPS in our car and the duct-taped mop-spear. The perfectionist in me winces at each of my husband's latest "solution creations" which lack for visual esthetique. But, lately, thanks to Mom's help, I can smile at them and even begin to appreciate the quirky man-made fix-its. And I can almost overlook my husband's obsession with refitting all the electric cords (on the microwave, the TV, the lamps…he seems fascinated by the anatomy of the cord. He itches to reveal the wires within the black rubber conduit).
But I draw the line at electricity and water.
"There is a plastic bottle cap stuck in the drain and I am going to vacuum it out!" This, Jean-Marc states with intention, for he knows that I will go hoarse trying to talk him out of it. "The drain is dry," he adds. "There is no worry about water!"
I pause, knowing that if this conversation continues it will continue at a great expense. Listen, I want to say to my husband, I get it that you need to do your thing. I get it that I am to leave you alone with your projects and schemes. I get it. I get it. But I will never "get" electricity and I am asking you to wait for the plumber to arrive. He's scheduled to be here, anyway, and he can get the bottle cap out of the drain!
Realizing that I was not going to let up, Jean-Marc let go, losing his battle with self-control. This happened somewhere between his urging to, "Trust me that I know what I am doing," and his final desperate plea: "LET ME LIVE MY LIFE!"
I did trust him to know what he was doing and I did want him to live his life (obviously!). Only, as I so often tell our son, "It isn't you I worry about. It's the other drivers!" (Here, it isn't Jean-Marc I worry about. It is the water and the electricity!)
***
Back in my bedroom, having closed the door on the verbal gunfire that raged on, solo, back in the living room, I tell my daughter: "Get your bag, we are leaving for school now." Only, when I open the door, there stands my husband, goggle-eyed, arms rising up and down.
I stood completely silent and still before the stunning bottle cap-and-vacuum spectacle, not a single of my limbs in motion, yet inside my arms were flapping wildly and my mouth thundered just like his. I was just as riled as he was, only I managed to keep it all tucked neatly inside as I walked right on past the live wire and out the door.
I don't know how I happened onto the site of a photographer based in Memphis, but I stayed to study every single photo in her touching self-portrait exposition, in which she photographs people sneering or mocking her (seemingly unbeknownst to her) because of her weight. Artist Haley Morris-Cafiero writes:
For my series, Wait Watchers, I set up a camera in a heavy-traffic, public area and take hundreds of photographs as I perform mundane, everyday tasks as people pass by me. I then examine the images to see if any of the passersby had a critical or questioning element in their face or in their body language. I consider my photographs a social experiment and I travel the world in an attempt to photograph the reactions of a diverse pool of passersby.
I have always had a hard time controlling my weight. My uncontrollable exterior has determined my place in society and I have often felt left out and awkward.
The artist's words hit hard and for the first time I realized that, though we all have struggles and vices, some of us have the added humility of having to wear their uncontrollable sides on the outside–weight and temper being two examples. With this thought came a wave of compassion for all who suffer from outward expressions of their inner conflicts.
Jean-Marc calmed down in time to bring me wildflowers in an attempt to reconcile. Accepting them, I was unable to curb my impulse to point out HIS faults. (I didn't see it as humiliation at the time but–like using a blow torch to put out a lighted candle wick–such words were crushing and unnecessary… and only served to fuel the flame!)
By the third bouquet of wildflowers (it took days–and many bouquets–to reconcile…) I began to see some of my own vices, trickier for myself, or others, to identify as they are hidden on the inside: stubborness, self-righteousness, intolerance, perfectionism, the need to control, over-anxiousness–to name several. Unlike the overweight photographer or the short-tempered husband, I have the luxury of keeping my vices and sins to myself, though I endeavor to share most of them in the stories I write. Afterwards, I can't help but see the humor and the beauty and the value in the struggle of life.
"I'm uncomfortable when you talk about your struggles with alcoholism," one readers comments. Another writes, "Aren't you afraid you'll lose Jean-Marc–aren't you doing him a disservice by writing these very personal accounts). I worry some other woman will steal him away from you!"
Such notes make me cower back inside myself, and I think my writing days are over. If I cannot tell my story–through the lens of humor or whichever lens I'm using for a particular episode–then I might spend my time sorting socks (and some of you will agree yes, Kristin, this would be best!).
"But writing is your gift! Don't let intimidation silence your creativity!" my mom urges me (sure, she's my mom, Moms say that kind of thing… but I feel that kind of thing–not the gift but the words and sentences that will not stop filing across my mind, or chattering in my ears, until they are set down in story form. It is torture, but, three times each week, it is delivery).
Post note: Jean-Marc has always encouraged me to share my story. "If it is the truth," he says, "then tell it."
Thanks for visiting our sponsor:
LISTEN & READ-ALONG French/English mystery book & AUDIO CD! Vocabulary, grammar, & quizzes. Great French gift! $34.95
.
When you shop for any item at Amazon, using the highlighted links, you help to support this free French journal. Merci beaucoup!
- Check out Carla Bruni's Little French Songs.
- A Tour of the Heart: A Seductive Cycling Trip Through France.
Discover more from French Word-A-Day
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Loved this blog post as usual. When I first read DIY, I accidentally transposed the letters and read it as DYI. After reading your entire post, I realize perhaps that’s a more apt term for some people: Do Yourself In! I’m glad Jean-Marc triumphed over the electricity. And I agree with the others here who have encouraged you in your writing. You have a gift, and you must be able to share that gift without fear of anyone else’s opinion. God bless you!
Loved this blog post as usual. When I first read DIY, I accidentally transposed the letters and read it as DYI. After reading your entire post, I realize perhaps that’s a more apt term for some people: Do Yourself In! I’m glad Jean-Marc triumphed over the electricity. And I agree with the others here who have encouraged you in your writing. You have a gift, and you must be able to share that gift without fear of anyone else’s opinion. God bless you!
Kristin: perhaps the reader who expressed their uneasy with “your alcoholism” may have problems with it themself. One day at a time…it’s part of our story. Continue to tell your story in your most eloquent way.
Kristin: perhaps the reader who expressed their uneasy with “your alcoholism” may have problems with it themself. One day at a time…it’s part of our story. Continue to tell your story in your most eloquent way.
While I was walking to Santiago, I wrote in a blog post that I wasn’t sure I was equipped to be a good wife to my husband. After I had left the internet cafe and walked a few more miles, I felt horrified that I had written and posted publicly such a thing about my marriage. But what happened was that after reading my post, my husband told me that he never realized I felt that way. And honestly, I don’t think I knew I felt that way until I had written it. It was the key to strengthening our commitment to each other. I think sometimes we find ourselves in our writings…right where we are supposed to be 🙂
I truly love reading your blog… you realize that you are never allowed to quit.. right?
While I was walking to Santiago, I wrote in a blog post that I wasn’t sure I was equipped to be a good wife to my husband. After I had left the internet cafe and walked a few more miles, I felt horrified that I had written and posted publicly such a thing about my marriage. But what happened was that after reading my post, my husband told me that he never realized I felt that way. And honestly, I don’t think I knew I felt that way until I had written it. It was the key to strengthening our commitment to each other. I think sometimes we find ourselves in our writings…right where we are supposed to be 🙂
I truly love reading your blog… you realize that you are never allowed to quit.. right?
Kristin, you are a human being. We have all experienced many of the same feelings, desires, and attitudes (perfectionism, desire for control, etc. etc.) It’s good that you can, at least after a while, be objective enough to see yourself with accuracy, but don’t beat yourself up too much.
It seems to me that J-M has been very supportive over the years, and is worth his weight in gold. Others are not perfect, either, and so we take the annoyances along with the pluses.
Caption for the wedding picture: “Pour toujours!”
Kristin, you are a human being. We have all experienced many of the same feelings, desires, and attitudes (perfectionism, desire for control, etc. etc.) It’s good that you can, at least after a while, be objective enough to see yourself with accuracy, but don’t beat yourself up too much.
It seems to me that J-M has been very supportive over the years, and is worth his weight in gold. Others are not perfect, either, and so we take the annoyances along with the pluses.
Caption for the wedding picture: “Pour toujours!”
I have not taken the time to read the other comments which, not surprisingly, are many and I suspect are all wholly dedicated to lifting you up and reiterating what we’ve been saying for years: “LOVE IT, WRITE ON!” and to borrow an old timey phrase from the 60’s, “right on,”
Right on the money, honey that your thoughts flow from a deep source within; right on that you are fearless and meet each day with courage and the willingness to go within and THINK about what you are doing, not flitting around bumping into others with unconsidered living. And right on that from time to time, you go beyond the safe place and share topics that, like alcholism, are so important to many of us. When you share like that, you give us hope and through our comments we link mind and hearts together and feel support that might not otherwise be there for us.
I, too, struggle, not like some, but I am unable yet to rise above drinking/eating compulsions. I look forward to seeing Wait Watchers. I consider women like this artist, Haley Morris-Cafiero, as heroines. They, like you, are willing to open up to the world and through brave revelations help us to find OUR COMMON HUMANITY. Too few look beyond the surface of life to find what connects us to one another. This fractured, unconnected world needs all the glue it can get, so
Right on! to open, honest, heart-felt communication. I feel for the person who judged you for speaking openly about alcoholism. I don’t understand that way of thinking, but I suspect it comes from fear. And Kristen: WRITE ON!
I have not taken the time to read the other comments which, not surprisingly, are many and I suspect are all wholly dedicated to lifting you up and reiterating what we’ve been saying for years: “LOVE IT, WRITE ON!” and to borrow an old timey phrase from the 60’s, “right on,”
Right on the money, honey that your thoughts flow from a deep source within; right on that you are fearless and meet each day with courage and the willingness to go within and THINK about what you are doing, not flitting around bumping into others with unconsidered living. And right on that from time to time, you go beyond the safe place and share topics that, like alcholism, are so important to many of us. When you share like that, you give us hope and through our comments we link mind and hearts together and feel support that might not otherwise be there for us.
I, too, struggle, not like some, but I am unable yet to rise above drinking/eating compulsions. I look forward to seeing Wait Watchers. I consider women like this artist, Haley Morris-Cafiero, as heroines. They, like you, are willing to open up to the world and through brave revelations help us to find OUR COMMON HUMANITY. Too few look beyond the surface of life to find what connects us to one another. This fractured, unconnected world needs all the glue it can get, so
Right on! to open, honest, heart-felt communication. I feel for the person who judged you for speaking openly about alcoholism. I don’t understand that way of thinking, but I suspect it comes from fear. And Kristen: WRITE ON!
Patty Austin: Yes, « c’est la vie »…. And the song continues…. what ever will be, will be!
The French also have another saying that goes:
« c’est la vie, c’est la guerre, c’est la pomme de terre! » which discretely translated means . . . “Stuff happens!” and might describe the consequences.
Patty Austin: Yes, « c’est la vie »…. And the song continues…. what ever will be, will be!
The French also have another saying that goes:
« c’est la vie, c’est la guerre, c’est la pomme de terre! » which discretely translated means . . . “Stuff happens!” and might describe the consequences.
“Stand in your truth even if your voice shakes!” I LOVE your stories, your bravery and strength and that you are sharing your struggles with us…that all care about you so much. We all (me included) have/had our ‘demons’ and dragons to fight and those who are ‘uncomfortable’ with it or say mean things like ‘you will lose you husband’ are out of touch with human emotions and not very ‘enlightened’. Don’t worry about them. You are you and I love that. love Joy <3
“Stand in your truth even if your voice shakes!” I LOVE your stories, your bravery and strength and that you are sharing your struggles with us…that all care about you so much. We all (me included) have/had our ‘demons’ and dragons to fight and those who are ‘uncomfortable’ with it or say mean things like ‘you will lose you husband’ are out of touch with human emotions and not very ‘enlightened’. Don’t worry about them. You are you and I love that. love Joy <3
Kristi…I found this post to be a very tender piece of writing….wonderful! 🙂
Kristi…I found this post to be a very tender piece of writing….wonderful! 🙂
Love you Kristi, just the way you are. PS – wild flowers are the very best. Always look forward to your posts. Hugs!
Love you Kristi, just the way you are. PS – wild flowers are the very best. Always look forward to your posts. Hugs!
Kristin!
Remember, we are all mirrors of one another. Best not to let what frightens another encroach upon your experience. Those people are projecting their own experiences on you and appear to have their own issues with addiction and fear of loss of a loved one (respectively). Those comments are about them and their own triggers, not you. I admire your honesty. Brava to you!
Kristin!
Remember, we are all mirrors of one another. Best not to let what frightens another encroach upon your experience. Those people are projecting their own experiences on you and appear to have their own issues with addiction and fear of loss of a loved one (respectively). Those comments are about them and their own triggers, not you. I admire your honesty. Brava to you!
Good comment, Julia – I appreciate it. Still, Kristin, I reckon you have compatibility problems with JM (which worries yr. Mum too so she tells you you can’t trust yr. own reality, sweeping it under the carpet – I’d watch out). So far as you are concerned, he’s insensitive and irresponsible. Doesn’t seem to know how to handle conflict and so you get hurt. Sorry. Because it’ll remain this way – volatile and fragile – until you two can begin to talk about and discover underlying issues. (Sorry for those who won’t just disagree but self-righteously so – please read all the plaudits to truth-telling above).
Good comment, Julia – I appreciate it. Still, Kristin, I reckon you have compatibility problems with JM (which worries yr. Mum too so she tells you you can’t trust yr. own reality, sweeping it under the carpet – I’d watch out). So far as you are concerned, he’s insensitive and irresponsible. Doesn’t seem to know how to handle conflict and so you get hurt. Sorry. Because it’ll remain this way – volatile and fragile – until you two can begin to talk about and discover underlying issues. (Sorry for those who won’t just disagree but self-righteously so – please read all the plaudits to truth-telling above).
Electricity and water – a major ‘no no’ for me, too. I would actually prefer he flip the circuit breakers off before changing a light bulb and there’s not even any water involved!! But, any of my ‘no don’t do that with electricity’ always meets with the same ‘zapping’ back and forth – just like electrical ‘noise’ between us. It can be very frustrating, but I am always so happy and relieved when all work is finished and he’s still standing, the house is not on fire, he is smiling his little boy smile, and I have to admit he was right and it was all ok (well, until the next time I freak out about anything electric!) Your writing about all the emotions that are tapped and zapped is so very, very real and touched home with me and it looks like it touched home with all of your readers as well. You are such an incredible writer – we always ‘feel’ right along with you because you express yourself so truthfully – never quit doing that! I, like others, am always very excited to see your post in my inbox, and sometimes I even wait to read, to savor it at a special time, when I can savor each word you write! Thank you for all you give! Time to go to sleep, perhaps to dream of wildflowers!
Electricity and water – a major ‘no no’ for me, too. I would actually prefer he flip the circuit breakers off before changing a light bulb and there’s not even any water involved!! But, any of my ‘no don’t do that with electricity’ always meets with the same ‘zapping’ back and forth – just like electrical ‘noise’ between us. It can be very frustrating, but I am always so happy and relieved when all work is finished and he’s still standing, the house is not on fire, he is smiling his little boy smile, and I have to admit he was right and it was all ok (well, until the next time I freak out about anything electric!) Your writing about all the emotions that are tapped and zapped is so very, very real and touched home with me and it looks like it touched home with all of your readers as well. You are such an incredible writer – we always ‘feel’ right along with you because you express yourself so truthfully – never quit doing that! I, like others, am always very excited to see your post in my inbox, and sometimes I even wait to read, to savor it at a special time, when I can savor each word you write! Thank you for all you give! Time to go to sleep, perhaps to dream of wildflowers!
Kristin and Jean-Marc: You are an unusual couple in a truthful melange of two different cultures and upbringings. But You are so lucky to have each other. Either of You would be foolish to ever risk losing the other over personal disagreements. Even if Jean_Marc risks his very life, he needs to know your concern is for him. He Supports your lifestyle and allows you to write very personally. That shows great respect for your personal freedoms inside a wonderful marriage. Jean-Marc we readers thank you for our glimpses into normally private areas. So please be careful not to kill yourself! Kristin and us interlopers and Your children would all be devastated. You see we all love You. But it is his life, Kristin, to lead and to risk as he sees fit. Alors, pas plus de >vous deux! Nous Vous aimons!
Kristin and Jean-Marc: You are an unusual couple in a truthful melange of two different cultures and upbringings. But You are so lucky to have each other. Either of You would be foolish to ever risk losing the other over personal disagreements. Even if Jean_Marc risks his very life, he needs to know your concern is for him. He Supports your lifestyle and allows you to write very personally. That shows great respect for your personal freedoms inside a wonderful marriage. Jean-Marc we readers thank you for our glimpses into normally private areas. So please be careful not to kill yourself! Kristin and us interlopers and Your children would all be devastated. You see we all love You. But it is his life, Kristin, to lead and to risk as he sees fit. Alors, pas plus de >vous deux! Nous Vous aimons!
> = broutilles!
> = broutilles!
Thank you for all your touching and poignant comments here. It is such a pleasure to think about them. Mirroring, interpreting according to ones past experiences… we all view and perceive the world in our own unique way. It is enlightening and life-changing to learn how others experience a similar situation. Cynical or sarcastic words, accusations or negative assumptions have no place here in the comments section. I like the old saying: Until you have walked in anothers shoes… reserve judgement.
Jen, you have perfectly expressed the dark dark period I experienced after hitting the publish button! … and the enriching and happy outcome that followed. Off to help my husband with lunch… after a morning of DIY projects (smiles) we are sitting down to a bbq and will enjoy the fruits of our labor. Wishing everyone a relaxing weekend. No matter your struggles, we can all relate, or try to.
Thank you for all your touching and poignant comments here. It is such a pleasure to think about them. Mirroring, interpreting according to ones past experiences… we all view and perceive the world in our own unique way. It is enlightening and life-changing to learn how others experience a similar situation. Cynical or sarcastic words, accusations or negative assumptions have no place here in the comments section. I like the old saying: Until you have walked in anothers shoes… reserve judgement.
Jen, you have perfectly expressed the dark dark period I experienced after hitting the publish button! … and the enriching and happy outcome that followed. Off to help my husband with lunch… after a morning of DIY projects (smiles) we are sitting down to a bbq and will enjoy the fruits of our labor. Wishing everyone a relaxing weekend. No matter your struggles, we can all relate, or try to.
Kristen, keep writing. People say hurtful things when the details of their own lives are not good. People uncomfortable with talk of alcoholism(it runs in my family) or twitching you about how secure you are with your husband have issues of their own to solve. Do not let it affect what you do, which is paint a picture of your life in a most interesting part of France about a family with whom we can all identify. I really and truly love reading your pieces-continuez-s’il vous plait!
Kristen, keep writing. People say hurtful things when the details of their own lives are not good. People uncomfortable with talk of alcoholism(it runs in my family) or twitching you about how secure you are with your husband have issues of their own to solve. Do not let it affect what you do, which is paint a picture of your life in a most interesting part of France about a family with whom we can all identify. I really and truly love reading your pieces-continuez-s’il vous plait!
Good Morning my precious Kristi,
How nice to find more interesting comments here this morning – I can read all of them while I enjoy my coffee.
XOXO
MOM
Good Morning my precious Kristi,
How nice to find more interesting comments here this morning – I can read all of them while I enjoy my coffee.
XOXO
MOM
GOOD MORNING SARGAM –
ONCE AGAIN YOU HAVE SLITHERED INTO OUR LIVES…
NOTHING LIKE FINDING A FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE THIS BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY MORNING.
YOU HAVEN’T BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO REALIZE THAT I ACTUALLY HAVE A POSSE TO BACK ME UP.
I’M OFF TO FIND MY SHOTGUN – YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.
JULES
GOOD MORNING SARGAM –
ONCE AGAIN YOU HAVE SLITHERED INTO OUR LIVES…
NOTHING LIKE FINDING A FOX IN THE HEN HOUSE THIS BEAUTIFUL SATURDAY MORNING.
YOU HAVEN’T BEEN AROUND LONG ENOUGH TO REALIZE THAT I ACTUALLY HAVE A POSSE TO BACK ME UP.
I’M OFF TO FIND MY SHOTGUN – YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED.
JULES
Keep up the good work. As you learn about yourself…so do we learn about ourselves. Thank you for sharing your life with us.
Keep up the good work. As you learn about yourself…so do we learn about ourselves. Thank you for sharing your life with us.
Hi Kristin, Your writing is wonderful and every day as I read your blog I thank Jules for introducing us. You have a wonderful sense of humor and are very human, loving, and real.
I have not alluded to this before, but will speak up in your defense now that there some dissension among your readers. I, at the age forty-nine was hospitalized for a severe eating disorder. It was a facility that also treated people with drug and alcohol addictions. We basically were all alike…addictions all have similar roots and causes. My disorder began as a young child. I went through bulimia for the majority of my life and then became anorexic/bulimic a couple of years before my hospitalization.
Thirteen years later I still battle demons, emotional upsets that can send me to a dark place. I like you, have a wonderful sunny outside but internalize much of my feelings.
Unfortunately, the one thing that people don’t realize, and are uncomfortable with, is that addiction in all its forms is all around them. They often turn a blind eye rather than deal with reality. In you case, it is a part of who you are and you are doing a great service to those around you and your readers by sharing your honesty,your humor, and the reality of your life. Its not Camelot.
Keep up the GREAT work! I so enjoy your total your perspective and your life in France.
BJ
Hi Kristin, Your writing is wonderful and every day as I read your blog I thank Jules for introducing us. You have a wonderful sense of humor and are very human, loving, and real.
I have not alluded to this before, but will speak up in your defense now that there some dissension among your readers. I, at the age forty-nine was hospitalized for a severe eating disorder. It was a facility that also treated people with drug and alcohol addictions. We basically were all alike…addictions all have similar roots and causes. My disorder began as a young child. I went through bulimia for the majority of my life and then became anorexic/bulimic a couple of years before my hospitalization.
Thirteen years later I still battle demons, emotional upsets that can send me to a dark place. I like you, have a wonderful sunny outside but internalize much of my feelings.
Unfortunately, the one thing that people don’t realize, and are uncomfortable with, is that addiction in all its forms is all around them. They often turn a blind eye rather than deal with reality. In you case, it is a part of who you are and you are doing a great service to those around you and your readers by sharing your honesty,your humor, and the reality of your life. Its not Camelot.
Keep up the GREAT work! I so enjoy your total your perspective and your life in France.
BJ
At about 3 PM on April 12, 2010, Paul Harding checked the Pulitzer Prize website to see who had won that year’s award for fiction. The news, he thought, would provide a nice bit of fodder for a few minutes’ worth of conversation at the start of the fiction class he would be teaching later that afternoon at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he’d received his MFA a decade earlier. Perhaps he would know the winner’s name; maybe he’d even met the lucky writer. At first, the name of Elizabeth Strout, who had won the previous year for Olive Kitteridge popped up on his computer screen. He refreshed the page a few times: Elizabeth Strouth, Elizabeth Strout . . . PAUL HARDING! / He blinked. It was a joke, surely, or perhaps a hallucination. He refreshed the page again and again. Paul Harding, Paul Harding. / Incredibly, he’d won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his first novel, Tinkers, published by Bellevue Literary Press – a small nonprofit publisher founded in 2007 and connected to, of all things, New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital – after having been REJECTED BY ABOUT FORTY OTHER PUBLISHERS, including virtually all the major New York City houses and even a number of university presses, OVER A PERIOD OF FIVE LONG YEARS. He’d had no inkling that Tinkers was in the running, much less a finalist, far less still a winner. From Poets&Writers Magazine May 2013 article “The Winner’s Circle” by Kevin Nance. (Capitals mine, to point out the rejection faced by writers and the time it sometimes takes to get a book published. Another writer who faced this type of rejection was J.K. Rowling)
At about 3 PM on April 12, 2010, Paul Harding checked the Pulitzer Prize website to see who had won that year’s award for fiction. The news, he thought, would provide a nice bit of fodder for a few minutes’ worth of conversation at the start of the fiction class he would be teaching later that afternoon at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he’d received his MFA a decade earlier. Perhaps he would know the winner’s name; maybe he’d even met the lucky writer. At first, the name of Elizabeth Strout, who had won the previous year for Olive Kitteridge popped up on his computer screen. He refreshed the page a few times: Elizabeth Strouth, Elizabeth Strout . . . PAUL HARDING! / He blinked. It was a joke, surely, or perhaps a hallucination. He refreshed the page again and again. Paul Harding, Paul Harding. / Incredibly, he’d won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his first novel, Tinkers, published by Bellevue Literary Press – a small nonprofit publisher founded in 2007 and connected to, of all things, New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital – after having been REJECTED BY ABOUT FORTY OTHER PUBLISHERS, including virtually all the major New York City houses and even a number of university presses, OVER A PERIOD OF FIVE LONG YEARS. He’d had no inkling that Tinkers was in the running, much less a finalist, far less still a winner. From Poets&Writers Magazine May 2013 article “The Winner’s Circle” by Kevin Nance. (Capitals mine, to point out the rejection faced by writers and the time it sometimes takes to get a book published. Another writer who faced this type of rejection was J.K. Rowling)
I must tell you, I love you…for all the right reasons and regardless of how this may sound ridiculous to others.
God bless and keep you and may He keep guiding you as you listen to Him.
I must tell you, I love you…for all the right reasons and regardless of how this may sound ridiculous to others.
God bless and keep you and may He keep guiding you as you listen to Him.
None of us are perfect. Keep sharing your photos and stories. I find it affirming to know that others have struggles too–even if they’re different from mine.
None of us are perfect. Keep sharing your photos and stories. I find it affirming to know that others have struggles too–even if they’re different from mine.
I discovered a long time ago that if you look beneath the outer layer of anger, you will always find fear…..fear of loss, fear of inadequacy, fear of failure, etc. The underlying emotion at the base of this anger/fear is true love. Kristi, enjoy your mom’s visit and forget about everything but happiness and the love of family! (Jules, go out there and kick some butt!)
I discovered a long time ago that if you look beneath the outer layer of anger, you will always find fear…..fear of loss, fear of inadequacy, fear of failure, etc. The underlying emotion at the base of this anger/fear is true love. Kristi, enjoy your mom’s visit and forget about everything but happiness and the love of family! (Jules, go out there and kick some butt!)
I get this; been there. Thank you for sharing the whole picture. It is through this reflection we grow in compassion, consciousness and love.
Wishing you and Jules many precious moments together.
P.s. My internet service has been down for a week. Please excuse my absence.
I get this; been there. Thank you for sharing the whole picture. It is through this reflection we grow in compassion, consciousness and love.
Wishing you and Jules many precious moments together.
P.s. My internet service has been down for a week. Please excuse my absence.