Good news all 'round yesterday!
The nonfiction books I wrote for the school library publisher disappear into school libraries, not fertile ground for authorly ego, so I was thrilled to receive my first ever fan letter for one of my books (the toilet history one) after 11 years.
Then, the Public Health people responded like champs to my
criticism of their assumption that everybody drives cars:
They added bus & bike info to their direx! >
Wow! I could weep with appreciation of their reasonableness.
I've written before about how I am prone to resentment, an emotion that feeds on feelings of powerlessness. So when I take action, I feel less resentful....
Instead, I feel terrified!
Terrified of repercussions: most terrifying of all, of some kind of humiliation, of shaming.
So I not only appreciate this civilized response, I'm deeply relieved. My fear (and so, my relief) are irrational of course, because one of the reasons I risked writing PH in the first place is because I knew they are well-meaning and reasonable people.
But still, my frightened self feared they'd write back and tell me I was a social malingerer.
__________
Finally, I came home from working at the thrift store and my pal who owns the house (she & her family live here, and Mz and I live in half of the upstairs), my pal was tearing up the stair-runner carpet.
The daughter of the house has a dog that dribbles, and they just moved out, so my pal is on a roll with refreshing the place. And with Mz out of town, I'm on a similar roll.
So, we pulled up the truly disgusting carpet together.
Fun!
< The wood underneath is beat-up, but you can see it looks nice anyway.
I feel refreshed.
The nonfiction books I wrote for the school library publisher disappear into school libraries, not fertile ground for authorly ego, so I was thrilled to receive my first ever fan letter for one of my books (the toilet history one) after 11 years.
I'm going to frame it:
"Your Book is awesome!" + toilet image.
__________________________ They added bus & bike info to their direx! >
Wow! I could weep with appreciation of their reasonableness.
I've written before about how I am prone to resentment, an emotion that feeds on feelings of powerlessness. So when I take action, I feel less resentful....
Instead, I feel terrified!
Terrified of repercussions: most terrifying of all, of some kind of humiliation, of shaming.
So I not only appreciate this civilized response, I'm deeply relieved. My fear (and so, my relief) are irrational of course, because one of the reasons I risked writing PH in the first place is because I knew they are well-meaning and reasonable people.
But still, my frightened self feared they'd write back and tell me I was a social malingerer.
__________
Finally, I came home from working at the thrift store and my pal who owns the house (she & her family live here, and Mz and I live in half of the upstairs), my pal was tearing up the stair-runner carpet.
The daughter of the house has a dog that dribbles, and they just moved out, so my pal is on a roll with refreshing the place. And with Mz out of town, I'm on a similar roll.
So, we pulled up the truly disgusting carpet together.
Fun!
< The wood underneath is beat-up, but you can see it looks nice anyway.
I feel refreshed.
Yeah! Someone with a little more experience no doubt was horrified that a green volunteer had so little idea of the scope of others lives.
ReplyDeleteI do love old wood, lovely stuff.
I have to assume it's the newer blooger, since I've stayed with the older form and have not had these issues. But then, I turned off WV a while back. If you keep an eye on the spam and delete it quickly, that does seem to help a lot.
ZHOEN: I think you're right: I did get the sense that the person who responded knew the score--it was someone I hadn't been in contact with before, so I imagine my e-mail had gotten passed on to the proper person who said, "Of course we should implement this, it's what we're all about."
ReplyDeleteWhew!
I like seeing what you do with your house too---if I were the home-owner, I would make some other fun changes too. (Though I would be limited by lack of know-how and $, same as my pals who do own the house.)
Yeah, I'll just delete the spam quickly---mostly it's harmless, sometimes it's even funny!
It's under Comments, then Report Spam. Really has kept the number to minimal.
ReplyDeleteI like that literary criticism. Any idea of the critic’s age?
ReplyDeleteAbout Blogger: could you have accidentally changed the number of posts to display on the main page? That’s the first thing in the “Posts and comments” section of Settings.
Congrats on the fan letter! The letter, and the book, are both awesome! Well deserved!
ReplyDeleteThough my house is not being refreshed, I appreciate knowing someone's is!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your communication with the powers that be fell on the right ears. As you know, my son doesn't drive, either. Making his way is part of what he can do in life; finding the ride he needs, even to work 15 or so miles out of town. I drive but have no income of my own, and time is better to have, I say (at this moment, at least).
And I congratulate you, also, on your fan letter -- that is priceless.
MICHAEL: I must ask the editor who passed along the fan letter if they know the kid's age.
ReplyDeleteI double-checked hte posts and comments and all is as it should be. Who knows?
BINK: Thanks!
DEANNA: I like hearing about how resourceful (and successful) other non-drivers are, like James!
UPDATE: My editor writes, "Your fan is an autistic boy in second grade who lives near [one of the editors] and who knows everything about toilets, so his compliment really means something!"
ReplyDelete