Here Kitty, Kitty, Good Kitty!

"Grandma Fang's Clowder of Kittens" has just been published in a new Wising Up Press anthology, Goodness. The anthology is edited by Charles D. Brockett and Heather Tosteson. It will be available for purchase on December 1 from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and from the publisher,    http://www.universaltable.org/bookstore.html

Per Wising Up Press:   Goodness is hard to define, but we know it when we see it. In action or inaction, that pause that isn't uncertain, that is more like a deep, steady breath, an existential embrace. It is easier to see goodness in others than in ourselves. But do we experience it as a choice or part of their essential nature? If a choice, what is the nature of the choice?  What other adjectives constellate around it? Strong? Independent? Loving? Astute? Generous? Sui generis? Trusting? Confident? Firm? Unequivocal? Kind?

Where have you seen goodness in play? How has it changed your own life, the actual choices you make or how you evaluate your choices? Is there a cascade effect? Or is it, in its specificity, always a one-off? What happens to us when we think about it, try to describe it, share our experiences of it with others?

 We hope you will find personal inspiration and resonance in this thoughtful and moving collection that discovers goodness in such difficult social realities as homelessness, imprisonment, and more intimate ones like illness, families, marriage, aging. We also hope these meditations on the often unexpected good in us and those around us can help us develop larger, much needed social conversations about our common good.

This year, 2020, has been filled with much misfortune, but goodness is still around, if you know where to look I found goodness in an aging cat! 

Here are the opening paragraphs from my story:

Fang appeared shortly after Thanksgiving in l965. My eight-year-old son, Steve, found her curled up in the patio, blanketed with purple jacaranda blossoms. He’d gone out with his telescope to look for Pisces, his favorite autumn constellation.

“Look, Mom. I nearly stepped on this cat on my way to the gate,” Steve said, cradling the calico tabby. “I saw its little white paw sticking out of the flowers. Then I heard it meow. It looks so tired.”

Our last feline guest disappeared several months earlier, so I agreed we could keep this latest stray. That’s how it was back then. Except for one neighbor with a purebred Siamese, people didn’t actually

More from the publishers: "Universal Table/Wising Up Press is an organization dedicated to exploring the complex challenges and lasting rewards of living up close and personal with pluralism in social, family, religious, and civic life, or, more simply, Finding the "We" in "Them," the "Us" in "You." Wising Up anthologies use literature by contemporary writers to approach various dimensions of pluralism because of the power of narrative to help us identify safely with others who may at first seem, by appearance or circumstances or culture, very different from us. The anthologies serve as an invitation to stand in that richer relation—empathic, musing, open to new meaning—with ourselves and with our neighbors."

 

Coming Up Roses

 

 

I won't go so far as to say that everything's coming up roses. It's been a harrowing year from day one. What happened on January 1? I singed my finger while lighting some holiday candles near my rocker, the ancient rocker where I read, watch TV and eat my meals from a TV tray. Yes, that very rocker. The match dropped on my chair and set the foam cushion afire. That set off my apartment's fire alarm. 

Fortunately, I was able to drag the smouldering cushion out on my balcony and smother the melting foam. The smoke didn't get into my building's hallway, so my own alarm quickly subsided. I have an old Air France blanket acting as a seat cover...making do.

I'd no sooner returned from a trip to Napa and Healdsburg, when the pandemic set in. Weeks elapsed when I could barely focus on watching a DVD or reading a book. Fortunately, again, I was saved by connecting with groups and friends via Zoom and Skype. So I hadn't completely isolated.

 By October the Rose Center Theater in my community began to state outdoor concerts in its patio garden, with audiences social distanced and masked. So I began to enjoy live music once more.

A number of area restaurants put up tents and awnings, so I could dine outside with a friend or my son and daughter-in-law.

"I must admit it's getting better," I hummed to myself. But, wait! I went to the supermarket on one of my usual $5 Fridays. Reaching for a packet of seasoning mix, I accidentally knocked over the container. I grabbed it as it fell, catching it right below my waist on my right side. Just as the guy down the aisle shouted "good catch," I felt a searing pain tear through my upper arm. I could hardly manage to load the groceries on to the cashier's counter and stuff them into my trunk. 

By the time I got home, my entire right bicep was beginning to ache. By evening it had started to bruise. The next morning I realized I might have ruptured a tendon. I waited a day to see if the bruising would subside, but it increased, despite the ice packs I'd applied.

 I messaged my primary care physician and she advised I go to the nearest urgent care. So I drove myself over, parked and walked toward the hospital entrance. Just before the crosswalk, I tripped on a piece of concrete that had been raised by a tree root, fell face first, broke my glasses, scraped my face, sprained my left ring finger, skinned my knees and traumatized my entire body.

Fortunately, I didn't suffer a cerebral hemmorhage or break a hip. The damage to my bicep might be permanent, but the fall didn't kill me.

The pandemic isn't going away anytime soon here in Southern California. Nonetheless, I'm focusing on counting my blessings. Though not everything is coming up roses, there's reason for me to celebrate. My Lakers won the NBA. My Dodgers won the World Series. Three books coming out containing my stories appear in the next several weeks. Sasee published a story about the days when I was a majorette. I'm enjoying Taco Tuesdays at a number of different outoor restaurants, while the weather still allows.

Yes, it's autumn, but some things are coming up roses!

And here's my November story:

https://sasee.com/essay/razzle-dazzle-and-hope/