Dear Fellow Booklovers,
I don’t know about you, but words seem particularly difficult to find right now. I have been struggling to articulate the grief, the sorrow, fear, hope, inspiration, gratitude, and yes, even joy, I have experienced over these past few weeks. Strangely, I have felt particularly drawn to books about the climate crisis-- Jenny Offill’s “Weather” and “Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis” by Greta Thunberg and her family. I have also been intent on curating a “Surviving the Pandemic” cube at the Book Gallery. All this, I suppose, is my own way of making sense of this terrifying new pandemic world we now inhabit.
Every single day, I turn to writers and writing—any form of it—books, magazines, online newspapers--for their perspectives and any wisdom they can impart. Recently, I received my weekly
New Yorker
magazine, which contained a collection called, “Dispatches from a Pandemic.” Some of the finest writers of our times—Gary Shteyngart, Karen Russell, Edwidge Danticat, Ben Lerner, Rebecca Mead, Brian Washington—to name a few, give us the gift of their words to help us make it through this scary and confusing time. I am grateful for not only these writers, but for ALL writers who are sharing their gift for storytelling. We need to feel connected—part of humanity itself, but also to Nature and our planet—in this time of social isolation. What better way is there than reading the extraordinary words of our fellow humans?
Finally, I’m struck how all of us can contribute our own “Dispatch from a Pandemic.” Mine would look something like this:
Every other day I leave my house and bike to the Wilson Book Gallery for a little time with my thoughts and my passion: books. Some days it has been snowing and cold. Today it’s sunny and spring feels like it’s ready to grace us with its presence. I poke around the books, see if anything new has arrived. I think about how lucky I am to have this little store.
What’s your dispatch? Whose dispatches are you reading?
Here’s to the power of words,
with love,
Susie
