The Weekend That Was

Saturday: I woke early and tried to get some order back into my life. CC came by in the afternoon to get her car and then her stuff that was in the front room. She was not happy that the rat did a lot of gnawing on one piece of her luggage. Then it was over to the laundry. Dinner was my last chicken breast. The rest of the night I spent with Netflix and blogging. More of The Lincoln Lawyer.

Sunday: working through my email; blogging, got an email from Joel C, which I answered; no phone calls from CC; I read By Act Three, the Gun Must Go Off by Lindsey James on Necessary Fiction's site; fixed me a pork chop for lunch and plan on a pizza for dinner; I got through Outlaw King on Netflix and working, again, on Lincoln Lawyer; and that takes me up to 4:24. 

Well, almost. I also read Langston Hughes Knows You’re Tired—But He’s Not Letting You Off the Hook by Jasmine Harris (Electric Literature, 2020). She left me thinking I should have read more of Hughes. I am not Black, but I think we either get over our racism or the country goes down for good. More importantly, and personally, I found here a great description of my depression:

It can be exhausting trying to stay optimistic while hearing the news of people dying from disease and murder and countless other atrocities. Between the relentless news cycle, easy access to social media, and rampant burnout, it can feel like the bad news just piles on, leaving no time to process. It can make a person bone-weary. I read a news headline, and I feel like I’m melting into my bed and becoming a puddle. “Tired” encapsulates this puddle feeling.

Hughes supplies a solution I like for our broader problems, as well as our personal issues such as depression:

But the words they’re sharing are only the first half of the poem. The second half is less romantic. 

Let us take a knife

And cut the world in two—

And see what worms are eating

At the rind. 

Hughes wasn’t exhausted. He was fed up. He implores the reader not to wallow in exhaustion but to take action, and not just a performance of action but something deep. He wants action that cuts the world in half, slicing down to the foundation of our beliefs and institutions, so we can recognize what is souring the world. 

With his “Let us,” Hughes invites others to join in improving the world....

Find out what is souring the world, work to make it better.

Another rejection received for "No Ordinary Word", but with a twist in how it addresses me:

Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to the Santa Clara Review.  We regret to inform you that we will not be extending an offer of publication at this time.  

Thank you for your interest in the Santa Clara Review, and we wish you every success in finding a publisher for your work.

Sincerely, 

Sophie Copple

Fiction Editor

Santa Clara Review

Pizza and chicken from Domino's for dinner. 

Some more reading from this evening: Lenin: The Machiavellian Marxist and ‘Patria’ by Laurence Blair review (History Today); When Venus Returns: Horatian Echoes in Hjalmar Söderberg’s The Serious Game (Antigone).

I am closing the night out by submitting "The Unintended Consequences of Art" to Nat 1 Publishing, and "Irretrievable Breakdown" to T Paulo Urcanse Prize For Literary Excellence.

"Getting What You Asked For" was rejected by River and South Review:

Thank you for your submission to River and South Review. After carefully reviewing hundreds of submissions for each of our four genres this semester, we have unfortunately decided to not proceed with your own submission. While your work was not chosen this time, we encourage you to try us again in the future. Please note, the open submission period for our next issue will begin later this fall. Check our website for further details as the time approaches.

Sincerely,

The Editors

River and South Review

Good thing it was already accepted.

And here I end my weekend at 8:28 PM.

sch