Day: September 22, 2011

Frieda, watching me take photos. Watching over me.

Usually, when I go into bookstores, I try and remain anonymous. The bookstore people might think they need to entertain me, and often they are busy. Most often, they recognize my name when I pay by credit card. I’ve been in Lisa Sullivan’s very fine bookstore – The Book Cellar, in Brattleboro, Vt. – many times and was only outed by the staff once. Maria has been in her other store, Bartleby’s, in Wilmington, Vt. and loved it. I’ve never met or spoken with Lisa Sullivan.

These are challenging times for bookstores, but for Lisa Sullivan, especially so. The Book Cellar was destroyed in a fire earlier this year, and Bartleby’s was virtually gutted in the flooding brought by Hurricane Irene. Wilmington, Vt., near Brattleboro, was one of the town’s hit hardest by the floods, and was almost totally destroyed.

Lisa is rebuilding, and hopes to re-open at least one of her stores in November. I have been trying to reach her so that I could come to Wilmington or Brattleboro as part of the “Support Vermont” wing of my “Going Home”  book tour. This morning, I finally tracked her down by calling the New England Independent Booksellers Association and getting a phone and an e-mail and by posting a call for help on Facebook. She e-mailed me this morning that she would love to have me come there, and she would immediately start looking for an appropriate place, as she was determined to rebuild. So the Support Vermont Book Tour is taking shape. I don’t have all of the dates yet, but Random House, my publisher, is completely supportive of this and is helping me organize it.

I thank them.

The Vermont part of the book tour starts October 2, 4 p.m., at Misty Valley Books in Chester, Vt. We hope to collect some money for flood relief there as part of the book tour. Then I’m off to the Midwest.

On Sunday, October 16, 3 p.m.,  will be talking and signing at Northshire Books, Manchester, Vt.

On Friday, October 21, 7 p.m., I will be at the Village Square Booksellers, Bellows Falls, Vt. (On October 27, 7 p.m., I will be at the nearby Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley Mass.

Here’s what else I know about the Vermont trek, dates and times to come:

I will be speaking at the Lake Placid Public Library to raise money for the Upper Jay Library, whose children’s section was destroyed by the flood. I will also be talking at the Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., Bridgeside Books in Waterbury, Vt. and tentatively, in Wilmington on Saturday, October 22.

We will make some noise for “Going Home” and for Vermont. And for a strong and determined bookseller. Can’t wait to meet Lisa Sullivan.

 

The photographer’s challenge is to find beauty in the world wherever he sees it, not just in beautiful landscapes. The egg is a challenge because it is so common place and mundane a thing, that we don’t really ever look at it or see it. We just eat it or notice it in cartons. My idea is to see the egg as an elegant thing, a jewel in the food chain, miraculous, symmetrical, smooth and nourishing. But I also want to give it some status, so I am photographing it in situations that force us to look at it and consider it. To upgrade it visually.

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Today I continued my personal health care initiative and explorations, the subject of years of research, thought, anxiety and personal experience. I saw a chiropractor I liked very much. She is in her 40’s, open-minded, serious, easy to talk to. I told her I was coming to see mainstream medicine as a crisis option, as an emergency place to go if you break your arm or leg, if you are in a car crash, if you tear your rotator cuff, or if your eye swells up like a basketball. But I see it as a system that promotes the idea of fear and illness, not health, and one which is compromised for me  by money, politics, the shadow of lawyers and corporate entities like pharmaceutical companies and their lobbying arm,  Congress.

I said I was no longer shaping my health care around fear, not getting medications to prevent things far down the road, not accepting notions of aging that promote continuous and lifelong medications at great cost and with many side affects. I will not be one of those people down the road who can only talk about my doctor’s visits, pills and aches and pains. That seems to me viscerally unhealthy.  The more doctor’s visits you have, the more tests, the more pills, the greater reinforcement of the idea that you are sick or aging. You can make it so.

The chiropractor supported my feelings, respected them.

She looked at my legs and my much maligned feet and she said my legs were strong and fluid and my feet needed some chiropractic work and orthotics but were in good shape and would carry me far into the future. She asked me if I was happy in my work and life.

I told her I loved my life – all of it – and she beamed and agreed that this was the healthiest thing any human could say, although it would never come up in any doctor’s office I’ve been to. We talked about medicine, writing, health. She will see me two more times and then as needed and gave me some good ideas for movement and exercise.

She did some minor tapping and thumping on my feet and they felt very good when I left. She called the shoe person and talked about my orthotics, so I will have them for the book tour. I am so happy to have her as part of my health care,which now includes a nutritionist, a spiritual counselor, a massage therapist and a chiropractor. (Also a Tarot Card reader in Brattleboro, Vt.)  If I can find a holistic medical practioner, I will add him or her.  I do the shopping and cooking and have long shed fatty, sugary, hi-carb or processed or packaged foods.  I am thinking about some Yoga. I meditate every morning. Two years from seeing conventional medical doctors, I am beginning to feel very healthy.

I am working hard to understand my body, the food I eat, the connection of mind and soul. And grateful I have chosen this path outside what is to me a dysfunctional system based on fear, confrontation, greed and insecurity. Everybody knows it, but it seems only to get worse.

My new practioners do not frighten me, warn me about my body, or presume I known nothing about my own health beyond what machines and proceedures tell them.  My favorite part of the session was my spirited defense of my feet, which doctors have been denigrating for years and, at various times, tried to cut, break, wrap in painful things. “I love my feet,” I said, “I am loyal to them. They have done so well by me. They walk all over my farm, on walks and hikes. They are very good feet, if flat.”

At this, she laughed. “Well, let’s make you even prouder of them,” she said. “They are very good feet.” And then we talked about our kids, and what it took to be a good parent.

As with all of my new health care practitioners, I am looking forward to getting back  to see them and getting healthier.

From my perspective, the people I trust my health to should talk to me, and listen to me and know me. And above all, they should give me the chance to be and feel healthy. And safe in their offices.

If and when I get sick, I will not fear going to see them. And they will help me.

The inside of my Dairy Barn, where Maria and I got married, is like a cathedral. I liked the sun hitting the roof beams early this morning. Simon was verbal this morning, and reminded me to keep thinking of color and light, even as the rains return for a few days.

Simon is reminded again that we live in a world increasingly – and just in the nick of time – dominated by strong women. Do what they say. Come and see.

I took this photo two days ago and liked it so much I decided to save it for a rainy day. Which is here, and for the next few days. A farmer up the road stopped by to say ‘the next few days won’t be easy.” But then, he doesn’t get too many easy days. The writer’s job is to challenge and uplift. Today, it’s the latter.

We have a couple of days of heavy rain coming, and the mud has returned. Important to think of colors and light. For me, it’s the eerie period just before a book comes out. “Going Home” is already well-reviewed, and that is nice, and as usual, a quiet has descended, both internally and externally. Getting rested, quiet days, gathering myself. The first interviews are already intense. Even tough, battle-scarred reporters sometimes cry during interviews when they think about their lost dogs.

I’m going to a chiropractor to get my back and legs in shape for all the air travel and walking around. Got to keep my voice in shape, and most importantly, get my head straight. People need to talk about their lost pets, and it is an intense and emotional thing for them – for me too perhaps. I think we will ask the bookstores to get questions in writing, to control things a bit. The sheep are leaving this weekend for Vermont.

Monday I will be answering the phone and signing books at Battenkill Books. Tuesday, pub date. Sometimes, it’s the calm before the storm. Sometimes, it’s the calm before the calm. We’ll see. The spiritual challenge is for me to be calm either way.