Creative Distractions #3

Essays, books, multimedia, music, poems, and other important distractions

Apr 27, 2024

Creative Distractions are a good thing. They could be essays, books, multimedia, music, films, poems, art, or other creative work that has touched or inspired me. I find an abundance of beautiful, thoughtful, humorous, and heartwarming examples of creativity every day.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” — Albert Einstein

Let’s start with a poem. You can listen to the poet read it here.

Good Bones by Maggie Smith

Life is short, though I keep this from my children.

Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine

in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,

a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways

I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least

fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative

estimate, though I keep this from my children.

For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.

For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,

sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world

is at least half terrible, and for every kind

stranger, there is one who would break you,

though I keep this from my children. I am trying

to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,

walking you through a real shithole, chirps on

about good bones: This place could be beautiful,

right? You could make this place beautiful.

Maggie’s 2016 poem went viral, and her creative work quickly became known and valued by many readers—except for her husband, who eventually left the family. She wrote this incredible book about women, marriage, expectations, motherhood, and the many aspects of creative work.

BOOK: You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith

I wasn’t sure if I would relate to this memoir, but after listening to a few of the short chapters, she convinced me that many women have experienced her story. Her style is unique: lyrical, descriptive, and wrapped in the honest emotions of creative self-examination. I listened to the audio version, which the author narrated. I highly recommend it.

From the publisher:

“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”

In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.

You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.

Maggie Smith is also on Substack.

Where I Can Be Found on Saturday Afternoons

When I used to go to movie theaters (I stopped because they are now too loud for my sensitive ears), I wouldn’t leave until the end of the credits because I wanted to hear the film’s score. Some people thought this strange but I discovered a few years back that I am not alone. Each Saturday afternoon, I settle into my chair with a knitting project and a cup of tea to listen to Edmund Stone’s The Score.

Produced by All Classical Public Media in Portland, Oregon, The Score with Edmund Stone is a weekly celebration of music in film. With timely box office tie-ins, carefully crafted talk-sets, memorable musical elements and enticing weekly themes all woven together, coupled with expert production aesthetics, The Score is an unparalleled exploration of the musical experience that makes film such an indelible activity.

Your host Edmund Stone is a classically trained Shakespearean actor from England whose background includes a variety of stage and screen roles. With deep connections to Hollywood and the classical music community, Edmund is the ideal host for this weekly foray into the world of film and music.

You can listen at allclassical.org where you can also find the radio stations that carry the show.

BOOK: Democracy Awakening by Heather Cox Richardson

Political historian and prolific writer Heather Cox Richardson writes her daily newsletter, Letters from An American, in which she compares current politics with those of the past. Her 2 million subscribers open her essays each morning and are reminded how important it is to protect the democratic values that helped to establish the modern USA.

Given the nastiness that has developed over the last 15 years, many of us want to curl up with a book or show to escape. But Heather’s daily newsletters remind me that the fight for a multicultural, pluralistic society, focused on equality, compassion, and freedom has been ongoing.

Now is not the time to abandon it.

In 2023, she published her book Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, which became an immediate best-seller. Each chapter offers a historical accounting of Americans fighting against tyranny and injustice. Her book gives me hope. It should be required reading for everyone.

From the publisher:

In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism -- creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.

Richardson’s unique talent is to wrangle our giant, meandering, confusing news feed into a coherent story that singles out what we should pay attention to, what the historical roots and precedents are, and what possible paths lie ahead. Writing in her trademark calm prose, she manages to be both realistic and optimistic about the future of democracy. Richardson’s easy command of history allows her to pivot effortlessly from the Founders to the abolitionists to Reconstruction to Goldwater to Mitch McConnell, highlighting the political legacies of the New Deal, the lingering fears of socialism, the death of the liberal consensus and birth of “movement conservatism.”

There are many books that tell us what has happened over the last five years. Democracy Awakening explains how we got to this perilous point, what our history really tells us about ourselves, and what the future of democracy can be.

Letter Writing at Its Best

A friend shared with me the Letters Live @ youtube. Actors read actual letters written by an array of people. Some are funny, some are incredibly touching and others offer historical perspectives. I warn you it’s addicting! This letter is hilarious and read by the delightful Olivia Colman.

Birding in My Robe & Slippers

A few days ago, I stepped outside at sunrise in my robe and slippers and heard a cacaphony of birdsong. I grabbed my phone, hit my Merlin bird sound ID app and in 60 seconds the app identified six species (see the screenshot below).

The app is free and makes birding accessible to everyone. You can learn more about the app and Cornell Lab of Ornithology here.

Nature’s Creativity

It’s the season of wildflower blooms, bird migration & romance, and overflowing water. I visited Conboy Lake National Refuge yesterday, seeking a glimpse of Sandhill cranes but no luck. But the hike through the refuge was lovely and peaceful…and there’s always things to notice.

Part of our public lands legacy, National Wildlife Refuges are scattered throughout the US. They are usually free to visit. Grab your bird book and your binoculars and enjoy the solitude of a refuge.