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Drabble Corner

Michelle Swisz

Our theme for October is Gratitude -- here is Mike Foley's...

Gratefully stuck by Mike Foley I just realized that we take a lot in our lives for granted. For example, look at what a great summer day this is! Look at that sky! Total blue, not even a wisp of cloud. I can see a hawk circling far above, I wonder if he sees me. I guess I should be grateful for such a beautiful afternoon. I press the button on the roof console, the little computer screen shows 83 Fahrenheit as outside temperature. Inside, the car's air conditioning is keeping me cool. I am sitting in luxury, leather seats wrapped in a sporty European automotive design. I guess I should be grateful for having a good job, a decent boss and enough money to afford this four wheeled living room. To my left a pretty blond girl in a convertible gives me a smile. I smile back and lift my eyebrows in a gesture of frustration and resignation. I guess I should be grateful that at my age I still have a little good looks left. I should be grateful for a lot of things in my life. Now if I can just get out of this traffic jam I will really be grateful. Michael Kent Foley, August 2001

It is hard to know what to say about the events of September 11. I was very glad to hear from those of you who wrote. What I personally get from the events is that we as a whole have discovered a new aspect of our connection to each other -- rather than an abstract knowledge of and faith in it, we now seem to have developed an intimate, personal experience of what each other is going through. Crying over patriotic songs isn't new; I'm not talking about our emotionalism, not that I haven't done my own share of crying over songs as well as the events themselves. What's new is our actually experiencing the events of 9/11 for, and within, ourselves, directly, rather than our thinking that perhaps we should be able to do so (but relieved that we could not), as we might have done in the past. This direct experience seems to constitute a newly felt connection to those in physical proximity to the events, and having developed the capacity to make that connection, to each other as well.

It's interesting to me that many of the emailed letters of sympathy from businesses that land in many of our email inboxes address their sympathy specifically to those who were directly (as opposed to indirectly) affected. Despite, no, because of, the distinction made between direct and indirect effect, these letters do recognize that we were all affected -- that's exactly why the distinction is made. Of course, not all of us were killed or critically injured, or rendered widows or widowers, orphans, unemployed, or homeless; but one thing that is new about these events and our response to them is that although we were not all affected in those particular ways, we were nevertheless all, literally, directly affected in having forged this experience of our connection.

Another thing that's new, perhaps a result of the connection experience, is that our collective response to the events has not on the whole been one of seeking revenge. At all levels, although not all individuals partake, we are responding with thoughtfulness, introspection, and in many, many cases, love. Perhaps you could say that any response not based on fear is one based on love. We are all feeling some fear, but our responses are in most cases not based on that fear.

Possibly yet another thing that is new is that we as a whole may be responding to that fear that we do feel in a different way than before -- with compassion for ourselves and each other. We're not judging each other, and we're being easy on ourselves during this stressful time when we tend to forget what we meant to say right in the middle of the saying of it. This would be an amazing transformation. Maybe our newly felt connection helps us to deal with the fear in a different way than before, as when we have historically become brave or braver when we're physically with someone whom we love very much. If this transformation is happening, I wonder where it will lead us. As always, please write with your responses.

Here are the guidelines to check once more before writing.

Theme for December: Connection.

November has twin themes, already set, for extrication and for quitting smoking, either single or double Drabble.(See the September issue, archived, for details.) See you next time.

Michelle