Connectedness--and Rutabaga Chips!

Thank you for all the great comments on my last post: it seems like a subject really worth thinking about. In that post, I mentioned that I got to sit on the rowing machine in pouring rain while seeing blue sky and sunshine out mid-ocean--well, yesterday, I got hailed on out riding my bike, and could look south and see blue sky once again. It's almost as though something cosmic wants to pound the metaphor home...

And why should it be such an important message that the sun is shining somewhere if it keeps dumping rain on my head?

Because we are not all separate from one another. 

When I can remember this, 'marketing myself' or 'considering my audience' is simply remembering that I am not just speaking for myself: I am giving voice to experiences and feelings that may awaken recognition with, speak for, other people. Well-crafted writing, on blogs and elsewhere, has the ability to do this, to give the reader the sense that she could be saying/feeling this also, that the voice is his voice blown a little differently.

Our little poetry group in town met to critique each other's poems yesterday. This is such a lifeline, with the MFA taking place at a distance, with the communications glitches that can sometimes entail: gathering with other poets whom I enormously admire, feeling the grace of their presence, is one of the clearest places that I can experience this awareness that we are not separate. We talked about books with similar-sounding titles coming out around the same time through no plan of either author; we fussed over one another's drafts and sometimes drew new connections just waiting to catch the right eye.

I think of the voice of the chorus in Greek drama, the alternation between "I" and "we," speaking as an individual, speaking as a group, speaking for the whole citizen body. When I can remember that I, too, am connected in this way, am such a speaker, my life feels both more valuable and less important. More worthy of preserving.

One more piece of connectedness: here are rutabaga chips heading into the dehydrator,

following Mindy's suggestion in a comment on my post featuring the monster rutabaga. Thanks, Mindy! They are simply julienned, massaged with a little coconut oil and vinegar, salted and peppered.

Some beets julienned and drying likewise.

 Next time, I'll show what else was in the dehydrator!

What helps you to feel awareness of connectedness to other people?