What I’m writing…

Posted on April 9, 2011 by doradueck

A lot of my writing energy these days is going into a new novel project. I’m too far in not to continue, if you know what I mean, though not nearly far enough in to announce what it’s about. First drafts are just first drafts. This means I’ve been less active here at my blog; the nice twice-weekly rhythm I’d worked myself into seems to have slowed to weekly. I remain committed to this form of writing and publishing, however, even as I continue to evaluate it, and appreciate so much my readers, whether regular or occasional.

Besides the novel work, I’ve recently done a couple of smaller assignments. And since a blog is, in its original meaning at least, a personal “log” on the web, here follows a report (and links) to those bits of writing. The MB Herald, where I held various editorial positions at both ends of my “working-out” career, such as it was, is celebrating its 50th year as a magazine by asking those who spent time in the editor’s seat to reflect on any aspect of their experience. There’s no chronological order to their appearance; John Longhurst, Harold Jantz, and Jim Coggins opened the year, and yours truly appears in the April issue. (Just to make me sad at how quickly the decades pass, I suppose, they also pictured me as I looked once upon a time: dark-haired and long-haired! Hmm, and hint: maybe it’s sadness taking me back to the 60s and 70s in the new novel project?)

The Manitoba Book Awards nominations have brought a couple of lovely extras my way, such as the chance to read with fellow Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction nominees David Bergen, David Arnason, and Patti Grayson (Joan Thomas was out of town) at Aqua Books this week. I also very much enjoyed talking with Keran Sanders of the CBC Weekend Morning Show for tomorrow’s broadcast (April 10). CBC has a great website called “Manitoba Scene,” including a blog on books for which they requested a few words, like maybe some reasons to write. Loneliness and love are two of mine!

Eight days from now the excitement will be over, and we’ll all get back to our quiet desks or reading chairs. Next post, a log of what I’ve been reading…

A feminist paradox

Posted on April 4, 2011 by doradueck

I’ve been mulling over a couple of paragraphs by Sarah Coakley in the recent account of her personal theological journey, “Prayer as crucible” (in the “How my mind has changed” series in Christian Century), about how silence and submission in prayer relate to action — to speaking up, that is, — especially for women.

At the heart of the prayer of silence is a simple surrendering of control to God…. Not only was this shift into practiced loss of control intrinsically anxiety-making, it also brought with it for me a taxing feminist paradox. Was not lack of control, lack of autonomy, precisely the problem that women were countering with feminism? Was not vulnerability an ill to be avoided rather than a precious state to be inculcated? Was not this, in other words, a dangerous invitation to sexist discrimination, even abuse? ….

It took me a while to work out that a seriously false dichotomy was at work here, and that submission to God and silence before God — being unlike any other submission or any other silence — was that which empowered one to speak against injustice and abuse and was the ground of true freedom (in God) rather than its suppression..

As both feminist and practitioner of prayer, I find her words encouraging and true.

[The entire article is currently available online only to CC subscribers, but I also recommend an interview with Sarah Coakley here — “Living prayer and leadership” — and a moving piece about practicing the prayer of silence with prisoners — “Meditation as a Subversive Activity.”]

The recent conditions of my parents

Posted on March 28, 2011 by doradueck

Today, for the last time, I turned the lock of the small suite my parents moved into nearly nine years ago. It’s empty – everything of theirs given away, sold, or piled into a spare bedroom at our house!

My father died more than a year ago. My mother had hip surgery in October and, unable to return to independent life, is waiting for a bed in the Personal Care Home on the other side of this complex. Yes, she’ll return to her beloved Donwood Manor, but never again to these two-and-a-half rooms, to these particular conditions.

Eugene Peterson speaks of “conditions” in the opening pages of his latest book (a memoir called The Pastor). He means the fact that his work — with the “immense mysteries” of God and souls — was carried out in place and time. Place and time in their most specific dimensions. There’s no avoiding the conditions, he says, and so he wants to be “mindful” of them.

Closing down my parents’ suite has pushed me into mindfulness also of the recent conditions of their lives. Continue reading →