[Housekeeping] The next few weeks might be a little darker than up till now. I try to explore the full spectrum of human emotion in my writing, and it has just happened that a few on the other side are going to come up in a row. This is just a little heads up and a promise that we’ll swing the other way again soon, so if these aren’t your cup of tea, hang with me.

Hey ,

I’m haunted by my parents, but their ghosts don’t float out of closets. For one, they’re both alive. Instead, a word or a phrase will burst out of me that feels foreign to my lips, and as it hangs in the air, I realise it is theirs. Somehow, for an instant, they’ve pushed me aside, squashing my being to let theirs out.

Fiction Bite - Matricide

Scarlet streams run down my arm, dripping semi-coagulated drops that splash onto the thick white pile carpet, capping the fronds with ruby orbs. I watch them fall, drip after drip, until clots cake my arms. I wash in the sink, clean down the basin and head out, snipping the latch and turning the porch light on.

Mother never liked a dark door, she said it was uninviting.

Quote of the Week

“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them.

They move on. They move away.

The moments that used to define them are covered by

moments of their own accomplishments.

It is not until much later, that

children understand;

their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories

of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones,

beneath the water of their lives.”

― Paulo Coelho

Book recommendation - Flappers and Philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Somehow I’ve managed not to rifle the pages of one of Fitzgerald’s books until now. I found this collection of short stories to live up to his high, and well deserved, reputation. There was a good mix of themes and settings. They focussed on the American upper class, but the characters were vivid enough to eradicate any sameness between stories. Which of his would you recommend next?

An exercise

Have you ever observed your parents/wife/roommates as if you were an anthropologist studying behaviour? So many of the quirks of those around us slip under our conscious radar, we just absorb them, only to regurgitate the jumble at a later date. While consciously watching, I spot all sorts of little mannerisms, things I find myself doing, that I had never noticed before.

Final Words

As I wash through the ocean of life, I often feel as if Me, this collection of neuroses I experience as my conscious self, is just a patchwork boat of other peoples cast off parts, stitched together with the thread of societal pressure. It may be true, that might be all I am. Yet, when I spot one of these parts shining too brightly and name it, ‘ I sound like my mother,’ a breath of relief blows through my sails and I can steer more freely. At least until the next squall blows in. 

With Love

Joe

P.S. What did you think of this week’s email? Which was your favourite bit? Hit reply and let me know.