The Thinking Woman - Words From Out Of The Blue

  Shakespeare and Company photo credit-  Iwannadancewithsomebody2            Yesterday was Halloween. I celebrated by listening to Neil Gaiman, in heavy black-rimmed glasses and a black top hat, read live from an eerie candlelit library at his home in Skye, Scotland. I could hear wind howling on the other side of the library's darkened windows while his lilting, smokey voice lured me into a Click Clack Rattlebag story, which was scary - but not too scary -and yet now my house feels just a bit too big and my front door, a little too slammy. I was first introduced to Neil Gaiman by my friend Nik Palmer. Nik suggested I read  Neverwhere , the story of a man who found another world, an Otherworld, beneath the streets of London. I loved it and went on to read everything Mr. Gaiman has ever written. Nik was pleased. Nik and his wife, Ana, used to live nearby. Nik  is into fantasy video games; he designs them, plays them, and even works ...

As I search for guidance in this time of trouble, I remember another time when I could not see, but found my way I listen to forty rhythmic footsteps of the ten huskies ahead and dogsled runners swishing beneath my feet over soft, silent new snow.  A wind song whispers to the trees. I grip the sled tighter and lean forward, straining to make out striding sleddogs in the snowy, moonlit night, but it’s no use. The lamp on my head reflects twinkling beams from the white crystals into my eyes, and I cannot see through the heavy wet flakes filling the space between us. We are far from home. The forest creaks with silence. I am blinded in the snow cloaked darkness. In frustration, I switch off the artificial light. Darkness surrounds me only for a moment before transforming into a comfortable companion.   Outlines of dogs against luminescent snow come into view, and I catch the flash of loyal eyes dancing back as if to applaud me for figuring it out, this new way to see. T...

  Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Juvenal) was a snarky Roman poet who lived in the year 100AD. How do I know he was snarky? Because he wrote satire, actually, The Satires, which are a collection of 16 poems. In the most famous, Satire VI, Juvenal rails on against women. He seems to hate them and writes that he would "prefer a prostitute for a wife since virtuous women are often arrogant. A good wife is a rara avis, like a black swan." At that time, black swans were thought not to exist. They were considered outside the realm of possibility, and for Juvenal, so was a good wife. So, while Juvenal was probably a 'real peach' to hang out with and we are glad he lived 2000 years ago in Rome instead of today in the house next door, the metaphor stuck. Black Swan was adopted as the description of a life-changing, unpredictable event outside the realm of expectation and predictability. Today, economists talk about Black Swan events often and consider them catastrophic from the...

       Accomplished is a smooth word that rolls easily around in my mouth and pops off the end of my tongue. It should be easy to define, but it’s not.       When I think of what it means to be accomplished, I think of dog mushing, not writing. I've been working and living with sled dogs for 25 years. I have been writing for only 12. In those early years, I was writing exclusively about dogs and our adventures together, and so I think about what it means to be an accomplished and successful writer through the lens of dog mushing.           In my early years with sled dogs, the dogs ran more on instinct than training. They wanted to run. Every trail held excitement, something to discover. Control was something I only dreamed of. They were not well trained and I struggled to hook even four dogs into a team before lines were chewed. Then when I opened the quick release, letting them bolt wildly down the trail, they h...