STILL HERE THINKING OF YOU A Second Chance With Our Mothers
Follow the Writers
  • HOME
  • Book
  • Authors
  • Excerpts
  • "Moments of Being"
  • Reviews & Press
  • Readings & Events
  • Workshops
  • Purchase
  • Contact
  • Blog

A Writer's Gang

3/23/2013

0 Comments

 
I have an armchair in my office. It’s a comfortable spot in which to read, research, and reflect, but my Aussie mix sleeps in it just about every day while I write, unless she’s unlucky and one of my other two dogs grabs the chair first. It’s prime property. I’ve lost out. Do I care? 

The truth is, if my dogs need a place to rest, sleep, or simply keep an eye on me while I write, that’s fine with me. They are accustomed to being close to me and have learned to take long naps either in the chair or on their two beds near my desk. Whenever I jump up, they’re quick to wag their tails as if in approval of whatever I’ve just written. If they hear the doorbell ring or the UPS truck at the gate, they’ll run downstairs, barking in unison. They are a force to reckon with; all three send out the message that visitors are not welcome. When the coast is clear, they return upstairs, reassume their places, sigh, and close their eyes.

In Alexandra Horowitz’s Inside of A Dog she posits that families with dogs resemble more of a gang than the traditional pack: “If we are a gang, we are a merrily navel-gazing gang, worshipping nothing but the maintenance of our gang itself.” My dogs are cooperative and respectful. As much as I require my own undisturbed space when writing, they understand that they belong in it and are there to protect it. 

                                                     ~Lori Toppel

0 Comments

Having My Way

3/9/2013

0 Comments

 
I recently met a friend for lunch at an Indian restaurant in town. It’s a small space with about ten tables placed close together. We chose a table in the center of the room, but I was tempted by a nearby spot near a sunny window. So we moved. But once there, we realized the sun was so glaring through the window that we had to squint to read the menu. Apologizing to the server, we returned to our original seats.

I thought of my mother, who was never pleased with her first choice of a restaurant table. In a piece called “Having Her Way” in Still Here Thinking of You, I recall the ways in which she would – calmly but firmly – get what she wanted in certain situations, even once encouraging a group to give up their table so our family could sit there.


Her habits of persuasion appear in me from time to time. The other day, my daughter Kathy and I were reminiscing about a Richie Havens concert we’d attended a couple of years before. While he was singing a particularly gentle song, accompanied only by his guitar, a man and woman sitting directly in front of us decided to have a chat. I poked the woman on the back and told her to be quiet. 


“You sounded so severe,” Kathy said. “It was kind of scary.”


“Well, they shut up didn’t they?” I said. “And don’t forget, I’m my mother’s daughter.”

                                                         ~Joan Potter
0 Comments

    Authors:

    Vicki Addesso
    Susan Hodara
    Joan Potter 
    Lori Toppel

    Archives

    February 2021
    May 2020
    July 2019
    May 2018
    December 2016
    September 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013

    Categories:

    All
    Daughters
    Family
    Food
    Friends
    Joan Potter
    Lori Toppel
    Memory
    Mothers
    Self-isolation
    Susan Hodara
    Vicki Addesso
    Writing

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Copyright @ 2013 Still Here Thinking of You by Vicki Addesso, Susan Hodara, Joan Potter, and Lori Toppel