Jodi, you posted some time ago about wanting to rebrand your newsletter, and you shared some suggested new names. It has stayed with me and I've wanted to comment ever since... I think you should keep "The Long Goodbye"! I think this post just confirmed it for me, because that title works not only really well with your life right now with your mom, but also "the long goodbye" to your previous life. I don't know what was the outcome of that post, but I hope you decided to stick with "The Long Goodbye". :-)
I have, thanks for remembering. I’ve tacked on “dementia caregiving and other stories” and there’s a definite crossover between The Long Goodbye and revelations I might have kept solely to Dirtygirl Diaries. I’m becoming one with myself. Vulcan mind melding myself, as it were. 🖖🏻
I'm just seeing this now. So much to catch up on. Very powerful, as always, Jodi. That Yin/Yang image of your younger self and your now self is brilliant and provocative (not sexually but I suppose it is that but in the sense of provoking thought and reflection). Hugs, always, for your courage and creativity.
"When I try to pin down the absolute me of a time and place, I’m trapped, like an insect in amber. A relic that’s not the truth, but just a moment in time, a singularity. To understand a life, choices, and motivations, one needs to stand back, observe & record, beginning to end, consider the environment, the challenges and threats."
I love this--the whole idea of life as a gradient, a spectrum, a wave to ride rather than use to get from birth to death.
Also, I like when the two "Jodis" kind of crash together, like a little jolt you can feel through the page (screen?).
Thanks Dina. Me too. I'm enjoying writing the Dirtygirl Diaries more because of that, taking the time to weave them together, examine the whys instead of just the war stories, which I'm bored with already.
Thanks, Leslie. I like that description self archaeologist. Or perhaps, I am simply too broke and too untrusting for traditional therapy. The revelation of my fathers secrets and lies, and lies that turned out to be actually true was like opening a crypt…
I love reading your explorations, and really appreciate your honesty and openness with yourself and in sharing these ponderings with us. Lately I have been thinking and writing a lot about time, and memory. At times it feels like I just woke up and somehow all these decades have gone by. Or that my life has seemed like one long day. I look at childhood photos and that spirit of wonder is still the same. It’s interesting to say the least!
You do, you have that. It's very apparent, the childlike wonder you've never lost and I think it's essential for your art and what makes it so appealing. We grow up, lose that wonder and innocence and part of us yearns for it for the rest of our lives.
I love the way you think and see things. A gradient that’s not just one direction, time frames marked by experiences, I do the same thing, just never realized it.
Your column always take me on a journey, often learning things I haven’t gotten to yet.
I love hearing that, thank you, Kate. Sometimes I feel like I'm a little on the "you're nuts" side of the equation, so I really appreciate your kind words, tell your friends! share widely and wildly. 😉
I love this, Jodi. We ARE multitudes. I'm experiencing the fullness of life each day. I didn't take a traditional path either, spent a lot of time trying to figure me out, and have, in many ways, come full circle, to a childhood dream of "what I wanted to be when I grew up" a dream of being a writer. I had to travel the roads I did, in order to arrive at my original wisdom, and since it took so long to arrive, I have plenty to write about. My memory is somewhat inconsistent, there are whole chunks of time that elude me...but I remember enough to make sense of my history. xo
I have mixed feelings about the things I can't remember, if that makes any sense. I remember enough dark stuff that I sometimes think, maybe my brain is protecting me by preventing access. But I still want to know. Love you.
Jodi, you posted some time ago about wanting to rebrand your newsletter, and you shared some suggested new names. It has stayed with me and I've wanted to comment ever since... I think you should keep "The Long Goodbye"! I think this post just confirmed it for me, because that title works not only really well with your life right now with your mom, but also "the long goodbye" to your previous life. I don't know what was the outcome of that post, but I hope you decided to stick with "The Long Goodbye". :-)
I have, thanks for remembering. I’ve tacked on “dementia caregiving and other stories” and there’s a definite crossover between The Long Goodbye and revelations I might have kept solely to Dirtygirl Diaries. I’m becoming one with myself. Vulcan mind melding myself, as it were. 🖖🏻
Very glad to hear. 🙌🏼❤️
I'm just seeing this now. So much to catch up on. Very powerful, as always, Jodi. That Yin/Yang image of your younger self and your now self is brilliant and provocative (not sexually but I suppose it is that but in the sense of provoking thought and reflection). Hugs, always, for your courage and creativity.
"When I try to pin down the absolute me of a time and place, I’m trapped, like an insect in amber. A relic that’s not the truth, but just a moment in time, a singularity. To understand a life, choices, and motivations, one needs to stand back, observe & record, beginning to end, consider the environment, the challenges and threats."
I love this--the whole idea of life as a gradient, a spectrum, a wave to ride rather than use to get from birth to death.
Also, I like when the two "Jodis" kind of crash together, like a little jolt you can feel through the page (screen?).
Thanks Dina. Me too. I'm enjoying writing the Dirtygirl Diaries more because of that, taking the time to weave them together, examine the whys instead of just the war stories, which I'm bored with already.
I love this Jodi. I think of you like a modern day self-archeologist - excavating and mining your life for history and meaning.
Thanks, Leslie. I like that description self archaeologist. Or perhaps, I am simply too broke and too untrusting for traditional therapy. The revelation of my fathers secrets and lies, and lies that turned out to be actually true was like opening a crypt…
I love reading your explorations, and really appreciate your honesty and openness with yourself and in sharing these ponderings with us. Lately I have been thinking and writing a lot about time, and memory. At times it feels like I just woke up and somehow all these decades have gone by. Or that my life has seemed like one long day. I look at childhood photos and that spirit of wonder is still the same. It’s interesting to say the least!
You do, you have that. It's very apparent, the childlike wonder you've never lost and I think it's essential for your art and what makes it so appealing. We grow up, lose that wonder and innocence and part of us yearns for it for the rest of our lives.
I love the way you think and see things. A gradient that’s not just one direction, time frames marked by experiences, I do the same thing, just never realized it.
Your column always take me on a journey, often learning things I haven’t gotten to yet.
Thanks for making my world bigger and brighter ✨
I love hearing that, thank you, Kate. Sometimes I feel like I'm a little on the "you're nuts" side of the equation, so I really appreciate your kind words, tell your friends! share widely and wildly. 😉
I love this, Jodi. We ARE multitudes. I'm experiencing the fullness of life each day. I didn't take a traditional path either, spent a lot of time trying to figure me out, and have, in many ways, come full circle, to a childhood dream of "what I wanted to be when I grew up" a dream of being a writer. I had to travel the roads I did, in order to arrive at my original wisdom, and since it took so long to arrive, I have plenty to write about. My memory is somewhat inconsistent, there are whole chunks of time that elude me...but I remember enough to make sense of my history. xo
I have mixed feelings about the things I can't remember, if that makes any sense. I remember enough dark stuff that I sometimes think, maybe my brain is protecting me by preventing access. But I still want to know. Love you.
It makes a lot of sense. All of it. I love you, too, Jodi. xo