Two workers
You used to get migraines, six or ten or twelve days a month. Other days you might be recovering from a migraine, or feel the onset of something that could possibly be a migraine, and so you took precautions.
And when you had a migraine, or were about to, or were recovering from one — by default I went to work for you, I mean we worked in the same place, but I went as myself and as your stand-in. Two workers in one body. I could not do all the work you did, I lacked the skill, but I went right up to the line, pushed the limit of what I could do, and then apologized for the rest, softened the impact of the rest.
So for example I would assign work to the mechanics, but I could not review their work, as I was not a mechanic, but I could ask them questions to kind of check if everything had been done or thought of, and could talk to the customer after or during, like if approvals were needed, or just to explain, especially in the case of the Russian speaking mechanic, where I was then translating twice.
Then of course I still had to do my work, which I did in between, in scraps of time, in the margins of my day.
We did not have a cat yet.
Later we began to shift toward appointments, so that if people needed your expertise, they had to make an appointment, and then when you had a migraine I could message everyone who was supposed to come in to see you and tell them to stay home and apologize.
If it was a bad migraine, multi-day or if you were sick, I was like an airline, clearing all the flights from the departures and arrivals board, and then re-booking everyone painstakingly, around their insane schedules of travel, childcare, appointments, long rides and races and even weather. Especially weather.
NEWSY STUFF
I had a great time at Hearth Gods last night reading new work-in-progress (while holding half an Exploremore cookie! Thank you, Michael Yates Crowley, and NYC readers, save the date for the next one, November 14th in Brooklyn.
Warm congrats to friends who have published books of late – Laura Kolbe for "The Decadent Movement" (out now), Helen Rubinstein for "Feels Like Trouble: Provocations on Writing, Teaching, and Power" (pre-order here), and "Diane Zinna for Letting Grief Speak" (order here).
Huge thanks again to A Public Space, for a generative and regenerative retreat last weekend. Read my story, "Junco and Wolf," in A Public Space No. 33, and if the cost is an obstacle, let's meet up and I'll lend you my extra copy that I ordered for just this purpose XO
Divinity School • a letter every Sunday at sunset • if you’re always looking, after some time you’ll have seen
