What's in your Book Of Grace?
Here's what's in mine:
23 March 2010:
-It was mostly rainy today but for a few minutes it turned to snow.
On the sidewalk a little girl dressed in pink ran around catching
snowflakes on her tongue. She was a sweet pink blur.
-I ran into someone. She used to be my student. Now we're friends.
Funny, isn't it, how we keep on keeping on.
-Someone who saw the play asked me "is there really a book of
Grace?" I smiled. "I made it up for the show and so now, all of us,
can continue making it up," I told him. When he heard that he smiled too.
-Guidelines: On Optimism: Optimism takes hard work. True dat.
-Sending love to my friends Dave and Tony in Austin. Tony had back
surgery yesterday. Much love many kisses to them.
-Someone else who saw the play told me: "In my book of Grace, I
would hope that you, SLP, have a beautiful life." Hearing this, my
mouth dropped open. I was so moved by his generosity.
-So, in my book of Grace, I would hope that you too have a beautiful life.
Right on & Pass it on.
xoxo
SLP
BLOGGER: SUZAN-LORI PARKS
Fantastic idea. My Book of Grace has photos of the wonderful rain that has fallen in NYC these past two days. Growing up in an area that is prone to serious droughts, rain is a blessing!
ReplyDeleteJust saw the show and liked it quite a bit. Two things to ask about (in my book of grace is this chance to ask questions of SLP):
ReplyDelete1) how theological are your interests? To be in a state of grace is to be out of harm's way more or less, to be enveloped in the arms of the deity--God for the Christians. I'm not asking about your religious beliefs but wondering how much of your artistic curiosity is about these conditions we invent to save ourselves, the (redemptive) acts we bring ourselves to perform if we are brave enough. Obviously, I think you are interested, that the play as we saw it tonight gives evidence of that.
2) Do you know Norman Mailer's novel, An American Dream? Remember that it opens with the hero, Steven Rojak, in WWII battle and in a state of grace, performing an impossible feat, totally certain that he will be untouched. Of course, this is a one time dispensation of grace and after the war, the absence of it leads him to seek it by creating ever more morally and physically dangerous situations. If he can just put himself in the right kind of moral and/or physical peril, that "grace" will descend on him again.
As you can see, your provocative play brought me back to aspects of our human condition that I have ignored for quite a while. That's why this sounds a little clumsy. But that stimulus is art at work. Thanks
in my book of grace--yesterday and today are the birthdays of two of my grown daughters, lovely women who are at odds with each other, and need to forgive each other.
ReplyDeleteI came across an article about a teacher who is working with incarcerated youth to help them find their voice through poetry. It moved me to tears.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the article appeared in the San Antonio Current in Texas and might be near where your play takes place.
http://www.sacurrent.com/arts/story.asp?id=70951
So yes, there are graces of all genders, race, and beliefs out there.
Bless you, SLP.
Monty Hale