Optimism Despite…

I’ve been thinking about optimism, about how it applies to life as a writer. How we must remain optimistic despite…despite rejections, despite days when you despair of ever writing what you’re really meant to write, despite the long hours and low pay, despite the evidence that the writing world is still a man’s world, etc. We keep writing. We keep sending out our work.

In my “real” life, I sometimes encounter a similar…intractability…with my health situations. I can do one of two things – I can despair, weep, shake my head, give up and lie in bed and not try to do anything, or I can embrace life, try different treatments, try to research and come up with better answers than the doctors give, and do the things that make life worth living, having fun, etc. Keep breathing, keep living every day and make every one as full as you can possibly make it.

This week I embraced optimism in both my regular life and my writing. I sent things out. I took a ton of benadryl and went ahead and went out with other writers. I put blonde streaks in my hair. I bought jeans that fit – a smaller size than I’ve been since high school, thanks to food allergy testing and those darn elimination diets – instead of walking around in old clothes that were too big. I requested a review copy of a book I’m absolutely loving. I received some tentative good news. I applied for jobs I might not get, but at least I will know I tried. I made reservations for a reading down in Southern California in two weeks, which I probably can’t afford, and tomorrow I’m having two friends – an artist and a writer that I rarely get to see – over for a visit. My house is full of pink tulips and pink lilies, because in February, we need to remember spring is almost here.

And you know what? These actions are the things I want to define me, not my rejections or my weird sporadic health problems. I choose fun, friends, pink tulips, and poetry, along with a little bit of chocolate. (See? I’m even cheating my elimination diet a little. But what is life without a little dairy-free, gluten-free chocolate? And it’s almost Valentine’s Day!)

In other literary news you might find interesting…more recaps from AWP, Claudia Rankine’s letter on race and poetry, and my friend sci-fi writer Felicity Shoulder’s Asimov’s story on Escape Pod…