About a birthday and an upcoming project..
All that is really necessary for survival of the fittest, it seems, is an interest in life, good, bad or peculiar.
-Grace Paley
Grace Paley, 1922-2007. Illustration by Diane Moline
A post from Brainpickings one day sometime ago made me interested in yet another person that had escaped my attention in my ever-growing long life.
Grace Paley, who was born on this day in 1922, was a short story writer, poet, essayist, and social and political activist. As a respected and influential teacher at Sarah Lawrence, Columbia, among others, she expounded on and taught writers advice on writing and life.
Luckily for art, life is difficult, hard to understand, useless, and mysterious. Luckily for artists, they don’t require art to do a good day’s work. But critics and teachers do. A book, a story, should be smarter than its author. It is the critic or the teacher in you or me who cleverly outwits the characters with the power of prior knowledge of meetings and ends.
New York Times
No personal journals, please, for about a year… When you find only yourself interesting, you’re boring. When I find only myself interesting, I’m a conceited bore. When I’m interested in you, I’m interesting.
An interview with photo is here. Articles and photos particularly relating to her activism are here and here and here. She was quite the activist.
©shortstorymagictricks.com
There is a current Kickstarter project to encourage the reprint of Life Stories, a short story collection of Grace’s, now, especially, because of the timeliness of our current national and political situation. (Some, like me, might call it rather a crisis.) A short video explains that here.
From the site: “Grace teaches us what it takes and how to do it: Calling for liberation, peace and justice, crying out to save the burning earth, demanding healthcare for all, and the right of women to determine the course of their lives. Grace raged and negotiated through multiple wars, challenging power-hungry men. Her struggle through the decades is the same as our struggle, right now.”
©stingingly.com
In one of her last interviews in 2007, she was asked what she would hope for the future and her grandchildren.
It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed – and where women don't have to fight for their place in the world."
So, you see? How did I never know of her? It’s not that I don’t read everything I come in contact with, clipping articles like a madwoman. I watch documentaries. I even seek them out. But here’s another person that has completely escaped my brain domain. There are so many elegant authors, unique artists, persistent scientists, and dedicated humanitarians that I have lived my life knowing nothing about. How could that be? Why am I only learning of these people now? Is it because our world expands only after we are through surviving school, figuring out how to be an adult, raising children, putting in 9 to 5s, and racing our own mortalities that we learn about the people who have made extraordinary if not widely publicized contributions? Can we credit the internet with something really positive instead of fretting (as I do) about the dangers of social media and 24-hour cable (both of which I participate in, so there.)
This is a dilemma that has perplexed me lately, so much so that I’ve taken on a project in 2020 to address it. I will share more about that as we get closer to January, but suffice it to say, unless you have known about these people all along and just not told me ( you rascal, you), you will be amazed as I am at the contributions they have made. And it is the internet and, of course, books that are awakening me to them.
Oh, yes…one more thing. There are only a handful of 2020 calendars left. If you have been planning on getting a calendar, now is the time.
And, are you on the mailing list yet? I guard your name with my life and never give it to anybody!