From The Archives | Dear As Long As I Live: When you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself ~Bessel van der Kolk
From the Archive | Lit Salon addresses the challenge of writing about family (with help from Bessel van der Kolk, Ariel Gore, Laura Davis, Joy Castro, Andre Dubus III, James Pennebaker, etc.)
“As long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself…The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.” ― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
A few quick things before we dive into this archival post from last September (and I’ve added a link at the end to a structured exercise to it for those who want to try an imaginative and unconventional writing against or into their silence):
I mention our foster grandson Z in this archival post below—and I know some of you have been following that story from previous posts like this one and this one, and so I want you to know we do have updates, but too tentative to announce yet. More when I can.
We have two awesome classes coming up at Elephant Rock this January, with just a few remaining spots in the next session of the hands-on 6-week Scaffolding Your Manuscript course with the incompar…