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Author: Anne Cassidy

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A brief shopping trip last night found me wandering an almost-empty mall. Clerks chatted at vacant makeup counters or fussed with jewelry displays. There was no line to see Santa. Mall walkers had the run of the place.

As I pawed through sweaters I noticed something else. Almost all of them were extra large, some even extra-extra large. And at the bookstore, a similar lack of choice: Half of the well-reviewed, recently published books I was looking for were not on the shelves.

Yes, the stores will be busier this weekend — but not that much busier, from what I’ve heard.  People shop with their fingers now. I know this. I do it, too. There’s infinite choice, less hassle. But I miss the market square and the hustle bustle. I wonder if it will ever come back.

In Harmony

In Harmony

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Last night was my fourth Singalong Messiah, and I marveled as always at how a random crew of sopranos, altos, basses and tenors can come together in minutes to make an ensemble. 

What struck me this year was the harmony, that in this most discordant of times, we came together to make music. And that the beauty of the music came not just from melody but from polyphony, from pitches that are pleasing when heard together. 
Alone, we were warbling sopranos, plodding basses, energetic tenors and earnest altos. Together we were a choir. Obviously not the smoothest and most rehearsed but a choir just the same.
It was a good way to usher in the Christmas season. 
Letting it Soak

Letting it Soak

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Yesterday I returned home from work to find the crockpot I’d left full of sudsy water the night before. It wasn’t warm, sudsy water anymore, though. Now it was cold and gray and uninviting.

As I refilled the ceramic with warm water and soap and scrubbed it clean, I thought about how the great procrastination device of children (and adults!) everywhere — letting it soak — is often just what’s needed.

Cleaning this the night before would have been a much harder task. Now I could whisk the stew remnants down the disposal, easily peel away the potato bits that had stuck to the sides. Water and time had worked their way.

Not a life-altering realization — but further proof that rushing through life is not always the best way to go.

Bone Deep

Bone Deep

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I read in the newspaper this morning a report about the strength of prehistoric women’s arms.  Although at first glance this falls into the “yeah, right, what else is new?” category, it was fascinating to view the list of chores that researchers think account for the difference:

Tilling the soil with digging sticks (the plow had yet to be invented)
Grinding the grain with stones
Milking goats or cows and processing the milk
Making pottery
Turning wool and skins into textiles

“We’ve largely been underestimating the scale of this work,” said Alison McIntosh of Cambridge, an author of the report. All this physical activity produced bones that were larger and stronger — but also showed signs of strain. These long-ago women routinely did more than they should.

While the shin bones of modern female athletes compare to those of prehistoric women, the arm bones are another matter. The ancient women’s bones appeared even stronger (and more strained) that those of current female crew team members.

I think of these prehistoric women digging and grinding, I think of my own puny arms, of my life of ease, sitting at a desk, typing words on a small keyboard.  It’s good to be reminded of the difference.

R.I.P., Writer’s Almanac

R.I.P., Writer’s Almanac

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It always seemed too good to be true, a radio show just for writers. And now it’s gone dark. Every link I click leads to a Minnesota Public Radio statement about Garrison Keillor’s alleged sexual misconduct and the organization’s decision to terminate its relationship with him, Prairie Home Companion and the Writer’s Almanac.

The show had a 24-year run, debuting in 1993. I don’t remember when I first started listening to it on the radio, but I do know I’d turn up the dial whenever it came on, would glean some historical fact or the other, that it was birthday of George Eliot or the anniversary of the publication of Walden. When my own muse was on holiday, the Writer’s Almanac muse would step in. In one month, November 2011, it came to the rescue several times.

That was the fall I took the wonderful class A Sense of Place, whose professor, Charlie Yonkers (who became a friend), urged us all to have the Almanac delivered to our in-boxes. I did, and have never stopped.

My radio show station, WAMU, stopped airing the program a  few months ago, so I’d been paying even closer attention to the emails. The last one arrived November 29, which was, it informed me, the birthday of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott and C.S. Lewis. How will I learn this stuff now? Even the archives are gone.

So I re-read this last entry, pondered its power to inspire, my eyes lingering on the last line. It was the way all the Almanacs signed off, and I can hear Keillor reading these words in his distinctive deep baritone: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

Birthday Surprises

Birthday Surprises

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An email this morning told me a package had been delivered.  I got a kick out of this — the fact that I had come in through the garage last night and overlooked this large item on the front stoop, being informed of it through a bunch of 1s and 0s on my computer. It was a funny way to begin this last day of November, the birthday of two people I love — my daughter and my brother.

But that was just the first surprise.  The second happened when I was lugging in the first — and Copper trotted around the front of the house (where he is never, ever allowed to be because he will run away) and right through the front door. The backyard gate must have been left open.
Whatever the case, it was all meant to be — the package left out overnight so that I could be there when Copper escaped, could usher him back where he belongs. The rescue of a dog that means so much to the birthday girl.
Yes, it’s often a random world — but sometimes it’s not. Today is one of those times.
Fruit Bowl

Fruit Bowl

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I’m not sure why I did this, except that I felt energetic this morning, like I was coming out of a fog (post-Thanksgiving funk?). The fruit looked sleek and display-able, and the basket was on the kitchen table, holding napkins, and suddenly it seemed a crime to keep the fruit in its net bags and not in this pretty braided ceramic basket-bowl that Ellen gave me several Christmases ago.

So the napkins now sit in a pile on the table and the fruit poses on the counter. It’s become a still life, an object not just of utility but of beauty.

Isn’t the best kind of beauty the accidental kind? The graceful arching of tree limbs over a road. The glitter of icicles in the sun. And the gathering of fruit in a bowl.

Sleeping Dogs

Sleeping Dogs

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We all know what we’re supposed to do with them. But in my house they are — or I should say he is — often riled up.

This is not my approach, though. I let sleeping dogs lie. Especially Copper, who has always been and who continues to be a lively pup.

When Copper sleeps beside me I sit quietly, enjoying his company, the presence of another living being. I don’t usually cover him up (!), but I do take comfort in the gentle rhythm of his breathing and his little stretches — even when he kicks me in the ribs. I appreciate the fact that when he’s still I don’t have to let him in or out of the house.

On some days, the company of animals is the only company a writer needs.

Four Weeks

Four Weeks

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There will be this one, the last of November, and then three December ones. A countdown. Already I can see them fly, their days a blur of meetings and deadlines, of the buying and wrapping of gifts, the making and sending of cards. Envelopes, stamps, messages. Here we are at the beginning of it all and I can already see the end.

Back then the weeks were years, and to traverse them was pure joy. Santa came on TV at the end of the day, around the time mothers were cooking dinner. I found the container of nonpareils, the ones we sprinkled on sugar cookies, and poured them on a saucer, carefully, because they bounced. Round-and-round beads, I called them, and I lapped them up as I watched the show.

What would I ask for that year? A doll, a bicycle, an archaeology kit (which was an actual toy; I got one!). The gifts blur together. But not that saucer of round-and-round beads. It remains, along with all the giddy anticipation of the season, which I remember still and sometimes even feel.

Last Sunday

Last Sunday

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Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the feast of Christ the King. Christ the King was the name of my church and school growing up. A little pre-fab building where I made my First Communion and was confirmed and, when I was in eighth grade, was required to go to daily mass and sing at funerals.

I regret to say that we often whispered and giggled and otherwise acted as 13-year-olds do at some of those solemn occasions. It’s something I’ve thought about through the years, the difference between then and now, when such a requirement might be considered too traumatizing. But mostly I’ve thought how traumatizing we might have been for the mourners. A flock of girls in green-and-gray plaid skirts with beanies on their heads and bow ties clipped onto their white blouses. Or maybe we were a hopeful sign, proof that life goes on.

In my last year of parochial school, the little church of Christ the King became the ornate Cathedral of Christ the King. It was a massive church with ornate lights and grillwork and the theme of kingship. One boring mass my friend Linda Welch counted every crown in the place. There were more than 100, if I recall.