Today I launched the Articles section of this website. As the inaugural piece I put up a personal essay called “What Once Was and Shall be.” This Articles section of CaregivingReality.com will be a place for different types of long form writing. Eventually there will be How-To pieces, Advice articles, along with more writing aimed to encourage, support, and promote thoughtful discussion. As another category there will be narrative essays like “What Once Was and Shall be” which are a moving and thoughtful way to share of the life of caregiving. The goal is for all of this writing to become a solid foundation of support for caregivers everywhere.
That is what I’m aiming for, and I think this first essay is a wonderful start. Here is a little excerpt:
I found him sitting on the bench beside the door, staring at the floor or maybe the middle distance. Was he thinking about how he might open the door? Perhaps he was thinking about his past glory, now only a memory quickly fading. Maybe. But probably he was thinking about nothing. He had the empty expression of someone simply lost in their not-thoughts.
I asked him if he wanted a drink, and he said no. I asked him if he was hungry, and he said no. I asked him if he wanted a banana, and after some hesitation he conceded he would eat one. So he sat there on the bench in the cold, eating his banana, an old man in the late winter of his life, trapped in the prison of his mind, unable to let himself out. His physical surroundings told the story with poetry I could not improve.
Go ahead and read the rest of the essay. Comment, share, let me know what you think. And keep coming back as I add more!