Eels, Parenting, and Mortality
Mid/late summer greetings to you!
Currently, the vast majority of my writing muscles/capacity are being devoted to my new weekly newsletter, Tinker on the Marsh—most recently, trying to determine whether or not an alligator really did jump off a schooner into Marsh Bay in 1803 and if they did, how long they could have survived; at attempt to understand the health implications (for humans and more-than-humans) of Mendall Marsh having such high concentrations of methylmercury through conversations with scientist Dianne Kopec, the DEP, and the CDC; an ongoing investigation into the origins of the name Blanket Lane; and reports from a day of picking up trash along Bowden Point with a crew of volunteers from Coastal Mountains Land Trust.
Otherwise, I'm picking the last of our black raspberries, trying to remember to clean the blueberries we gleaned the other day, parenting, mowing the lawn, attending lectures, having beers with archaeologists, visiting archives, watching eel races, swimming with old friends, preparing to make an leech-shaped piñata for my kid's upcoming 10th birthday, and paddling with herons with an ever-increasing awareness of our short time in these forms on this earth, how quickly these forms can shift and much tenderness toward all who are contending with this.
New Work in the World
"Like White Ghosts Swimming"
An essay on eels, parenting, and mortality
Michele Christle