Monday, February 23, 2009

Breaking Piñatas, Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página, March 4, 7:00 pm


If you're in Kansas City, you won't want to miss the kick-off event for the Latino Writers Collective's third annual reading series, Tercera Página. "Breaking Piñatas” is an exciting and original performance of poetry, drama, dance, and music that is the brainchild of LWC member, Chato Villalobos. Chato and his cast of students have worked long and hard to make this year's show bigger and better even than last year's smash success. So come out and join us. It's free and fun!

La Bloga: �New Urrea Novel Coming this May!

La Bloga: �New Urrea Novel Coming this May!

This is something to be excited about. I've loved Luis Alberto Urrea's work for years, and I just heard him speak at the AWP conference in Chicago. He's one of our great writers. Can't wait for May!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Breaking Piñatas, Latino Writers Collective Tercera Página Reading Series



Tercera Página and the Latino Writers Collective were created to offer the Kansas City community a chance to experience the usually unheard voices of local and national Latino writers. In “Breaking Piñatas,” the vibrant series opening, Kansas City will have a chance to hear the young people of the Latino community speak with passion and power about their experience.

“Breaking Piñatas,” the work of LWC member and KCMO police officer, Octavio “Chato” Villalobos and his young protégées, will open at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4, at Pierson Auditorium, UMKC’s University Center, 50th & Rockhill. The program is free and open to the public. It features original art, poetry, drama, dance, and music with a cultural theme and will include a question and answer session with the student performers and a reception. “Breaking Piñatas” is recommended for ages 13 and up. For reservations or information, please call 816-718-1220 or email llrodriguez@sbcglobal.net.

Reading from their original poetry will be high school (and some college) students who range from first-timers to a few experienced readers, including the youngest members of the Latino Writers Collective. Many of the student poets belong to a poetry club Villalobos helped form at Alta Vista High School, La Sociedad Poetica de Alta Vista (the Alta Vista Poetic Society). Last year, Alta Vista’s yearbook included a poem the group had written for “Breaking Piñatas.”

“Our kids have a lot to say, and they need to be heard,” says Villalobos.

Also performing original work will be student musicians, singers, dancers, choreographers, and actors, with a special guest performance by El Grupo Folklorico Atotonilco, a folkloric dance troupe that has been working with local youth for over 30 years. The auditorium will also contain a display of original art by local Latino artists.

The series is co-sponsored by BkMk Press, Guadalupe Centers, Inc., Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Hispanic News, Kansas Hispanic & Latino American Affairs Commission, Mattie Rhodes Latino Cultural Arts Division, New Letters, Park University, UMKC College of Arts & Sciences, UMKC Multicultural Student Affairs, and The Writers Place. The series is made possible in part by funding from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Monday, February 16, 2009

AWP

I’m back from an exciting and exhausting time at the AWP in Chicago. My head’s still reeling, and my poor body’s trying to recuperate.

Some quick highlights:

A wonderful selection of panels dealing with Latino and Native American themes and issues, especially “Diverging Lines” (new directions for Latino poetry), “Something to Declare?” (America’s internal borders and writers’ experiences in crossing them), “Las Mocosas Gritan” (wonderful reading by a group of Macondistas), “After Magic Realism” (new directions in Latino writing), “Speaking Of and To Others” (Indigenous Poetics).

Con Tinta. WOW! Great pachanga of Latino writers in a great venue with delicious food.

Palabra Pura: Special Edition “One Poem Reading.” Fabulous venue, great crowd, wonderful and wonderfully diverse poems by poets from all over the country.

Getting to meet writers I’ve admired for years—Linda Hogan, Simon Ortiz, Lorraine Lopez, Cornelius Eady. Getting to meet new writers I’ve just started reading and admiring in the last year or so—Lisa Alvarado, Carlos Cumpian, Daniel Olivas, Paul Martinez Pompa—and new writers I’d not been aware of—Aaron Michael Morales, Johanny Vasquez Paz, Juan Manuel Sanchez. Making new friendships with some of them that I hope to continue.

Getting to see old friends, such as Diane Glancy, Robin Becker, Marilyn Kallett.

Coming away with editors who want to see my next manuscript, with promises to review my book, with promises to adopt the Collective’s anthology in courses, and more.

More later.

Monday, February 9, 2009

My Hoped-For Itinerary at AWP

This is where I hope to be spending my time at the AWP in Chicago this week. It's been tough making the choices because I have friends on several panels that are up against each other and there are other panels I really have strong interest in that are competing with each other. For example, many of the Native American and Latino panels are going head-to-head. And of course, I want them all! I would have gladly traded a few of these for some of the others not listed here that were on at the same time as others I have down.


But as of right now, this is what I plan to do there.

Thursday

9:00 am The Sister Art(s): Toward A Feminist Ekphrasis. (Grace Bauer, Robin Becker, Leslie Adrienne Miller, Joy Manesiotis, Christine Stewart-Nunez, Rebecca Bednarz) Though some might claim that "writing about art is like dancing about architecture," the past decade has witnessed a growing interest in ekphrastic writing. This panel of poets who have written on "subjects" ranging from the Mona Lisa to Kate Moss, monuments to medical illustrations to movies and dance, will examine ekphrasis through a feminist lens, and explore how for women artists, "seeing with fresh eyes" can become, as Adrienne Rich says, "an act of survival."

10:30 am Revising Modernisms: Innovative Latino Writing in the 21st Century. (J. Michael Martinez, Antonio Viego, John-Michael Rivera, Gabe Gomez, Jennifer Reimer) We will investigate what constitutes innovative U.S. Latino writing through an analysis of the cultural conditions that gave rise to the "innovative." What role does the Latino play in the understanding of "innovative" writing? How is its aim changed by the U.S. Latinos participation in its aesthetic? We will explore these questions through Lacanian theory, an analysis of Modernism and its heirs (NY School, Langpo, etc.) that includes the U.S. Latino, and the methods employed by publishers of innovative U.S. Latino writing.

Noon Diverging Lines: Understanding the Evolution of Contemporary Latino Poetry. (Blas Falconer, Rosa Alcalá, Gina Franco, Peter Ramos, Rodrigo Toscano, Robert Tejada) Although Latino poetry has a strong foundation in American literature, emerging writers are complicating the aesthetics of the canon by drawing on movements (i.e., Language Poetry, New Formalism) and communities (i.e., Gay and Lesbian, African American) outside their own. The panelists will explore the intersection between aesthetics and ethnicity, helping to define the foundation and the evolution of Latino poetry.

1:30 pm Building, Breaking, Rebuilding: Six Chicago Literary Landscapers. (Ellen Placey Wadey, Erin Teegarden, Krista Franklin, Joel Craig, Jennifer Karmin, Irasema Gonzalez) We are the bold sluggers who run Chicago's independent reading series. Set vividly against the established grid, we build literary communities in neighborhoods from the ground up. How are we thriving in the face of our challenges? Less like a panel and more like a virtual show-and-tell, organizers from a diverse group of popular, D-I-Y reading serieses discuss building, breaking from, and rebuilding Chicago's literary landscape.

3:00 pm Writing Class / Writing Gender. (Teresa Carmody, Selah Saterstrom, Corrina Wycoff, Ali Liebegott, Veronica Gonzalez) The stories of poor women have been traditionally written realistically, in order to faithfully depict the grind and grit of poverty to readers often presumed to be not-poor. What happens to the reality of poor women when rendered in non-realist, non-naturalist writing? Is realism actually more artificial than the sometimes surreal state of being a have-not? This panel presents five women writers whose work addresses the realities of social class and gender in a not-strictly realist style.

4:00 pm Las Mocosas Gritan: A Reading by Macondista Snot-noses. (Lorraine Lopez, Gabriela Jauregui, Angie Chau, Daisy Hernandez, Erin Badhand, Laura Negrete) This cross-genre reading will present poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction by a group of emerging women writers, all members of the Macondo Workshop established by Sandra Cisneros in San Antonio, Texas. These authors, who come from around the country and abroad—brought together through creativity and community activism—will share a variety of original works inspired by and in tribute to this extraordinary homeland for writers of color and other creative spirits at the margins.

6:30PM Con Tinta Celebration
Location: COCO Restaurant, 2723 W. Division St, CHICAGO 60622
Cost: Free Buffet / Cash Bar
Website: http://www.cocochicago.com/
Fourth Annual Pachanga for the Chicano/Latino Literary community and its allies. Event will include special recognition of Patti Hartmann, presentation of Achievement Award to Carlos Cortez, and readings/tributes by Carlos Cumpian, Lisa Alvarado, and Ray Gonzalez. For more information, contact Richard Yañez (ryanez4@epcc.edu).

Friday

9:00 am Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War. (Valerie Martinez, Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, Michelle Holland, Jasmine Cuffee) The lines between the slam/spoken word and literary poetry communities have often been drawn and defined by issues of quality, accessibility, inclusiveness, elitism, and entertainment. These lines (and the resulting estrangements) impact both young poets and writing programs. This panel brings together so-called "spoken word," "slam," and "literary" poets to discuss the tensions between communities, the (un)necessary distance, and the (im)possibility of bridging the divide.

10:30 am The Next Taboo: Writing about Illness. (Robin Romm, Lee Montgomery, Lisa Glatt, Eric Puchner, Dana Levin, Don Waters) In On Being Ill, Virginia Woolf wrote, "[it's] strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature." Illness is often seen as an inferior subject for great literature, trumped by politics, race, or war. Why is this a subject many literary writers avoid? What are the challenges of writing seriously about illness? Does it necessarily court sentimentality? Does the resistance to it make it the next big taboo in literature?

Noon The Duty of a Writer. (Jackson Taylor, Marie Ponsot, Paul Muldoon, Sapphire, Major Jackson) In America, we legitimize a creative writer by noting commercial success—but what is often left unnoticed is that the creative writer performs a very important job in society—the recording of truth as he or she sees it. With truth, the writer hopes to engage the conscience of people—and perhaps get them to ask their own questions. William Blake weighed out that without contraries there is no progression—and one of the duties a writer performs is to present contraries—questioning authority in order to discern that which is ethical and legitimate. This panel will explore the duty of the writer, particularly from the perspective of a student, discuss the potential for literature to affect social change, ask if literature is an alternative to consumer culture, and explore why so many writers find their way into exile.

1:30 pm Applying for a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship: Helpful Hints for Writers and Translators. (Jon Parrish Peede, Amy Stolls, Catherine Vass) Thinking about applying for an NEA Creative Writing or Translation Fellowship but feel daunted by the process or not sure if you're eligible? Members of the NEA staff are here to help. This panel will review the fellowship guidelines and selection process, offer advice on how to put together the most effective application, and answer your questions. Special attention will be given to navigating grants.gov, the online government application system.

3:00 pm Writing in Multiple Genres. (Diana Raab, Phillip Lopate, Molly Peacock, David Huddle, Judith Kitchen) In the past, literary writers were encouraged to focus on a single genre, but in recent years, many have experimented more freely with other forms. This panel of poets, fiction and nonfiction writers will explore the challenges and rewards of crossing over to other genres. Some of the topics to be discussed include: What does each writer bring to the enterprise? What do they learn when making this transition? How does writing in more than one genre add depth and complexity to their work?

6:00PM PALABRA PURA: Special Edition
Location: JAZZ SHOWCASE, 47 W. Polk St., Chicago 60605
Cost: Free/Cash Bar
Websites: http://www.jazzshowcase.com, http://guildcomplex.org
Following up on the multi-voiced reading hosted by ACENTOS in NYC last year during AWP, the Guild Complex, Letras Latinas, and Poetry Magazine will be hosting a "One Poem Festival" featuring an ample roster of Latino and Latina poets from Chicago and out of town, including: Lisa Alvarado, Carlos Cumpian, Silvia Curbelo, Gina Franco, Gabe Gomez, Irasema Gonzalez, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Gabriela Jauregui, Olivia Maciel, Carl Marcum, Valerie Martínez, Orlando Ricardo Menes, Achy Obejas, Daniel A. Olivas, Johanny Vasquez Paz, Paul Martinez Pompa, Linda Rodríguez, Jacob Saenz, Jorge Sánchez,Juan Manuel Sanchez Rich Villar. For more information, contact Ellen Wadey (ellenw@guildcomplex.org)

Saturday

9:00 am Waving Adieu, Adieu, Adieu: Poems of Leave-Taking and Farewell. (Alan Soldofsky, Willis Barnstone, David Mura, Marcia Southwick, Daniel Tobin) Farewells are among the hardest, most poignant subjects to write about. Thus, poems of leave taking and farewell appear in a great many guises and forms, sometimes presenting a solemn, sometimes an ironic, sometimes a mixed or angular tone—occasioned as such poems usually are by an assortment of difficult life events. Five distinguished poets will read and discuss poems of leave-taking and farewell from a diversity of traditions and modes as well as read examples from their own work.

10:30 am Speaking Of and To Others: Beyond the Western Apostrophe in Intertribal Poetry. (Molly McGlennen, Simon Ortiz, Kimberly Blaeser, Diane Glancy, Sherwin Bitsui) Do shared commitments of Native American writers to cultural, liguistic, political, and physical survival inform a unique creative process? This panel considers the possibility of an Indigenous Poetics and the embodied consequences of poetry in Native communities. Within what contextual "frame" do Native American poets craft, publish, or perform their work? Is an Indegenous Poetics, discrete from or parallel to the Western tradition, implied in the creative work itself? Panelists incorporate readings to showcase important creative/critical confluences.

Noon Metaphor, Selective Memory, & Misdirection: Poetry as Autobiography by Other Means. (Jordan Smith, Judith Hall, David Rigsbee, Ed Pavlic) A reading with commentary by four poets whose work—with the dramatic monologue, with actual or imagined translations, with language as music and metaphor, fragmentation and revelation—continues the investigation of the place of the poem's speaker and the nature of poetic authority. Rather than assuming the immediacy and centrality of the first person or abandoning it to its own limitations, these poets have made the definition of the "I" in relationship to the poem's subject part of the poem's development of character, topos, and topic.

1:30 pm More Than a Collection: Imagining and Realizing Thematic Poetry Projects. (Jon Tribble, Oliver de la Paz, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Sean Nevin, Alison Townsend, Jake Adam York) A panel discussion featuring five Crab Orchard Series in Poetry authors who have published collections with Southern Illinois University Press that explore extended thematic concerns or ongoing poetic projects on topics including the imaginative interior life of a young boy, silent film, Alzheimer's, the Persephone myth and twenty-first-century America, and the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement.

Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series

Exciting Latino Writers Series Returns to Kansas City

For the third year, Kansas Citians will have a chance to hear some of the usually unheard voices of local and national Latino writers speak with passion and power about their experience in the Tercera Página (Third Page) Reading Series, which will offer four events in 2009. Over the past two years, the series has pulled standing-room-only audiences and received much publicity, bringing the community-at-large various pictures of the Latino experience at distinct odds with much of the anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant rhetoric that has become all too common. Designed to showcase the work of Latino writers and provide role models for local youth, Tercera Página is coordinated by the Latino Writers Collective.

The first event—7:00 p.m., Wednesday, March 4, at Pierson Auditorium, University Center, UMKC, 50th & Rockhill—will feature a cast of high school and college students performing, “Breaking Piñatas, a cultural performance of original poetry, drama, dance, and music, created and directed by Latino Writers Collective member, Chato Villalobos, a KCMO police officer in his day job. This will be a new, expanded version of the popular event (with guest performance by El Grupo Folklorico Atotonilco) that has moved to a larger venue since people had to be turned away last year for lack of space. The dynamic, dramatic show has garnered much praise in local arts and entertainment media and will include a question and answer session with the young performers afterward.

The second event in the series will take place at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania, at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, March 27, 2009. Reading from her work will be Gloria Vando. Vando’s most recent book of poems, Shadows and Supposes, won the 2003 Best Poetry Book of the Year Award from the Latino Literary Hall of Fame and the Alice Fay Di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has won numerous other awards and fellowships. She reads her poem, “Fire,” on the 2007 Grammy-nominated CD collection, Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work, 1888-2006 (which features Tennyson, Browning, Walt Whitman, who were recorded by Edison when he invented the phonograph). A Puerto Rican born in New York City, Vando has had her poems adapted for the stage and presented at Lincoln Center and Off-Broadway. She is publisher and editor of Helicon Nine Editions, a small press she founded 30 years ago and for which she received the Kansas Governors Arts Award. In 1992, she and her husband, Bill Hickok, founded The Writers Place, a literary center in Kansas City, where they lived for many years. They now live in L.A.

Also reading will be Latino Writers Collective members, Carlos Duarte, Ignacio Carvajal, Miguel Morales, and Sofiana Olivera. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us.

The next event will bring in nationally known poet, novelist, and short story writer, Sandra Cisneros, at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 16, 2000, to the Kansas City Library’s Central Branch, 14 W. 10th St., for a reception, reading, and book signing. Sandra Cisneros is considered a national treasure in Latina literature. Besides the “Genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation, her many awards include, among others, the American Book Award, the PEN Center West Award, the Lannan Foundation Award, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Texas Medal of Arts, and two honorary doctorates. Her work has become part of the canon in universities around the country and the world. This year will mark the 25th anniversary of her great classic, The House on Mango Street, which is required reading in schools across the nation. She is the founder of the Macondo Foundation and Writers Conference and the organizer of the Latino MacArthur Fellows, los MacArturos. Her books, The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, Bad Boys, My Wicked, Wicked Ways, Loose Woman, and Caramelo, have been published in over 20 languages and included in many anthologies and textbooks. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us.

The final event—7:00 p.m., Friday, May 15, at The Writer’s Place, 3607 Pennsylvania —will be the launch of the Latino Writers Collective fiction anthology, Cuentos del Centro: Stories From the Latino Heartland, and will feature readings by LWC members, Juanita Salazar Lamb, Jason Biggers, Natalie Olmsted, and Xánath Caraza. The event will also feature the music of Melek Ta’us. Last year’s poetry anthology gained national attention and praise and was a finalist for the USA Book News 2008 Award in Poetry. The 2008 series finale and anthology launch was cited by The PITCH as “beautifully diverse, crowded, and festive” and led to naming the Latino Writers Collective as one of 2008’s Best of Kansas City.

The series is co-sponsored by BkMk Press, Guadalupe Centers, Inc., Kansas City Public Library, Kansas City Hispanic News, the Kansas Department of Hispanic and Latino Affairs, Longview Community College, Mattie Rhodes Latino Cultural Arts Division, New Letters, Park University, UMKC College of Arts & Sciences, UMKC Multicultural Student Affairs, and The Writers Place. The series is made possible in part by funding from the Missouri Arts Council.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Palabra Pura at AWP in Chicago Next Week

Next week, I'm heading off to the AWP (Associated Writers & Writing Programs) national conference in Chicago, February 11-14. I'm looking forward to seeing lots of old friends and attending their panels and meeting lots of new people. Most of all, I'm looking forward to reading in the special Palabra Pura "One Poem Festival" on Friday night and visiting with lots of interesting folks at Con Tinta the night before.


Friday, February 13
Special Edition: "One Poem Festival"
(AWP off-site event)
6:00 - 7:30 PM
@Jazz Showcase

Lisa Alvarado
Carlos Cumpian
Silvia Curbelo
Gina Franco
Gabe Gomez
Irasema Gonzalez
Maurice Kilwein Guevara
Gabriela Jauregui
Olivia Maciel
Carl Marcum
Valerie Martínez
Orlando Ricardo Menes
Achy Obejas
Daniel A. Olivas
Johanny Vázquez Paz
Paul Martinez Pompa
Linda Rodríguez
Jacob Saenz
Jorge Sánchez
Juan Manuel Sanchez
Rich Villar

co-sponsored by Poetry magazine


Thursday, February 12

6:30PM-8:30PM

Con Tinta Celebration
Location: COCO Restaurant, 2723 W. Division St, CHICAGO 60622
Cost: Free Buffet / Cash Bar
Website: http://www.cocochicago.com/
Fourth Annual Pachanga for the Chicano/Latino Literary community and its allies. Event will include special recognition of Patti Hartmann, presentation of Achievement Award to Carlos Cortez, and readings/tributes by Carlos Cumpian, Lisa Alvarado, and Ray Gonzalez. For more information, contact Richard Yañez (ryanez4@epcc.edu).


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Novel Love

I’m trying to shift my daily schedule, already full, to accommodate novel-writing again. In my experience, working on a novel, especially first-draft work, requires blocks of time daily. For too long now, I haven’t given myself these blocks of time, but now I feel I must find a way to carve them out.


As with so much I write, I’m dealing here with love/passion/obsession (that spectrum) between men and women. I’m looking at marriages and relationships of earlier generations in my family in a hunt for truth and meaning among all the warfare.


Somewhere in our culture is embodied the notion that people who love each other, once they’ve found each other, will live happily ever after. But the truth of the matter is that people can love each other tremendously and yet be unable to get together, or once together, stay together.


A man who doesn’t like intense emotion, who’s pretty much a hermit, who likes routines and structure and is afraid of commitment, can find himself mesmerized by an intensely emotional woman, who’s the life of the party, spontaneous and idiosyncratic, who commits deeply—and she with him.


These two very different people will love in quite different ways, even if they love equally deeply. And even the deepest, most intense love may not always be enough to bridge the difference between such polar opposites.


Each may try to express love in a way that the other doesn’t understand as love. Each one may crawl away from the encounter, hurt, believing the other broke his or her heart. It is so hard to break out of the boundaries that define us in order to make true connection with other people at the deepest levels—especially for men and women.

Walking Through the Dark

Today, I’m considering the whole process of stepping out on faith and walking through the darkness when you can’t see your way before you. I've been here many times. Yesterday, the failed CEO business exec hired to run the university system where my husband works sent out a memo to all, threatening layoffs and unpaid furloughs. (He ran his former huge corporation into the ground this way.) Also, my daughter called to say she and her significant other are packing up to leave Phoenix and come home since he's been laid off and can't find a new job down there.

It seems that there are so many times like this in life. You go along aiming at your goals and planning your next moves for quite some time, just humming along like a top. Then, something happens -- maybe illness, loss of a job or an important relationship, financial problems, or natural disaster, whatever. Suddenly, night has fallen. Your old goals, plans, directions may or may not still be valid. You don’t really know, because you can’t really see what the next day will bring. Heck, you can’t see where the next step is or where it will take you.

It’s all too easy, under these circumstances, to just stand paralyzed. And sometimes, that’s what we have to do at the beginning. Usually, these kinds of situations are a sign that we need to go within ourselves somehow. However, we may need to take some kind of immediate action to stave off further disaster even as we try to look within ourselves for some future guidance. Not always the easiest thing to do.

When this kind of night plunges your life into darkness, the first thing to do is to stand still and take inventory of your situation. Are there immediate emergency steps that need to be taken? Has the situation fallen all the way to the bottom yet, and if not, are there things you can do right now that might stop or cushion the drop? For example, if you’ve been laid off, what transition options can you get from your company or local agencies? If you’re in sudden financial difficulties, can you work through a consumer credit counseling agency or on your own to contact creditors and arrange temporarily lowered payments? If your home was flooded or burned, check to see if you will be able to salvage anything of the structure or the contents. Often, these immediate, emergency steps consume us, and we obsess over them. Why not? They keep us focused on doing something and away from looking at that impenetrable dark horizon that our future has become.

Once immediate emergencies have been dealt with, it is important to make some time to mourn the old path from which life has so suddenly knocked us. The path ahead is usually shrouded in night at this point, and the first step toward finding our way is to establish where we came from, what it meant to us, all the good it brought us. It is only natural to mourn such things. As a part of this process, however, we must move on to realistically seek out all the harm our vanished situation caused us, all the opportunities lost, the ways in which it limited us. This gives a more realistic context for our mourning process and begins to close it out.

From this point of realism, we can know truly where we are standing and become aware of the possibility that, although we may never find this exact situation again, we might find something new that provides what the old withheld from us.

One thing I've learned through the years is that even what seems to be an unmitigated disaster usually turns into something good--ultimately. It takes faith in the process, faith in the universe or God or whatever term you use. It's where our whole country sits right now. In the long run, it will lead to something even better than the shortsighted greed in which we've been living. Change is the only constant in life--and as it never stays sunny and bright forever, so too does it never stay dark forever. Soon enough, light once again dawns. We all just have to put one foot in front of the other, tentatively and experimentally, testing the ground we cannot see, but that's the way we'll make it to a brighter future, one step at a time through the dark.