Excellent excerpt! Thanks for sharing this. I love the vivid imagery and the imagination.
There’s such a rare generosity in how this piece listens to the world of things, not just the enchanted world of a child, but the overlapping spaces where imagination, memory, and caregiving meet. I slowed down while reading, as though each paragraph was its own small room to sit inside for a while. The object lexicon especially struck me—how a simple shift in language can ripple through perception and responsibility. “Fragmenthing” and “meaningthing” feel like words I’ve needed for years without knowing it.
There’s also something quietly radical in the tenderness offered to the mundane: dish sponges, broken toys, laundry with a long nose. It makes the whole domestic sphere feel less like a backdrop and more like a terrain of myth and quiet devotion. Reading this reminded me that reverence doesn’t have to be lofty; it can be practiced right here, mid-spin cycle, with a sticky toothbrush and a glowing worm of fact.
This is wonderful, Sarah Rose. Magical. I needed it. Your intro with Shelley took back to a little day trip my children and I took to have lunch in Chamonix in 2009. But as I now write I know that the Mer de Grace is melting at 40 meters/year. Also, on the dark side, your lexicon reminds of marketing creations of the carbon dioxide industry. Eco-Friendly... Bio-Diesel... Bio-Mass Energy... Natural Gas... Bridge Fuels... Carbon Neutral... Each and all and more describe poisons for you, me and Oliver. Perhaps fun to create such a language but unfortunately this language is being spoken by more and more. So sad. I have a picture of my Emily I will send you. She is in her cardboard creation which she remembers well even today at age 30.
I'd love to see the picture of Emily. I didn't think of the lexicon in relation to capitalist greenwashing -- that is darker -- but a reminder of how a culture's language points to its values.
Excellent excerpt! Thanks for sharing this. I love the vivid imagery and the imagination.
There’s such a rare generosity in how this piece listens to the world of things, not just the enchanted world of a child, but the overlapping spaces where imagination, memory, and caregiving meet. I slowed down while reading, as though each paragraph was its own small room to sit inside for a while. The object lexicon especially struck me—how a simple shift in language can ripple through perception and responsibility. “Fragmenthing” and “meaningthing” feel like words I’ve needed for years without knowing it.
There’s also something quietly radical in the tenderness offered to the mundane: dish sponges, broken toys, laundry with a long nose. It makes the whole domestic sphere feel less like a backdrop and more like a terrain of myth and quiet devotion. Reading this reminded me that reverence doesn’t have to be lofty; it can be practiced right here, mid-spin cycle, with a sticky toothbrush and a glowing worm of fact.
I am now a new subscriber!
Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughtful reading, @poonam pari !
This is wonderful, Sarah Rose. Magical. I needed it. Your intro with Shelley took back to a little day trip my children and I took to have lunch in Chamonix in 2009. But as I now write I know that the Mer de Grace is melting at 40 meters/year. Also, on the dark side, your lexicon reminds of marketing creations of the carbon dioxide industry. Eco-Friendly... Bio-Diesel... Bio-Mass Energy... Natural Gas... Bridge Fuels... Carbon Neutral... Each and all and more describe poisons for you, me and Oliver. Perhaps fun to create such a language but unfortunately this language is being spoken by more and more. So sad. I have a picture of my Emily I will send you. She is in her cardboard creation which she remembers well even today at age 30.
I'd love to see the picture of Emily. I didn't think of the lexicon in relation to capitalist greenwashing -- that is darker -- but a reminder of how a culture's language points to its values.