occasional posts by risa aratyr
thoughts, news, and items of writerly interest
FRIDAY 9 JUNE: This day the travellers journeyed westward in the steel belly of the California Zephyr. As we climbed aboard, the attendant said something about hurrying to the observation car, there might be a few seats left. I didn’t pay much attention. A crowded observation car had no appeal, to me at least. We … Read more Riding the Rails – A Chronicle
I have history with Colorado. When Babs and Joe met in Chicago, sparks definitely flew, but it was in Denver they fully ignited. I was well into my teens before my sister clued me in that the photos of my parents’ romantic stay at the Greystone Ranch in Evergreen had been taken before they were … Read more Rocky Mountain High
Program Notes For centuries it was theatrical doctrine that while ordinary folks could be the subject of comedies, only those born to the uppermost classes suffered deeply enough to be the subject of tragedies. Except for a few 17th century outliers (maybe four plays, five if you count Othello), it was well past the Enlightenment … Read more Riding the Rails – A Bourgeois Tragedy in Two Acts
Kansas City, Missouri lies smack-dab in the middle of the contiguous United States. Well, technically, “smack dab” is about two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas. The spot is commemorated by a small stone monument and plaque, and noted by the town of Lebanon in quintessential, low-key Midwestern style. KCMO is 260 miles/418 km southeast of … Read more From the Heart
I hit my limit months ago. I couldn’t take the incessant pounding, the non-stop barrage of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, anti-environmentalism, war-mongering, collusion, nepotism, self-aggrandizement, and sheer idiocy coming out of the White House and Congress. I couldn’t keep bearing unblinking witness to each and every horrendous, scandalous, apocalyptic thing day after day – not … Read more Life in the Trenches