World Prematurity Day
Sometimes, we all need a reminder to be a little more human.
Yesterday was World Prematurity Day. It seems like every day is a day of significance, International Red Beard Day or All Too Well (Taylor's Version) Day, but World Prematurity Day is one that hits home for me.
I don't like to talk about it much, but my kiddo was born seven weeks early. She was a little over three pounds, so small that I worried I'd break her if I sneezed while holding her. Now, two-and-a-half years later, she's over twenty pounds and sneezing in my face because toddlers are gross little monsters.
I don't know what you're supposed to do for a day like World Prematurity Day, but for me, it's a reminder to do those basic human things that we seem to have fallen away from as we've gotten sucked into our phones or our egos or whatever the hell else we have going on. Some hospital workers are good at these sorts of things. There were nurses who offered me a cup of coffee when I'd come to visit my kid in the NICU. There was a security guard who smiled when he saw me carrying in a car seat, said he was happy for me that I'd never have to see him again. There was a kid who worked the cafeteria and always asked me how things were going. These folks didn't save my kid, but they made the world feel a hell of a lot more manageable, which is really all you can ask for when your kid's the size of your hand and hooked up to a feeding tube and a breathing tube an octopus of wires going to God knows what.
This is something I'm trying to keep in mind as we dive into the holidays. The importance of remembering these human things, the little actions and behaviors that help keep us connected. I want to buy my friends books from Carmichael's here in Louisville because I can go in and have a conversation and contribute to something I love having in my city. I want to support artists I love like Justin Rothshank, who makes some of my favorite coffee mugs, beautiful things with gold foil and poppies that are as nice to look at as they are to drink out of. I want to smile more, hold the door more often, get out of my head long enough to remember that we're all on a rock that's flinging in circles through space, so we might as well be good to one another.
As a writer—actually, not just as a writer, but as a human—I have this knack for paying crazy attention to the past, the things I've done and where I've gone wrong. I guess what I'm saying is that I want to put that attention toward what's happening now. Maybe if I do that, there’ll be a lot less bad shit to dwell on.
The awesome folks at Sledgehammer Lit recently published an essay of mine, "My Friend Scotty,” which I wrote about a couple weeks back. If you're interested and haven’t had a chance to read it, it's available in both text and audio formats. The author bio is probably the most straightforward and accurate one I've had:
The Daily Drunk is a pop culture and humor site that's been kind enough to support my work in the past. They have a Marvel Comics-themed poetry anthology coming out Monday that is going to kick ass. I'm sure it'll pop up in their store when it's available, but in the meantime, they have some other anthos that are worth checking out: a Lord of the Rings-themed one and a video game-themed one (featuring moi) amongst others. I don't know how they do it, but they're always curating funny, clever, insightful stuff.
One of my recent faves, Chicago-based Beach Bunny, released a new single and announced a tour that's making a stop here in Louisville. “Oxygen” is the new one, but "Prom Queen" might be my favorite track of theirs. Their music has an energetic pop-punk vibe to it, but there’s a depth and cleverness to their lyrics that gives it an almost folky feel at times. I really dig this line from “Oxygen”:
They don't wanna see you the way I do /
But life looks better through my worldview.
Cheers, y’all. Exciting news on The Jackals is coming, hopefully in a couples weeks.