ARCHIVE
September 24, 2023
The last three times I have traveled it was to Vietnam. I prepared in all the usual ways—passport, suitcase organization, contingency plans—and I used Rosetta Stone and/or Duolingo to study the language. I had no illusions that I would
By Susan Dixon
August 7, 2023
My writing group, The Pen and the Sword, considers topics related to any war, but the Vietnam War in particular. Our theme at the moment is After War—the ways in which cultures, communities, individuals leave war behind and transition
By Susan Dixon
July 14, 2023
I used to think, because this is how I was trained—in high school, in college, in grad school, in life—that I had to have a Theme. If I wanted to host a blog/website/discussion/writing space, it had to have a
By Susan Dixon
June 26, 2023
You’d think, after giving it more than 50 years, that we, the Vietnam War Generation, would have managed to make some sense of it. Fifty years worth of education, life experience, technical skill, hobbies, travel, social engagement—all those things
By Susan Dixon
February 2, 2023
“And what did Catarine say to you?”
“I don’t remember clearly …”
“Because she never makes much sense,” Cristophe interrupted.
“Something about someone who knew me and
By Susan Dixon
January 10, 2023
While the flu had hold of me, I couldn’t remember the names of things. It was like my brain had just stopped dealing with minor details as it re-ordered itself. That frightened my daughter who began to ask for
By Susan Dixon
January 4, 2023
In the week between Christmas and New Years I had Plans. I reviewed my 2022 calendar and made notes in the one for 2023. January 2022 had virtually no notes at all except for little To Do lists for
By Susan Dixon
December 13, 2022
It is said that when Druids were in training they would spend hours at a time in stone beehive huts, utterly in the dark, so as to be able to memorize the enormous body of knowledge their culture held.
By Susan Dixon
November 1, 2022
Show’s over, folks. And didn’t October do
A bang-up job? ….
Maggie Dietz, “November,” in That Kind of Happy (The University of Chicago Press, 2016)
By Susan Dixon
October 10, 2022
Trying to understand the 12th century from the vantage point of the 21st is like trying to imagine the life of one of those organisms in the depth of the ocean. We can’t do it. Too much has been
By Susan Dixon
September 26, 2022
This image is the closest I could come to what I have in my imagination. I am not certain Zelie had colored pencils. In any case, I have never seen any. She will acquire other supplies as the story
By Susan Dixon