> CD #101: Respite
I had fully intended to do weekly posts after Dispatch #100, but that was almost a month ago. As I tell my kids: Never trust anyone on the internet. Apologies for the delay!
To be honest, it’s been a rough slog of a month. Pushing my book past the finish line was a lot like the final moments of labour when you feel there is no possible way for your body to complete the task, but there is also no other choice but to keep going. Somehow it all happens in a blur of pain and adrenaline, and then you’re left holding this terrifying thing that you immediately have to nurture in a chaotic and indifferent world. In the life of a book, that means working up the nerve to cold-call authors you admire to endorse your precious baby and having most of them say no or nothing at all.
But that’s all over now, and this is the first week since maybe 2019 where I haven’t felt like I ought to be working on book stuff. And while this respite should be cause for celebration, it also comes at a time when we are witness to unbearable suffering and are helpless to do anything about it. I’ve made donations, written to my government, and signed petitions, but in the end I know my actions are largely futile.
How to write a newsletter about clothes, then?
I really don’t know.
But I do know that for me to endure this broken world, I need to keep making things. So here is a drawing of my pyjamas:
Hold your loved ones close. Continue the work of your heart. The current ceasefire is only temporary. We always have more to do.
:) Teresa
What is happening even?? Closet Dispatch is a free, limited-run weekly newsletter by Teresa Wong.
Thank you for writing, I always enjoy your letters, but this one especially resonates. Here’s to trying and working and hoping despite the feelings of futility during this pause-fire.