It’s Builder Month

This post has been in my drafts folder for over a month. Usually, it was blank - a vast, empty placeholder. Periodically, I’d test out a few sentences, reread my words, wrinkle my nose in disgust, and delete, delete, delete. Back to blank.

I knew I wanted to continue Costume Parade, but how? In a time period of quarantine and sweatpants and fear, how could my musings about fashion experiments be relevant? Or helpful? Or hopeful?

On April 3rd, Roxane Gay published a piece called, “Notes on Power in a Pandemic". In it, she said:

People assume that as a writer, I am writing entire books each day, when the truth is that I have barely tapped out a few pages here and there. I want to write and for once I have the time to write and I certainly have things to say but when I sit at my computer all I can think is, “Will any of what I have to say even matter when this is all over?”

That last thought gave me an immediate sense of relief. If (brilliant) Roxane Gay didn’t know what would “even matter when this is all over,” then it certainly was ok that I didn’t know, either.

I left my empty draft and instead did everything else. I cleaned. I walked. I baked three loaves of banana bread. (And muffins.) I tackled all of the boring tasks on my to-do list. And somewhere along the way, I realized that even though I don’t know what to say, and don’t know what will matter, I needed something to matter. I needed a sense of forward motion. So, I returned to this blank draft and Costume Parade.

May is Builder Month. Because, everyday, a new, very different, world is being built around us. We cannot go back to the old one, and it does no good to cling to what isn’t there any longer. The futures we thought we had are likely gone. Our jobs will change. The way we live, and travel, and dress, have changed and will continue to change. We can ignore it, or we can build. (From home, of course.)

This month, I’ll be sharing posts about creating anew. Some posts will go back to some of my favorite old models, and some won’t. Some will be about fashion, some won’t. I hope all of them, in some way, will be helpful.