{"id":2169,"date":"2017-08-02T11:20:03","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T18:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/?page_id=2169"},"modified":"2017-08-06T11:15:27","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T18:15:27","slug":"what-is-this-site-carrying-on","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/?page_id=2169","title":{"rendered":"What is this \u201cCarrying on\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

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Roget’s Thesaurus offers these synonyms\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q \u00a0Why is this website called “Carrying on”?<\/span><\/p>\n

Carrying on is what storytellers do when they get going and can’t stop. Carrying on is what grandkids do that creates a din in the living room. Carrying on is what people do when they’re mad or when they have a powerful sense of purpose or when they pick themselves up and keep going. Carrying on is what people lucky enough to live into the upper atmospheres of their lives get to do.<\/p>\n

Q \u00a0But how does a website have anything to do with carrying on?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is a prompt to keep me writing, to help me get down to it. Writing is a thread that winds through all the messiness and many directions of the work I\u2019m doing now and have done in the past. Writing has been a way to plan, reflect, report, ruminate, try to understand myself and the world, and make my thoughts hold still before they meander off.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is a gentle but clear commitment to write. There\u2019s nothing easier than procrastinating when a tough writing puzzle awaits \u2013 there are always dishes to do, doctor\u2019s appointments to make (more, it seems, as the years go by), correspondence from friends to answer, errands to run, bills to pay, someone else\u2019s deadline to meet. The truth of Thomas Mann\u2019s words become clearer every day. \u201cA writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is meant to take advantage of what might otherwise be an unfortunate personal trait: I\u2019m much more likely to keep a commitment made to others than one made only to myself. It\u2019s partly out of a desire to strengthen this commitment that I maintain a list of friends, family, and colleagues to whom I report when I\u2019ve added three or four new pieces about once a month. Unwittingly, they \u2013 that is, you \u2013 are holding me accountable. I\u2019m grateful for your help, whether you know you\u2019re giving it or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d gives me deadlines. The end of every month comes with a little shove, becomes a kind of deadline. I feel pressure from my writing-soul when a whole month goes by without my having added anything new. If you\u2019ve been getting these updates, you might notice how often they arrive on the last day of the month. (If you\u2019re not getting them, but would like to, let me know at annefocke@gmail.com.)<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is a place to put writing that\u2019s meant to be read by others. I\u2019m writing in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is a place to put some of what\u2019s on my mind right now. And it\u2019s also a place to put pieces I\u2019ve written in the past that didn\u2019t quite get finished, or need revision, or didn\u2019t have a way into the world. A long trail of half- and almost-completed pieces fill paper and digital folders, and I have many little books full of ideas I want to explore by writing about them.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d may become something of an anthology.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d reminds me that for years I\u2019ve said, \u201cI\u2019ll write about that some day.\u201d I remember my mother saying the same thing. But she never had the chance.<\/p>\n

With \u201cCarrying on,\u201d I ask myself, If not now, when?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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and continues with these.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Postscript: \u00a0I’m thinking I should aspire to all of Mr. Roget’s synonyms as I keep on carrying on.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cCarrying on\u201d is part of the Jini Dellaccio Project, <\/span>
\na fiscally-sponsored project of Artist Trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Q \u00a0Why is this website called “Carrying on”? Carrying on is what storytellers do when they get going and can’t stop. Carrying on is what grandkids do that creates a din in the living room. Carrying on is what people do when they’re mad or when they have a powerful sense of purpose…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2169","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P7pXN0-yZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2169"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2231,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2169\/revisions\/2231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}