One of the workshops at the APH Conference (#aph2014) was presented by Jessica Handler, to whom I was introduced by mutual friend Audrey Galex earlier this year. I suggested Jessica submit a workshop proposal based on her teaching and book,  Braving the Fire. She did, it was accepted, and yesterday I attended it. She gave an in-class writing exercise, based on this prompt:

Dear ________

You would be happy to know that I ….

One of the things I like about Handler’s approach is that she recognizes loss comes in many forms; loss of people, yes, but also loss of places and cultures. For the exercise, I took on loss of place… with a twist.

Dear House,

I never liked you. Your smell of cigarettes offended me. The rough texture of your redwood paneling gave me splinters. Your plaster walls were grainy, and the paint felt like chalk. I never liked you.

You would be happy to know that you gave up your quarter acre so the high school could expand. You are the ground floor of the Freshman Welcome Center now.

Your basement was the only place I liked. It was cool in the humid Indiana summers, and it had hiding places where I could escape in my imagination. It’s gone now. When I picture you, House, what was above ground vanishes like a puff of dust.

But where does a basement go when the bulldozers come?

Read previous post about Jessica Handler’s work here…