Housekeeping

Housekeeping is a novel by Marilynne Robinson. It came out 40 years ago. It is a slow, beautifully written book that I actually read all of, a feat that never ceases to amaze me. I mean, it seems like the kind of thing I might occasionally mean to read, but not the sort of thing I would actually read. It's just so... literary. It's like if during this pandemic I boldly proclaimed that I am going to read all the works of transcendentalist writer Ralph Waldo Emerson!

Because I'm just not. But if I tried hard enough I could convince myself I was going to for maybe a few hours, or until I started on the first page, whichever came first.

But I actually read Housekeeping!

However this post is not about Marilynne Robinson's brilliant 1980 novel Housekeeping. I just started today's dissertation with the title "Housekeeping" because I thought I'd say some things about some of my coming up plans with this blog, some 'housekeeping', but then I started writing and, well, words came out, the very words you just read, albeit with a few small edited changes for clarity. Er, maybe not "changes for clarity", maybe more changes to add stuff in because I have so much to say!

Which leads beautifully into the issues of my housekeeping here today. I have a lot to say, although I am not clear on what, exactly, it is until I start saying it. Also, I have said a lot! I am a little more clear on what that is, and at least I have the numbers to tell me- over 2,600 blogposts and counting, and I am definitely counting. So I thought with more of us increasingly pinned down to our computers like a collection of butterflies in cases,  it might be fun, or engaging, or probably both (or neither, isn't that the way it goes?) to provide a lot more content on clerkmanifesto. I am thinking old posts, links, pictures, songs, more essays, and random... things. I am still trapped pointlessly at work, and while my Governor's "Shelter in Place" order seems likely, it is by no means sure at this point (well, yes, actually, it's going to happen if it hasn't already at time of this publication, because the rule is: Everything that happens in this pandemic is predictable, but it all happens two to 21 days after it should have- and we are in that time frame now). So when I am officially hunkered down with my lovely wife and my cupboard full of canned tomatoes, and way too little Galliano and orange cognac, the usual rules of clerkmanifesto will be going out the window and anywhere from a little more to a ton more content will be showing up here.

As it currently stands I will continue with my simple 8:30 a.m. post every day format. But when I am sheltering in place officially I will issue forth my new status under the code:

Pandemic Rules Instituted.


So stay home. Don't go anywhere unless you absolutely have to. And watch this space, obsessively! 

Or not, it will all happen either way. It's all a matter of how bad, how good, and how soon.