Things that Cause Change

Transformation Guide

Re-cycles

  • The Seasons, in order of least to most: Spring, Winter, Summer, Fall.
  • Endings: the summer, the semester, a book.
  • Beginnings: winter running, an online class, a poem.

Variations

  • Running to the river and turning to the right instead of the left.
  • Switching from Avenir to Helvetica.
  • Writing poetry instead of prose. Writing poetry and prose. Writing poetry as prose. Writing prose as poetry.
  • Listening instead of looking.

Mutations

  • Getting up from a chair too quickly, twisting a knee wrong, temporarily and partially dislocating a kneecap.
  • The uncontrolled division of abnormal cells.
  • A faulty gene in chromosome 11 (region 11q12-q13).
  • A body that can’t run, or even walk, for 2 months.
  • A mother who was expected to live to 90, like her mom and her mom before her, dead at 67 from pancreatic cancer.
  • A messed-up macula and only 25% of central vision left.

Revelations

  • Listening to the wind as it howls or swirls or whispers or sighs instead of a podcast.
  • Listening to the Foo Fighters instead of those annoying runners hovering just behind and chatting incessantly. Not running fast enough to pass by, but fast enough to always be there, interrupting the silence.
  • Cataloging the smells on the run: freshly cut grass, rotting leaves, burnt toast from above on lake street, burning wood from below in the gorge, fresh pure cold.
  • Memorizing a poem. Remixing a poem. Writing a poem.

Things that will never change: running is difficult but always worth it – bony knees can partially displace more easily – the oaks and maples and cottonwoods of the Mississippi River Gorge are beautiful – green is the best color – winter running is better than summer running – Helvetica is boring but easier to read with a messed-up macula – the crisp air and the rusty colors of fall are exciting – eyes with juvenile macular degeneration stay messed up – annoying runners will always hover and interrupt – poems can heal – there are more versions of the wind than can ever be named – in Minneapolis, spring hardly happens – paying attention and being distracted are both necessary – mothers will die – runners/writers/daughters will survive