Martha Beck’s preoccupations

Sep 9, 2017

Apocalypse, now

Like everyone else, I’m watching the news and scanning the internet every few minutes for updates on the hurricane approaching Florida. While I’m at it I check in on the dozen or so major wildfires burning near my own home in California.

4 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Mar 9, 2017

The Uses of Anger

I am really pissed off right now. Someone just did something that messed up my life — not horrifically, but a busload more than I’d like. I keep telling myself it’s no big deal. But right now I could chew up that bus and spit out the bolts. I could fight a bear and win. I’m that mad.

1 response

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Feb 8, 2017

Virtually Freaking Out

Humans try to pain-proof everything. Like anxious new parents baby-proofing an apartment, we soften bad news, avoid stressful situations, encase the bodies of our dead in cushioned containers. We try to soften every corner in the world.

3 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Nov 21, 2016

Would relaxing help?

Yesterday was one of those days. In my life-coaching mode I always tell people those days aren’t happening to them, but for them. “One day,” I assure them, “you’ll look back and think, “Oh, thank God the car broke down and the dog barfed on me and I had a gruesome argument and got food…

10 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Nov 9, 2016

From Inside the Darkness

I didn’t wake up on the morning of November 9. I hadn’t slept on the night of the election, had lain in bed still and frozen, more devastated than I’d felt since September 11 became another name for horror.

20 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Nov 2, 2016

One Little Thing

Something truly miraculous happened to me the other day. With the help of a wise and dedicated assistant, I reduced the number of unread emails in my inbox from 114 (which is about where it usually hovers) to SWEET F**K-ALL!!!!! It had been literally decades since I’d had no unread emails. I…

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Oct 20, 2016

Game of Wasps

Since all birds are direct descendants of the dinosaurs that survived the great extinction, I call our hummingbirds my tiny shiny diny-saurs. Of course they’re not actually my birds. They just like to visit the feeders I put up near our living room windows. Sometimes there are dozens of them, vrooming…

2 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Oct 13, 2016

I’ll Have the Rat Shit, Please

Yesterday kind of sucked. I’d gotten home past midnight the night before from some heavy-duty travel, and after a couple of hours of sleep I woke up in a panic about not having done any writing for a couple of days.

6 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Sep 28, 2016

Dreams. Are. Everywhere.

When I was at Harvard, I heard the phrase “I love TV shows about Bigfoot!” exactly never… except, of course, within my own peculiar inner monologue. Of course, we’d have been all over it if real proof of Bigfoot’s existence had come to light — a carcass, a skeleton, a notarized birth…

2 responses

Martha Beck in Shiny Objects

Sep 6, 2016

Try ANYTHING!

When he first moved in, I thought Enormo Manhands was just dumb jock. Not that I have a problem with that. I enjoy watching impressively muscular males doing big things. But frankly, Enormo spends a lot of his time just sitting and staring blankly, much as I do while watching him. In my defense, though…

3 responses

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Martha Beck’s preoccupations

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