It's something like spring until the snow falls
an introduction / a metaphor
I live in Minnesota! And in the last month we had 70 degrees and sunny followed a few days later by 4 inches of snow. The weather has always been an adventure here, even before aggressive climate change took hold… and now it’s still an adventure, but more random and less exciting. Winter and spring don’t stay put. Our ski season’s been truncated. I’ve got my second cold in a month.
I just put a timer on for 20 minutes to say hello! We’re at 16 now and I don’t have a plan, but there were a few updates I wanted to share. Additionally, I gained a handful of followers after some influential Substackers appreciated my recent found essay, so I thought I’d introduce myself to any newcomers.
Hello! I’m Edith! I’m so honored that you’re here. I know how many brilliant, funny, specialized, far more intentional people are out there and worthy of your attention. And I know your attention is a finite resource. So THANK YOU for even being a tiny bit interested in what I have to say.
Below is bio from this month’s Literary Mama. (Did you see that? Pretty slick self-promotion, right? It’s true! This month, one of my short stories was published in Literary Mama, a journal I have admired for years!)
Edith-Nicole Cameron (she/they) reads, writes, and mothers in Minneapolis. She has an M.A. in Performance Studies from the University of London, Queen Mary, and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota. Edith-Nicole writes poetry and prose, legal briefs and recipes, to-do lists and lunchbox rhymes. Her work is featured in Brevity Blog, MUTHA Magazine1, River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, and elsewhere. For fifteen years, she’s spottily written about food at www.CakeandEdith.com. You can find her more recent ramblings at Writing it Out.
That’s a pretty good summary. My personal values are love, equity, and encounter. I think the internet is ruining humanity but I still find it a handy tool for sharing my writing. I worked in state district court for eight years, and that taught me a lot about empathy and human nature, the brokenness of our systems and the notion that complex solutions could make our systems a lot better and buoy a lot more people. Constantly on my mind, you’ll find: politics, public school integration, public school period, the Bible, Catholicism, writing, the writing life, what I should write, what I shouldn’t write, why I’m not writing, why am I writing, gender equity, race equity, White Supremacy, the mental load of mothering, the gift of mothering, my mother, cancer2, healthcare, mental healthcare, pregnancy loss, the other side of the story, which side is truer, truth, birds, soccer, therapy, strength training.
My timer just went off! I’m taking an essay writing class at The Loft! LITERARY MAMA!
I had an opinion piece accepted in our neighborhood paper, about choosing public schools as an act of resistance. I withdrew the article (and am henceforth blacklisted, as it was like two days out going to print, and I caused quite a kerfuffle) because while I still believe everything I wrote, a lot of us who are committed to our public schools are also dealing with its structural problems, and I think in light of that fact, my opinion would have been received poorly. I’ll publish it here ultimately. (Follow up: here you go.)
Here is someone I’ve been learning a lot from lately:
Under a pen name.
As far as I know, I have never had and do not currently have cancer. Nonetheless, I perseverate. It’s on the rise, you know. I guess I’m just mentally preparing myself.