"Art en famille"
I began this newsletter while my wife and I were traveling through France & West Africa on a Fulbright. She did archival research. I haunted cafes from Paris to Provence to Dakar, where I wrote a novel, rewrote another novel, and completed my first play in 7 years.
We had a miscarriage. We grieved. We healed. We prayed. We got pregnant again. Our son will be born in a few months.
We’re back in Manhattan. I’ve found a teaching job. She’s finishing the dissertation. We’re bouncing between hospital visits, ultrasounds, and prepping the apartment for our son. He kicks her awake before I go to work in the morning. He kicks as soon as I walk in the door in the afternoon. I tap on her stomach and I can feel his little fists tapping back. He knows my voice. This is beauty.
Last week, I saw all four chambers of his heart beating on an ultrasound. Reality held nothing save the knowledge that I helped to create that heart, and it will beat after I am long dead. No creative act can be equivalent to that moment. The moment only serves to elevate the creative act to something higher. Something far greater than oneself.
So, now I’m writing for my little boy.
I intend to raise a confident son who knows his worth. I want him to value kindness, integrity, and courage. I want him to stand firm in his convictions (even if they’re diametrically opposed to mine). In order to do that, I have to model it. So, this newsletter is an exercise in confident prose.
When you read Art en famille, you’ll be reading about how art, literature, philosophy, and culture deepen our day-to-day lives. No caveats. No prevarications. No grievance.
Just “art en famille”... The ‘art in family’.