{"id":689,"date":"2020-09-19T07:55:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-19T11:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/?p=689"},"modified":"2020-09-19T07:55:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-19T11:55:58","slug":"like-mud-almost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/like-mud-almost\/","title":{"rendered":"Like Mud…Almost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

She had no idea, not a clue, although there were plenty of signs that something was amiss. For instance, why were things so difficult? Why did it take forever <\/em>to get anything rolling? Why was there so much opposition to every move she made, every breath she took? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s always been this way,\u201d she would say when I nettled her. And she\u2019d dismiss me like a fleeting thought. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was constantly examining the issues. \u201cThere\u2019s got to be a way out of this,\u201d she\u2019d say. And when she\u2019d say something like this I would perk up, like a deer hearing a sudden noise–all alert, listening, at the ready for action. Forever the optimist, I\u2019d think, \u201cmaybe this time, she\u2019s seeing the light–almost\u201d. But always, always, she\u2019d be overcome with opposition, points of contention, small though they were, but the pure volume, millions of them, held her back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m stuck here,\u201d she said one day. \u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019m moving through mud.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it, yes, you are exactly right–almost.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took a pandemic before she noticed. Everything s-l-o-w-e-d down. The world ground to a halt. Don\u2019t go out, stay at home, if you do go out, wash your hands, and for Pete\u2019s sake, wear a fucking mask–cover your nose and mouth. No, no, don\u2019t wear it on your chin.  That\u2019s right pull that damn thing up over the parts of your face that breathe air in and breathe air out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had time to notice, finally. It was <\/em>like moving through mud. Actually it was quicksand. And the day she opened her eyes, she saw exactly where she was–in a pit of quicksand–sinking slowly. She reached forth her hand, globs of goo falling, plopping into the sand around her. And being the best of the best, golden light that I am, I reached forth too and pulled her out and set her free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoy am I glad that\u2019s over,\u201d she said, shaking granules from herself, casting off everything that wasn\u2019t purely, authentically her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Glenda Kotchish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 19, 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She had no idea, not a clue, although there were plenty of signs that something was amiss. For instance, why were things so difficult? Why did it take forever to get anything rolling? Why was there so much opposition to every move she made, every breath she took?  \u201cBut it\u2019s always been this way,\u201d she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-more-or-less"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/background-1157147_1920.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":690,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glendakotchish.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}