“That The Future’s Unspecified Terms Provide A Few Recognizable Basics, And That I Might Find, Somewhere

“That the future’s unspecified terms provide a few recognizable basics, and that I might find, somewhere in me, a tension—the good kind—for tapping into what springs me forward, is, I reason, the hope. The discord, the din, what stays the same, what reappears, what’s underneath, the misremembered and all there is to fathom. Growing up, for a long period that’s not worth mentioning here, I thought the expression was “Play it by year.” As in, take your time. A whole year. More. Whatever you need. There’s no rush.”

— Durga Chew-Bose, from “At My Least and Most Aware,” in Too Much and Not the Mood