Initiation

“Rather than roll a grenade into the room, I’ve written this book…”
— Cynthia F. Davidson, in The Importance of Paris, Acknowledgements

Sharing the Fourth of July fireworks, with the launching of this American expatriate memoir, feels significant. Though I can’t claim any credit for planning it, the coincidence is much appreciated. As you will see when you read the book, my intentions are to spark some serious discussions.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…” from the US Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

My story concerns the pursuit of happiness, life, liberty, truths, and self-evidence. And this publishing event happily marks my personal declaration of independence, from the decades of work, multiple versions, and endless edits of this book!

When the US Declaration of Independence from the British Empire was written 243 years ago, it was supposed to explain what was going to be different, about the purpose of these United States. Have we lived up to those promises?

As a woman, my rights were not included in that original declaration, nor were the rights of the enslaved or the indigenous people. We’ve had to fight for those rights, to education, equal opportunity, and even self-expression. My own grandmother was twenty years old before American women finally received the right to vote in this country in 1920. Yet we women have been expected to shoulder the burdens, without having any say in the decision-making process, much less a seat at the table of power.

Wisdom Wheel

Because of that July 4th birthday, the Birth Law of the United States is Initiation. Are we still a great experiment, or a disappointment to our own stated values? Equality is still not true for all. The combustion continues.

Writing News

People are asking me, “So, how’s your book coming along?” When I answer, “It’s done! It’s already up on Amazon!” they do a double take.

Getting used to being a published author, and not just another writer working on a book, takes practice for my friends too. In one of the regular circles I attend, Sarah Daigle’s Meeting of the Minds gathering, our topic was vulnerability and how the fear of asking for what you want/need holds you back. I’m working on asking for reviews of the memoir.

One of my first readers, Sheila Dobbyn, who attended the pilot workshop made my day when she wrote, “Cynthia, your book gets better and better! I am so excited for you. Maybe sometime I can have you and some of my other expat friends over for tea and you can exchange experiences and talk about your book. Also happy to introduce you to Inkfish book store owner who often brings in local authors.”

We are putting together a fundraising evening too, at an educational foundation where I will speak a bit about the Middle East and read from the book while we eat Lebanese food and hold a Q&A for those who attend. Hope to do a lot more of those!

For all of those who would like to hold the book in their hands, the print version of the book should be available early August. Stay tuned!

Workshop

Thanks to those who attended our pilot workshop, and made it so enjoyable. We’re offering it again, on Sunday September 15th. As summer ends and the kids return to school, (re)start your own writing project(s). Would You, Could You, Should You Write A Memoir? : The Journey from Inception to Publication. Only 8 spots per workshop to facilitate individual attention, so sign up soon. $160 per person.

Ceremonies

Never any charge for sacred ceremonies. Our next sweat (Purification) Lodge is Sunday, July 7, 10 a.m. And the following monthly open community one is on Saturday August 3. Please RSVP as these fill up fast.

The videos of the leaping flames made me sad but this was not a deliberate act, and no one died, for which I’m grateful. Plans to rebuild have already begun, which is more than can be said for other places recently devastated.

Like everyone else who has stood inside or outside that massive Gothic structure, with its distinctive flying buttresses, I looked through my pictures. Though many posted their selfies with Notre Dame, I felt hesitant to do the same so soon, out of respect.

My most recent pics were taken just four months ago, on this latest trip with my daughter, newly graduated from college. We snapped my favorite outside, in the main square, with one of Notre Dame’s rose windows above our tilting heads. The 2018 Christmas tree glows behind us with its lavender shaded lights. You can see them on my memoir’s Facebook page linked below.

If we had known that night Notre Dame would soon be ravaged by fire, what more might we have done to appreciate her beauty?

Wisdom Wheel

Beauty is our theme now. On the dial of the Wisdom Wheel, the Beauty gate is opening at this season. From the 21st of April to the 21st of May we celebrate the birthdays of our Taurus friends. Their Birth Law is Beauty. My husband Malcolm is one of them, and he’s turning 70 on the 25th.

Everyone lives under the Power Law in their 70th year, and on their 16th and 43rd and 97th years. Beauty has a Power of its own.

When I moved to Paris in 1984, I was looking for a Beauty Queen, though her Beauty had not spared her. Georgina Rizk had been crowned Miss Universe in 1971, the first Arab woman to ever win that contest. Only one year older than me, by age thirty this Lebanese woman was already a widow and a refugee, trying to raise her small son alone in France, a foreign country. Her tragedies — not her beauty — inspired me to write her story.

Ceremonies

Next Lodge is on the New Moon, Sunday May 5th in the newly rebuilt structure. Visit our Facebook page for any information about ceremonies.

The Memoir

Excerpt from The Importance of Paris, Chapter 13 “A Plusiers Reprise – The Many Tries”

That Sunday, on my customary long walk, I reveled in the arrival of another spring. Leafy little flags of green had unfurled on the overhead branches. Powdery pollen balls had blown off the trees, filled the gutters and floated on the River Seine. Oh Paris, what a taskmaster you have been.

At home later, I watched a documentary on television about the city. It explained how Paris had been laid out in a series of compass points, beginning from Ground Zero, marked by a stone in the pavement facing Notre Dame Cathedral. All twenty arrondissements unfolded in a great circle from that center. The lowest address numbers are closest to the River Seine. By contrast, Manhattan has no sacred center. Fifth Avenue forms its dividing line and the addresses go the opposite way, with highest numbered buildings beside the rivers.

The French had thought themselves the center of the universe, with everything revolving around them. And the Chinese had once called themselves the Middle Kingdom. In the US today we put North America in the center of our world maps. Each of us taking turns believing ourselves the be all and end all.