Time Wrinkles: Octavia Butler Podcasts and Apocalyptic Texts

I spent much of yesterday the way I have spent Wednesdays for the past two months:  sitting in an Education day, except that instead of sitting around a conference table, I was at my parents' desk, being connected remotely to the interns and supervisor around the conference table.  Today, instead of driving to Spartanburg for meetings and faculty development, I will sit at the dining room table, finishing my sermon for Sunday, which someone else will deliver, and then working on syllabi.

I will also take my dad to his doctor's appointment and remind my mom and dad that it's time to eat the meals that I will provide/prepare/serve.  Tonight after dinner, we will probably watch the national news on PBS and MSNBC.

Last night we watched the news on those two shows, and I continue to be astounded at how the Jeffrey Epstein story dominates still.  It's not that way when I listen to NPR.  I see a story here and there in The Washington Post and The New York Times, but the Epstein story of the day is just one story among many.  I predict that future generations, should humanity survive, will also be astounded at how much time and mental energy this Epstein story, whatever it turns out to be, took over.

Is something being covered up?  Yes, probably, judging by the frantic efforts to keep from releasing whatever isn't being published.  Does it involve high-up government people?  Yes, probably, judging by the frantic efforts to keep from releasing whatever isn't being published.  Will it be important in 10 years?  One hundred years?  What aren't we seeing because we are consumed by this story?

After the endless blathering on TV news networks, my dad said, "I don't really understand that story."  Once I might have tried to explain it.  Last night, I said, "No one does."

Watching MSNBC exhausted at me--all of these people on a panel of 4 who agreed with each other, discussing at high volume with pointy fingers.  

This morning, I'm listening to old podcasts of Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown discussing Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower.  Yesterday, I read this blog post of mine, which references this episode of the podcast, about to-go bags, which made time wrinkle a bit for me.  The podcast was recorded in June of 2020, I first heard it in February of 2021, and now it is 2025, and while much has changed, much has reverted in this time of a second Trump administration.

I listened to that podcast when I was returning to writing my apocalyptic novel, a novel that is unfinished.  I thought about other apocalyptic novels that I've thought of writing, the writing plans I thought of at the beginning of June, and now, here it is August--another time wrinkle.

I am also thinking of my new year's goal of 1 revised poem a week, a goal which seems to be slipping away, although there is still time.  But even if I don't get to that goal, having it has returned me to writing poems as the months have gone on.  I will keep it as a goal for 2026--and the remaining months of 2025.