television oddities

I don't watch that much TV. Really I don't. But in the last month I've seen three people I know on television. Is this one of those odd consequences of getting older, that one's circle becomes wider, that its components become more widely known?

1. Bloomington Cable Access shows $100 and a T-shirt about the Portland Zine scene. And there was Eleanor, and there was IPRC, and I tried to open the door on the screen into the next room where the WRAP offices were. I thought, oh, that's the photocopier I used to generate poems to discuss in workshop. Oh, there's the letterpress machine where I made my first project, a bookmark with Piercy's quote, "the real writer is one who really writes." I miss you all, Portland, and it was wonderful somehow to see a piece of you on Bloomington CAT.

2. Another Cable Access sighting. Soft focus, fuzzy lighting, a clearly staged scene around a kitchen table, a fireplace in the background, some fake flowers in a vase. A woman is reading from a book and I pause long enough to hear that it's the Bible. Something about the man beside her, the mop of dark curly hair, must have caught my eye, because no sooner do I change the channel than I change it back. And I have to watch for a while, because the man won't turn his head to me; he stares engrossed with the blonde woman, as if transfixed by her piety. I will him to talk because now I'm certain it's him. And finally, he turns his head and reads, yes, from Science and Health and it is him, he of Big Blue Earth and Words for the World, that children's-theater-voiced art director from MBEL who provided the voice of the owl on the Quest Adventure Game, "Ho, ho! Welcome to Spirit Mountain!" Why is he reading Bible verses in a dating-ad-style vignette on my public access?

3. BookTV on C-Span, basic cable's blessing. A panel of young editors at the New York City Book Expo. In the middle of wondering why one of the young editors' names is so familiar, I suddenly realize that another editor is that girl, Kate, from Bard. From my poetry workshop. Kate of the wonderful poem about the woman with loaves of bread under her arms like wings. She looks older, so much older, and I wonder, do I look that much older too? I must. I don't know what more to say about that, only that it's nice to see someone from that time not famous, not like the Nick Zinners of the world, but, well, clearly successful, working, trying to get people to read more books. Godspeed, Kate.