Tav and I have been finding cicada shells in the yard for several weeks.  He’s been fascinated by ‘em, so I set a goal:  To find one coming out of the shell so he could see what emerges, what they become.  Hard to do?  It might be easier to run and pee at the same time.

But after weeks of searching, finally it happened one evening.  I found a cicada working its way out and showed it to Tav, and I got the picture you see here.  It took this guy an hour and a half to get to this point, so you could say he was persistent alright.  I’ll tell you at the end of this post what eventually happened to him, but in the meantime let’s consider persistence, its necessity—and its pitfalls.

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I do all my writing outside.  Behind the house.  Late at night.  Under the stars.  

I like the openness, the noises, the air…  and the unexpected.   

Just after dark the other night I ventured past the edge of the light into the yard and abruptly walked through a spider’s web.  It wasn’t full blown yet, just a couple of strands—but they were really long, about 9 feet from the side of a tree down to the ground.  

I didn’t have the spider on me, but it had to be close.  And really upset.  I’d wrecked the beginnings of what would have been a giant masterpiece.

About three hours later I started out into the yard again.  This time I stopped suddenly.  Even (more…)