Light, Sight, & Plucking Out One's Eyes
Join us as we co-write in silence for one hour. Writers Daily Dive is a virtual space for calm in the chaos of the day. We keep our Zoom cameras on as we write so we feel less lonely.
It’s the day of Santa Lucia here in Syracusa, Sicily. St. Lucia is said to have had her eyes taken out, or taken them out herself - and some days I can attest to the same impulse. Lucia is connected to light and sight, the vital things a writer needs.
I just witnessed the start of Santa Lucia’s procession from the Duomo Cathedral in the main Plaza here in Ortigia. I stood with thousands in the ancient Greek Plaza, while others one level up watched from Renaissance and baroque balconies draped in red velvet. Bells rung out, drums beat in the distance vibrating the ancient stones under our feet, school children suddenly burst into song. Fifty or so men in ancient green velvet caps stood waiting for the saint’s statue to emerge from the church. Liturgies were intoned into a microphone by a church father dressed head to toe in persimmon standing on a high balcony. People cheered and chanted his words after him. Incense filled the air. First the glass and silver box of her human relics came out and processed down the stairs to polite applause. But I was not prepared for her silver statue to emerge from the cathedral doorway. I put my hand to my mouth in shock. The pure spectacle and emotion. A huge silver saint maybe 30 feet high, blazing in the sun, carried by the green-capped men moved slowly down the cathedral steps. The brass band struck up again, the schoolchildren burst out again. Periodically there were far shouts and responses, and there were collective and choreographed whoops of joy. As she passed, fathers rushed their babies to the carved silver side of her float so that they could kiss it and be blessed. Those carrying beeswax tapers as tall as their heads now moved to process alongside Lucia as she made her trip back to her own church on the other side of the water that divides Syracusa from Ortigia. She will stay there a week before she processes back again.
We meet weekdays at 1:00 PM, EST; 10:00 AM, PST. We’re calling it WRITERS DAILY DIVE. We write for an hour in companionable silence. It’s strange how comforting it is to show up and see other writers writing. Who knew?
It’s free for 7 days. You might love it. If you do it’s only $10 a month, so you win either way. And please share our offering with friends who might need just such a thing.
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We also have a weekly group called WRITERS COLLECTIVE OUT EAST. We are in our 9th year of meeting every Wednesday Night at 6:30 in East Hampton. We’ve been on Zoom since Covid, so please go to the link if you want to join and submit work for feedback.