photo: Artur Aldyrkhanov on unsplash.com
September 2021 Prompt, from Beneath the Steps: A Writing Guide for 12-Step Recovery, by Christine Beck,p 125
The Bible is a treasure trove of stories that bubble up when I explore emotions of longing or disconnection. The following poem speaks to the fear of abandonment. It also involves issues of class, which tormented me as a child. It’s the story of Ruth and Naomi. Naomi is Ruth’s mother-in-law. Ruth, a foreigner, is married to the Jewish Naomi’s son, Boaz. When Boaz dies, Naomi plans to send Ruth back to her homeland, which was the custom. Ruth pleads to stay with Naomi. I’m exploring contemporary notions of meddling mothers-in-law before turning the poem in a loving direction.
Mother-in-law
Just when you think you’ve heard enough,
her suggested hostess gifts, secret signals
of how her people learned to recognize each other,
the initialed cocktail napkins, pressed lightly to lips,
never mauled into a ball, a wrinkled mess.
Just when she starts in on the nursery
school, the kind where our kind
goes to get ahead,
Your head goes to Naomi, the Israelite,
mother-in-law to a heathen girl named Ruth.
Boaz, Naomi’s son, stone dead, and Ruth, his widow,
lonely as the wind on Mount Moriah,
clings to Naomi’s skirts, begs not be repatriated.
Ruth wants any task, just to hold the hand
of someone who once held him.
Wherever you go, let me go there too.
Connection to Recovery:
We all have stories or myths that take root in our subconscious. This story of possible abandonment had a happy ending. Naomi let Ruth stay. This one reminds me of the power of women in recovery. I need to keep them close and ask for help, just as Ruth asked Naomi.
PROMPT:
1.Think of any story from the Bible, Shakespeare or any well-known piece of literature in which the characters display your longings or fear of abandonment. Transport those characters
to a scene from your life and see what happens.
2.Write about any current conflict in your life and then “flashback” to a conflict in some myth or fairytale that relates.
