Introducing Pillars of Salt

The First Thinking Log Sequence

Starting next week, I will be releasing the Pillars of Salt sequence.

Looking back, the past becomes fixed, something immovable that happened once and is over. What could set the past in motion again? Several deaths in the family occasion a return trip across the southwestern United States, eventually cutting through Tennessee and into Appalachia, headed home after more than a year’s absence.

In that short time, so much has changed, as if the once-slow wheel of an entire generation suddenly turned over. Death and new life have shuffled the familiar relationships we’ve all known, leaving everyone unsteady, on freshly disturbed ground.

Passing the site of a great failure, visiting friends, and coming to terms with the places traversed along the way connect these meditations on nostalgia and memory, death and rebirth.

It is the sometimes funny story of a new family on their first road trip, trying to find the threads that will connect where they are to where they’ve been. It is about looking back to see the landmarks of the past as road signs to the future, pointing the direction we are going from the path we’ve already tread.

What to Expect from the Pillars of Salt Sequence

Expect a loose narrative. I will use techniques from the novel and memoir genres to structure the sequence, but many of the posts could be read as stand-alone meditations or aphorisms.

The sequences warrants some content warnings for subject matter related to death and aging, mental health (specifically depression/suicide), expressions and analysis of homophobia and racism, domestic violence, and drug abuse.

There will also be some pretty nature writing. This is, after all, a lot to do with Appalachia…

Is a Paid Subscription Necessary to Read the Sequence?

You will need a paid subscription to read the full sequence. Selected posts from Pillars of Salt will be available for free, but they will be arbitrarily chosen by me based on what I feel like making available at a given time. I currently have no plans to make full sequences available for free all at once. Thanks for all your support — I hope you’ll consider supporting this project!