That Story's Sick With Tina Makereti

Uh, yeah, another thread I was drawing out is, um, the focus, um, reading here on how stories matter, how stories have immense power.

Um, you write that s- stories can save a life, um, and your attention to the, to the writing process.

So one of the things that, I guess, connects us is our shared- ... stories of different experiences of chronic illness, um, or, or illness.

Um-

Mm-hmm

... and, um, so when I'm reading your lumpectomy essay, for example, um, it's different from my own experience, but I see these echoes-

Mm-hmm

... that I'm like, "Oh, thank goodness.

Someone's writing about this.

Thank goodness." That, that's a kind of caretaking, I think, through-

Mm

... that I read through your writing.

Um, but what do you have to say about that?

Stories as caretakers?

St- stories as caretakings.

The writing, the weight of the writing process while you're also wrestling with, um...

I don't...

Actually, I don't like the word wrestling there, but-

Yeah

...

while you're encountering [laughs] an illness, um-

Yeah

... a really big illness.

Um-

It's really quite hard to, um, find the words for what writing does that go beyond, "Oh, it's healing," or, "It's healing"-