truepenny | Rhino Carries the Moon

As many of you probably know,

elisem is a jewelry-maker of staggering talent. As many of you also probably know, she has a habit of naming the jewelry she makes, and then sending it off into the world to inspire other people to write poems or stories or knit shawls or make jewelry of their own or goodness knows what all else. And as many of you further probably know, I've written stories for Elise's jewelry. A lot of stories.

"Ashes, Ashes." All Hallows: The Journal of the Ghost Story Society (in press). [for Why Do You Linger?]
"Draco campestris." Strange Horizons (August 2006). Reprinted in Best American Fantasy, eds. Jeff and Ann VanderMeer and Matthew Cheney (in press).
"Katabasis: Seraphic Trains." Tales of the Unanticipated 27 (2006): 8-20. [for Why Do You Linger?]
"Letter from a Teddy Bear on Veterans' Day." Ideomancer 5.3 (September 2006). Reprinted in Best New Fantasy 2, ed. Sean Wallace (in press).
"National Geographic On Assignment: Mermaids of the Old West." Fictitious Force 2 (Spring 2006): 18.
"Sidhe Tigers." Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet 13 (November 2003): 58.
"Somewhere Beneath Those Waves Was Her Home." Fantasy Magazine. Prime Books, 2007. 31-50.
"Three Letters from the Queen of Elfland." Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet 11 (November 2002): 20-27. Reprinted in Trochu divne kusy 2 (2006), Reprinted in So Fey: Queer Faery Fiction, ed. Steve Birman. Binghampton, NY: Haworth Positronic Press, 2007 (in press). Reprinted in The Best of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, eds. Gavin J. Grant and Kelly Link. New York: Del Rey, 2007 (in press). Honorable Mention, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror XVI. Gaylactic Spectrum Award for Best Short Fiction, 2003.
"Wait for Me." Naked Snake Online (September 2004). Reprinted in The Bone Key (in press). [for Why Do You Linger?]
"Why Do You Linger?" Subterranean Magazine (in press).

Which is about 42k worth of finished, published (or in press) words.

And then there's "Under the Beansidhe's Pillow," which I haven't managed to sell yet, and The Sidhetown Tigers, which is the second story off Sidhe Tigers, and also off a pair of earrings called Eating the Dark Flower and another called Engineering for Elves (which also influences The Emperor of the Elflands, which is a three-quarters complete novel), and Dark Sister, which comes from a pair of earrings called Spider's Rose . . .

But I have one piece of Elise's jewelry that I think isn't a story.

It's a koan.

It's a pendant called Rhino Carries the Moon, and the most I've ever been able to get out of it is a fragmentary last line: ". . . and Rhino carried the Moon all the way home."

What I've come to realize is: that line is all it needs. This pendant isn't a story; it's a process. Because what writing is, or any creative endeavor (and I'm using "creative" in its broadest possible sense), is carrying the Moon. Every day. We are all Rhino, and it is our job to see that the Moon gets home. And the Moon is heavy and awkward, and I bet it's slippery, and you know, sometimes we drop it. And the key thing is that we pick it up again, and brush the dirt off it, and carry it another step farther. And then another step.

Patience and Fortitude, say the library lions of New York, and you know, if by "Fortitude" we mean "Obstinacy," I'd say that's about right.

Because the thing is, it's hard. Not every day. Some days it's like the Moon is carrying Rhino. But day in and day out, it's work. It's carrying the Moon. And we do the best we can, and we keep doing it. Even when it's hard. Even when we don't want to. Even when we feel bored or unhappy. Because we are Rhino and we have Patience and Fortitude to keep us company. And we love the Moon. And the Moon needs to get home.

And that's what this pendant is. It's that feeling of doing the job because the job is beautiful and needs to be done.

Thank you, Elise.