It may seem strange for The Conveniences to suddenly appear on the Internet, but most information does seem to eventually make its way into the digital universe.
The Conveniences have never before been shared in this format.
They’ve typically been passed down from great-grandmother to grandmother to auntie to mother to daughter in various configurations of those relationships.
The primary threshold for receiving The Conveniences has been grannyhood, biological or metaphorical. This means that men have been included occasionally, depending upon their interests and the willingness of the women, and younger women are sometimes initiated.
But The Conveniences have primarily been located within the historical realm of age-appropriate biological or metaphorical grannies.
I’ll be sharing some of The Conveniences here, over time.
It’s difficult to describe their purpose exactly, and I mean these posts to provoke interest and curiosity. In reality, that is what The Conveniences have always done.
My own copy of The Conveniences is from the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Actually, The Conveniences are less a copy of anything than a collection of many things, as you’ll come to see.
Today I share this 1911 journal entry written by my great-great-grandmother, Kate. She’d known about The Conveniences almost her entire life, as most of the grannies around her had been a part of the path.
And yet she was confused.
So please don’t feel bad if your own confusion lingers.
[Kate notes that she’s home before the first big snow, which must have been early in autumn 1911, typical for Wyoming.]
September 18, 1911
Just back from the Netherlands – my first travel for the WTA. It was marvelous. Will write more later.
Anna has decided I must read and understand The Conveniences. As if anyone ever understood them. At best, they’re hints. At worst, they’re deliberately misleading.
My college comparative religion class would call them koans: paradoxes or riddles designed to provoke enlightenment.
I doubt it, but I’ll try.