Spring has come to our gardens. My husband is in the living room, in the spot beside the big window that looks out at the newly budded trees. He's doing painstaking research across scientific databases and geo-tagging specimens from the museum's ichthyology collection. At the other end of the house, my niece is in her room video conferencing with her bosses and coworkers. I can hear their voices brainstorming stories for the travel website for which my niece is the digital editorial coordinator, at a time when no one is traveling.
I am in the middle of the apartment, at the desk in front of the window in my bedroom, taking a break from transcribing tapes my subject sent to my Dropbox. In them, she offers her overall reactions to the manuscript. Did I mention that I turned in the completed first draft on the day after my birthday? We will go through it chapter by chapter after this, and do line edits, as well as layering in anything she might want to add. My subject's agent said he "loved" the manuscript. I have on tape the call on which he used words like "enthralling," "emotionally impactful" and "a page turner,” which is good because I can't really take in that he spoke those words. My subject hasn't been anywhere near as affirming. I know her by now though. She’s a beautiful stoic. Why waste time talking about what's working? Let's get straight to the fixing. She’s efficient that way. Still, I’m trying to manage the doubt and insecurity that I’m wrestling with right now. I’m trying to remember that I understood from the start that she would find it disconcerting to confront her private self bared to the world. It takes a minute to process, to feel safe. I'm trying to locate the feeling of being safe, too.
At 7 o'clock each evening, we all pause in whatever we are doing and throw open the windows so we can hear the cacophony of air horns and banged pots and whistles and shouts and bicycle bells and car horns, making a nightly racket in celebration of the nurses and other health care workers changing shifts for the night. This has been going on since the end of March, and every night, the people at their windows, on their terraces, on the sidewalks, in their cars, hooting and cheering, the holy racket the entire city makes, brings me almost to tears. It just never gets old.
Well, that is a disappointing reaction. There is always time to call out the good. I always lose track of time, when things happened, stuff like that. I didn't realize you'd worked on that book for a year. That seems like forever.
ReplyDeleteI wish people would do that here, but they seem oblivious.
ReplyDeletewell, of course your agent loved the manuscript. and yeah, I get that it's nice to have your hard work acknowledged by the person who benefits from it. your family is so lucky they can work from home.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading this book that you have worked so hard to get right.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of how little affirmation we received from the doctors whose medical record dictations we medical transcriptionists worked on so diligently to ensure that there was nothing that would compromise patient care. We were responsible for correcting all manner of obvious and frequent errors. We had to have a vast amount of medical knowledge in order to be able to notice medical inconsistencies and point them out. We worked behind the scenes in an invisible way, spending our entire shifts at a computer screen, our fingers on the keyboard except when we took our breaks. We were professionals like you, conscious that few people realized how hard our work was and proud to be able to provide a service that few other people could provide.
Thank you so much for the glimpse of the audible gratitude that happens at 7 o'clock every evening. The emotion of that reached all the way to this corner of the Pacific Northwest.
AM, your comment uses the past tense. Have medical transcriptionists been replaced by the electronic medical systems now in use?
DeleteYes, for the most part, but there are still a few areas of medicine where medical transcriptionists are still active and well-paid, one of which is transcribing for pathologists, a medical field where speech recognition software leaves too many possibilities for incorrect pathology reports and lawsuits.
DeleteSome medical transcriptionists have become medical scribes, taking a major cut in pay and benefits.
https://www.scribeamerica.com/career-opportunities/
It is good to feel appreciated though, to know that someone understands how hard what you just did is. You must make it look effortless which is the sign of a true professional:)
ReplyDeleteI was listening to the radio yesterday and they were talking about appreciating nurses and that it's nurse's week. To be honest I've never really felt appreciated as a nurse, until now, and it feels weird to be appreciated for what I've always done. I'm glad that society is starting to understand how hard the job can be.
And anyone who has ever tried to write more than a couple of pages should understand how hard writing an entire book is.
I wish your subject was a little more aware of her responses. It still surprises me that some people don't have a sense of what other words could be used in addition to details of what needs to be revisited. Sometimes people are just truly unaware of what words they are not saying when they are saying words.
ReplyDeleteI love your 7:00 pm ritual. Heart-lifting in every way.
Some people, like your client, are oblivious. Sad but true. The nurses are doing a fabulous job and finally we all know exactly how important and great they are. Our world today is surreal. Social distancing impacts everyone and not happily. We are all social creatures and we miss the contact that used to be part of our normal. Your family routine sounds really good. You have each other and each your spaces. Stay safe. Susan
ReplyDeleteIt sounds so wild. Poor New York -- I feel so sad for all of you, all of us with you.
ReplyDeleteYes at 8.00pm every Thursday evening we clap outside the front door for the NHS. Although because we live in the country we never hear anyone else at all, apart from a distant firework.
ReplyDeleteMy partner runs a big Travel Company. Hard times.
Funny how no matter how "gosh darn professional" we may be we all need some damn positive feedback. Sure- nurses are "just doing their job" and so are public safety workers and mothers and fathers and people doing the necessary work of keeping the world running but right now it's more important than ever to let them all know we see them, we thank them. And you have given blood, sweat and tears to this book. Not to mention your heart. And hell yes, you deserve and you NEED some of what the agent gave you from the subject. But who knows? She may just be unable to express what she feels. It must feel strange to have someone write your life story, to tell some of your secrets, your feelings, your sorrows, your joys. I can't imagine being on either end of that equation.
ReplyDeleteI love you're trying to Sooth your own needs. I need to do more of that.
ReplyDeleteevery evening I listen to NYC's banging and horn blowing, on my computer. We are far from noise of any sort here- getting used to the silence and lack of activity, am grateful for it actually. As long as we do not get ill we are rather enjoying this respite from human business.
ReplyDeleteI am waiting for YOUR BOOK - these times are so interesting and you would put it all into the best perspective I am sure! Your family , your sensibilities, the correct way in which to make it through crisis. Sending loveX