I appear on TV now and then, and I usually dread watching a recording of the interview or performance. I think I won’t measure up; what I see and hear will fall short of what I want to see and hear. Which is why I have waited a month to watch my interview with Sue Ellen Zagbrabelny, host of “Merry’s Eclectic Interests”, a featured show on cable TV’s CCX Create.
Guess what? The interview actually went well, and I wasn’t half bad as Sue Ellen asked about my latest book and first novel, Final Rounds: On Love, Loss, Life, and Lefse. Even though the topic of the book, grief, is a tough one, I still managed to impart that, as Kahlil Gibran wrote, grief is “weeping for that which has been your delight.” Yes, we weep with the loss of a loved one, but there is much delight as we reflect on the love and joy that person gave us, and will always give us.
At the end of the interview, I inwardly groaned when Sue Ellen asked if there was anything more I wanted to say. I thought I had said plenty and was drained of any sort of meaningful sendoff regarding Final Rounds. And then this thought came:
“It’s a book that has a special place in my heart,” I said, “because it touches the heart. It’s my heart to your heart. It’s about a topic, grief and loss, that happen to all of us. … And Amaya [the 12-year-old girl who is the novel’s main character] goes at it—as young people do—with energy and creativity that I found inspiring.”