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Hello my loves.

You may remember the week back in August when I told you I'd written a new piece that I was incredible proud of. It's finally time to publish it.

Everybody I know is in the dumps right now, emotionally; exhausted, worried, on edge.

This is the moment. I think, for a piece like this.

With any luck, it gives you a little bit of hope.

Please go read it, and please, please share it from the Substack itself.

Here is the link to the piece itself:

https://open.substack.com/pub/amandapalmer/p/hence-the-sellotape?r=17pp4&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post


…..

If you wanna really help me out, share this on socials...

You can just cut and paste the Substack link, but you can also just go to where I've shared it on Facebook, Twitter, and Insta, and share direct from there.

FACEBOOK 

INSTAGRAM (it's on my threads account, too)

TWITTER, oh sorry, X 

Thank you.

.…..

For y’all patrons…a few notes.

I sent a much longer draft of this piece to the $10 patrons a few days ago. (I am pleased to report that it got exactly 69 comments). They helped me edit it and shorten it. I was struggling with some decisions about leaving in a long scene change / second half of the piece - they convinced me to cut it. To those folks, including MY DAD: THANK YOU. I think, collectively, you were right. I hope you like the finished piece.

This community means so much to me. As a writer, as an artist...I just can't even with the gratutude sometimes.

I made two video reading: one for the patreon (above, and you'll notice I left the edited-out ending in there, you won't read that part on the finished substack piece, and one legit-true-to-form video just for the $5 substack subscirbers. If you're really a glutton for punishment, you can become a substack subscriber...but I don't expect you to.

This leads to some boring housekeeping.

If you are new to the patreon: I am a self-published writer. Your patronage pays for my ability to self-publish immediately, (or sometimes I wait a couple weeks, or months, to release a piece....but I like never having to wait years).

If you're wondering why I don't post these pieces directly to the patreon, or to my website, Substack has MUCH nicer and more readable/usable publishing tools and a sleeker commenting section, and I'm also able to reach a new audience within Substack world. Also, to be crass, it's just prettier and linking to Substack is a much more legit way of self-publishing (in the eyes of many) than chucking out links to patreon to social media if you want a piece to gain a wider audience.

I like to think of the substack subscribers as the people who do not want the FIREHOSE of constant emails and content from me: they just want the writing itself every once in a while, thank you very much.

I do not expect to double dip here: so, like I said, you're all welcome to subscribe to the substack for free, or as a paid $5 member, but know that I'll be posting the same content over here.

I hope you're all keeping your shit together.

I know I say it a lot, but I appreciate being able to self-publish - at will - so, so, so much.

Your patronage pays for my abilty to write (not to mention to team's salries, and the cost of the copyeditor and all that jazz).


Hence the Sellotape.

Amanda

P.S.  I still haven’t framed Aya’s drawing. It’s on the list of things to do. The list is very long.

———THE STUFF I PASTE AT THE END OF THE POST———

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

2. if you’re a patron reading this post via an email notification, please click through to comment on this post. at the very least, if you’ve read it, indicate that by using the heart symbol. that's always nice for me to see, so i know who's reading.

3. see All the Things (over 200 of them) i've made so far on patreon:

http://amandapalmer.net/things

4. JOIN THE SHADOWBOX COMMUNITY FORUM, find your people, and discuss everything: https://forum.theshadowbox.net/

5. are you new to my music and TOTALLY OVERWHELMED? TAKE A WALK THROUGH AMANDALANDA….we made a basic list of my greatest hits n stuff (at least up until a few years ago, this desperately needs updating) on this lovely page: http://amandalanda.amandapalmer.net/

6. general AFP/patreon-related questions? ask away, someone will answer: patronhelp@amandapalmer.net

Comments

Lisa Claire

As I posted on Facebook, this moved me so much. I love your words, I love Aya and I love you 🖤❤️

Shane Thornton

God I wish I had a teacher like you back in my fucked up childhood.

Lindsey Lubow

... I've been having nightmares as well. But there's no nine year old at my place. J is currently working a second job on top of the full time one that provides my healthcare insurance. I am loathe to wake J for anything that can be outsourced. J wants me to be more confident with asking him for support in the nighttime, even though I have friends already awake on their night shift duties or for ttrpgs that ran late more often than not.... I am willing to wait. J needs the sleep, whether he'll admit it or not, more than I need specifically him. He feels worse, I think, about it being so than I do. I prize my independence due to Reasons Preceding This Relationship and have recently been confirmed to have sleep apnea (got my first cpap script last fall) so I'm more afraid of J not being adequately rested than about me being supported unconventionally / externally.

Howard DiNatale

This essay affected me (in a good way). Still processing but I've already shared it and I'm going to read it again. Thank you for writing it.

Alison

I teared up reading this earlier (via your FB post to unofficial group, also seen on your own page). I didn't expect to, but with 2 divorces of my own and my eldest struggling to see what the future holds for her relationship, maybe it was just what I needed.

Midge

It’s beautiful. Sending love x

Erika Blumberg

I remember seeing you read parts of this at GSV so it was a nice summer memory for me (in addition to being a moving piece of writing)

Jon

A beautiful piece Amanda. As a divorced man in his 50s, that is also a child of a very traumatic divorce (my mum ran off with my PE teacher while I was still at school), I know how hard it can be and how very hard it can be to explain to children. You have me in tears here and I am very grateful for your wisdom and indeed the wisdom of little Aya too.

Amie Gillingham

I cried when I read it. I am wrecked hearing you read it. Hence, the cello tape.

Jennifer Harnage

I read this a few hours ago and cried. What a precious thing Aya is!!!! Thank you for sharing this! ♡♡

Toetsie Zwitserlood

well.. this is the first time you told ME you are really divorced! But im happy with Aya's way of showing it to us.

Frank Fedele

Thank you for this. My divorce paperwork just came back today, so I really needed it.

Margot Moulton

PLEASE PLEASE please... make this a Beddy-Bye. One day. Omg. I super super so so miss Beddy-Bye. You could literally do a whole project of this. An album. A video series. (If you do a video series, I TOTES volunteer my time to film and edit!)

Monica Rocha

I may need to snag Aya's drawing for a tattoo, whenever the next one happens. Please thank her for her wisdom; it's so, so appreciated 💜

Anna Bruce

Hearing you read it was magic. My heart 🥺😭🖤

Amanda Lyn

Thank you for sharing you mending with those of us who can’t share our sellotape. I feel this in so many many ways. Thank you. You are loved Amanda!

amacker

I love this story!!! And I love visible mending! I discovered it with a friend, whose artistic nature in fixing holes in his cashmere, sweaters and coats, became incredibly beautiful and I’ve adopted it myself. We use embroidery thread. I hadn’t heard this much about your divorce from you yet I might’ve missed some thing. But I had no idea it had been so long! The fact that you misspell cellotape is odd. It comes from cellophane, being clear.

Jen

So beautiful ❤️❤️❤️

Amy Cox Henderson

Oh, Amanda. You’ve done it again. And since this can apply to EVERYTHING, I’ve already noticed that acknowledging that there IS sellotape, that I’m always finding a way to cope, and further paying gratitude toward whatever is holding me together is making me mindful and calmer. Did this experience make you a Calmer Palmer? Hope so 😂

Len Tower Jr.

Amanda/Alex: Amanda write above: "I made two video reading: one for the patreon (above, and you'll notice I left the edited-out ending in there, you won't read that part on the finished substack piece, ..." I believe the long all parts reading is on Substack, and the shorter one above here on Patreon. But the intros are right for the website they are on now. So they can't really be swapped. 1) Edit the ending off of the one now on Substack, but copy the whole long version here. 2) Record both again? Love, Len

Suzanne

Thank you. Love you. And I appreciate you and your heart.

Dahlia

I see you. The mending makes you more beautiful. You’re a good writer, and in large part because you are so genuine. As a reader I don’t need to be convinced that that actually happened. You tell a lived story. Yet, you’re able to take the most complex situation and understand it in the simplest of ways, through the eyes of a child. That’s something truly powerful. We forget sometimes to look at the world through the lens of a child, and right now given the state of the world, I think that’s a helpful reminder.

Annie

This was so beautiful to listen to and I cried at the description of the drawing 🥲. So tender, thank you for sharing ❤️

Margaret Schindler

I don't know what to say that hasn't been said here yet. All of it! ❤️ This story really touched my heart. What an amazing kid. And you put it in writing beautifully.

Thomas Herlofsen

Amen. Thanks, as always, for putting things in their proper place. All the love.

Kathryn

The places we're mended are the strongest of all. Love you

Marie O'Reilly

hello... I love you and I'm crying again :) That's so beautiful and deep and wide. Thank you for it. What a wise soul Aya is. I'm also glad to hear that you and Neil still love each other. I truly do undertand how it can be to love someone but find it hard to share your lives closely. Love and healing to you all.

Katja

Please thank Aya for me, for saying things and asking questions that have been on my mind, too, but didn’t have the right to ask. I am so happy that there's still a lot of love between you. I have tears in my eyes right now.

Katja

Also - this is like the Japanese art/philosophy of kintsugi which ”treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise”. In other words, repairs add to the beauty of an object.

Parker

The brand name is Sellotape. Much like we Brits refer to vacuuming as Hoovering, or US peeps call paper tissues Kleenex.

Parker

Crivens! That’s a stellar idea. I have no tattoos but if I ever do take that risk, this is what I’ll have…

Jennifer Mae

Aya’s drawing hits me in the feels so hard. It’s really is just like that conceptually. I’m (more than once) divorced. I have children and bonus children and a crazy yet loving blended family. We’ve been saying “hence the sellotape” in my house since you told this story in Poughkeepsie and Woodstock. Aya resonates. What a cool kid.

ElizaLou

This reminds me of when my mum died. My children were 6 and 3. The phonecall came through from my sister to say mum had died in the night. I cried noisily while my 2 children looked on. When I came off the phone my eldest asked me, “what are your favourite colours mummy?” Red, green and purple, I replied. Half an hour later he came to me with a drawing. It was of a red rocket, the smoke from its engines forming plumes which ended in a red heart. My 6 year old recognised my pain and put it into a drawing. When I left my home and children the next day to travel to my sisters and help with the funeral arrangements, I took that picture with me. Today, 13 years later it is framed in my living room, the creases visible where I folded it to prevent it from tearing, while I was away from my children for two whole weeks. That picture will go with me to my grave. It was also a lesson in how a child can cut through the pain and bullshit and give you exactly what you need, unlike so many adults who could not speak to me about my mums death ❤️

Laura Wellner

This is a beautiful piece and I'm sending a "hence the sellotape" hug. (I did watch it first on Substack earlier this morning, so this is my second viewing.) Children are so wise and mostly without adult baggage that inhibits openness to say the things that they want to say. Sweater repairs - in my past, repairs had to be perfect and hidden, especially if I was wearing the sweater at work, but being retired from day-job duty, fuck it, I've made repairs that are obvious and whimsical - why not? Sometimes the "wrong colored" thread, yarn, or I'll make a patch. I'm keeping it together as best as I can, trying not to get too caught up with doomscrolling, not wanting to be assaulted by images of violence and destruction. I met a woman the other day who is going through the same ageist crap that I went through at my day-job, gaslighting and all that, it sort of set my brain back to that awful time, but I'm keeping busy, and hopefully, this reminder of what was will pass. I have worries about my wee donkey and tinier goat because winter is coming. The tinier goat has arthritis, she's chugging along with a variety of pain meds and supplements. The wee donkey's arthritis is a bother too, and the Cushing's disease is advancing, but she's hanging in there . She's so stoic it's hard to judge if her quality of life is troubling her too much. She's on meds for pain, supplements for pain, and she has a massage therapist who comes every 4-6 weeks. One thing for sure, nothing seems to bother her appetite, that wee donkey loves to eat! Worries. I have to agree, Substack is the ideal self publishing venue. I recently started my own, and have been dumping a lot of writing and stuff there, a blend of art and words, connecting the dots from a poem to a novel, to a painting or a handmade book. It's been helpful for me to mix them, when for years I've been keeping my writing projects separate from my art projects, and now I feel more whole as an artist... if that makes any sense. Love & hugs!

Marija Milisavljević Grdinić

This is one of the most wonderful things I've read, seen, and heard, I think in my life. Thank you and thanks Aya ❤️

Jake Marcus

I am crying. This is beautiful, all the more so for having it read to me. Thank you. It is a gift I need right now.

angela b

Lovely little piece, Amanda. I love the wisdom of kids. It's funny the conglomeration of happenings that occured yesterday. I caught a glimpse of my friends' phone which had a little essay on it and the first lines were "Divorce is hard. Marriage is hard. We choose our hard." (Which is not to say one is better hard or worse hard, we all choose the hard that is the most bearable, I reckon.) And then I caught an interview with Jada Pinkett Smith, of all people, and she goes into the choices she made/is making around her marriage. And the whole whirling dervish-ness of life swirls and twirls and folds in on itself once again. Anywhoodles. Thanks for sharing this and keep on keeping on. Love to all ♥️

Liz LaManche

I love how humans think symbolically- Aya’s drawing is so perfect

Lynn Robinson

So beautiful . Life through the eyes of a child ❤️

Angela Fardo

It’s your Coat of Many Colors and it’s my fave thing you have written so far. I love it 🫶 It’s honest… I will now go redo my mascara and have pancakes. Love your face and see you in San Diego. If you need a place to stay I have an extra bedroom, a camper, neither of which are fancy but they come with an awesome breakfast and a super sweet therapy dog.

Dorit

Wow. That's perfect, Amanda. Thank you for putting that in words. And thank you Aya too.

amacker

Thank you, Parker! I grew up in England and never saw that brand. Also, Xerox is used for any photocopy, which was making their trademark void. If you don’t defend it, it becomes an actionable! I worked for Adobe for 10 years on the Photoshop team. We started having to defend the overuse of Photoshop for any digital image editing (although it’s a high bet that Photoshop was used) It was also constantly misspelled either as two words, etc. So Adobe had to go after a few people to make their point and there you have it. I wonder how Google deals with the fact that everyone “googles“… Searches the interwebs. Regardless of what browser they use. 🤣

amacker

PS I still can’t get over ATA’s use of “Hence”!!! She is a very old soul. ❤️🥰

amacker

Yes, she mentioned Kintsugi in the story. I’ve been trying to do my own, although I’m using copper not gold.

Steven George

Fresh tears from something tender for a change thank you Amanda

Jeanette-o-saur

The fixing is the love part ❤️‍🩹 🥲. Yeah, Aya, it is. It truly is

Carrie A.

Aw, damn. This is so beautiful. That kid is a sage. I wish I’d had people like her and you and this community around when I got divorced. I wish for all people to have healthy and supportive communities.

James from Wellington

Beautiful accent 😉 That is one very smart kid, she has a bright future ahead I hope

Skyeanna Malito

Hearing you read it was even better than reading it myself.

shawn eager

...I want to hug you SOOOOO hard....