the orange peels that were once yours

On good loss, Faye Driscoll, art that lasts, the meaning of things, etc

A few weeks ago a note came in from the Lost Things Email Hotline that questioned the negative implication in the word “loss.”

but really, think of all the trash you've accumulated in your life, all the papers and orange peels that were once yours.

Of course, of course. Good loss. The mandarin skins shed all winter. Hoarding anything just is a backwards destruction.

It is true I enjoy getting rid of things. Cleaning out a closet is almost thrilling, as is using up the last bit of mustard, or ridding the desk of mess, or even excavating the lint from the forgotten trap on a friend’s dryer. Without quite realizing it, however, I had redefined loss as something negative rather than something neutral or even renewing.

The mention of orange peels also reminded me of a moment in Faye Driscoll’s extremely tense and attention-winnowing new performance, Weathering. The show climbs a steady upward trajectory of intensity, and it was almost midway into those 70 minute, as the dancers contorted …