We wonder if Sisyphus is aaduna’s alter ego

 

Elizabeth Anne-Mattson Weyl (photo provided)

Elizabeth Anne-Mattson Weyl or who we like to affectionally call “Beth Mattson” represents an element of aaduna’s world that brings the complexities of life to a more humanistic sense as to who we are as humankind. And we all know the intricacies of tacking hills and mountains and often, falling back on our first few attempts. And like Sisyphus, we re-group and try again. Here is an excerpt from Mattson’s story, ‘The God of Wind.”

You’re drawing gods wrong. I am not a smiling, floating, apple-cheeked swirl of clouds, beaming down over my ample bosom of spiraling cirrocumulus nipples, in the shape of a curvy ape with a full face. I am Wind. The god of clouds is just Clouds. No cartoons. The god of trees is Trees. They always resist my pushing.

I am not some bulldozer blade, slamming and sticking. I wrap and twist myself, splitting more than the trees, winding and cupping their thick stems, lifting them up for a better view than when they slouch, heavy and tired. Pine, spruce, cedar, and juniper remember being young seedlings. Always green, they sway with me, pliable even when they are ancient. Walnut, oak, birch, and maple cower and groan, hunkering down, looking at their feet.

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Now, if you are a regular reader of aadunanotes, you already know that we routinely reference Sisyphus and his travails and repetitive attempts to achieve, what may be the unachievable for him. It is now apparent that with each planned aaduna issue launch, there are digital gremlins who hamper our schedule; hijacks and malware that have impacted every issue. At one point, we thought it was “just what happens.” And then several months ago, we lost the entire site to “hackers” or other nefarious characters and fought to regain all content. We put in several new security measures. And yet, the “rock” that we continue to roll up the hill only to see it tumble back down has reared its head.  

We backed up all spring issue 2021 issue content in late April as we started the battle to eradicate whatever structural platform issues were hampering our efforts to format and launch that issue with all its genres and visual art intact. 

That effort continues with techie specialists who underpin our publication platform and other specialists who impact how we present the actual content. Our dilemma is how long can we continue to hold back the issue. Quite frankly, we are looking at an alternative pathway to get the  spring 2021 issue’s words and images to our readership in a way that respects the contributors’ work while exciting our readership.

We will keep you posted. And unlike Sisyphus, we will get over this immediate obstacle.

Stay creative. 

 

aaduna - an online adventure with words and images - a globally read, multi-cultural, and diverse online literary and visual arts journal established in 2010.  Visit us at www.aaduna.org where we put measurable actions to our words.

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