Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome back Ohio poet Pamela R. Anderson, who first debuted with us in our previous issue, “Vulnerable.” “Let’s Be” is an insightful internal monologue revealing our human propensity for judgement and suspicion and a conscious effort to overcome this unfortunate side of human nature. ‘“Let’s be Friends with Benedicts” reads the breakfast cafe signboard,/ and I think Yes. Let’s./ I glance at people hunched over tables—slurping coffee—/ and wonder But can I? ‘ Inspired by Wilmington, North Carolina’s The Eternal Sunshine Cafe and Terra Sol Sanctuary Yoga, it’s an acknowledgment that first impressions are not only often wrong, but extremely limiting, and that friendliness is a habit we build one moment, and one person, at a time. Pam gives us a strategy for connecting with people, all too important in this divisive time. Her vulnerability is remarkable. Most people are defensive and unwilling to talk about their biases, but shoving those unflattering feelings into the darkness of our psyche only makes them proliferate. Human beings often exceed our expectations, and if we are open to being surprised we can find delight and kinship with those who are also open. We begin to belong when we let others belong.
Read “Let’s Be” in Synkroniciti’s “Belonging” issue, available for pre-order here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Pamela R. Anderson is a traveler, blues music lover, yoga practitioner, and now-retired public radio fundraiser. A graduate of the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts Program (NEOMFA), Pam is the author of three chapbooks, including Just the Girls: A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies; A Drift of Honeybees (Poetry Box), Widow Maker (Finishing Line Press), and The Galloping Garbage Truck (Kelsay Books). When she is not writing or reading, you can find her hiking with her husband in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Pam has never owned a red bathing suit, nor has she ever seen an episode of Baywatch.