ET Ask Home, a monthly questionnaire

With January guest Kelsey D. Atherton

Paid subscribers get two extra issues a month. One of those is ET Ask Home, inspired by  Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire. This month’s guest is Kelsey D. Atherton, who writes Wars of Future Past.

Hi! Thanks for doing this. Please put down how you'd like to be identified here:

Kelsey D. Atherton, military technology journalist. (He/him)

Is there a particular photo you'd like me to use? It doesn't have to be of you! It can be of, like, a cat.

The questions, which you should feel free to answer at whatever length you'd like, are:

1. What is a piece of art (broadly defined) you recently enjoyed?

I've got two answers. The first is "The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin. It's a favorite poem, one I revisit often, and versions of it recirculate the internet every so often. It's tweet-length, which helps. In the past, what struck me about it is the way it captures the perfect sensation of being held in a world of wonder by a parent, even if the poem is working backwards to that from a grim end. What hit me this time rereading it was a shift of perspective, that of the mother calf cradling her ill-fated child, making the whole universe a home for him in his last night. The other work of art is "A Little House of Your Own" by Beatrice Shenk de Regniers, with drawings by Irene Haas. The book was published in 1954. This year, for my December birthday and for Christmas, I asked my family for books they remembered reading and loving as a small child, and this was one my mom grew up with. If the subtext wasn't already text, my spouse Althea and I are expecting our first child this spring, so I'm really sinking into art that will ready me for this.

2. What is a piece of advice you once got that turned out to be wrong?

I'm struggling to think of a piece of bad advice that's wedged itself in my brain, but in general I think any cautions against moving back home, and away from the industry I cover, have mostly proven wrong. I've certainly missed out on maybe 10-20% of the stories I could have been one of many reporters in DC to tackle. In place, I've been able to rebuild a beat in my hometown's own corner of the defense industry, and at the same time, had a much easier go of creating a work-life balance.