And Are You Happy (As You Wait)?
Sometimes your heart’s desire hung from the highest branch of the highest tree and you could never climb high enough to reach it. Or else you just waited patiently and … Continue reading
In and Out of Love
All this time you are doing important things like falling in and out of love–things which broaden and deepen and strengthen the character more surely than anything else. I can … Continue reading
Hoşçakal to Life as You Know It.
You’ve thrown away your chance for a normal life…This is what makes you such an exceptional person. -Orhan Pamuk. Snow.
Making Arrangements for Another Adventure
Now I’m inclined to think it was the inevitable outcome of my years in Europe. Almost all the people who’ve had most effect on me I seem to have met … Continue reading
Already Packed
We carry within ourselves the direction our lives will take. Within ourselves burn the timeless, fateful stars. -Antal Szerb. Journey by Moonlight.
For A Rainy Day
Love and trust and gentleness between two humans is rare. Love is rare and the expression of love is rare. I am grateful to you. -Iris Murdoch. The Green Knight.
A Pledge to Curl Up With More Books
“Always I find when I begin to write there is one character who obstinately will not come alive. There is nothing psychologically false about him, but he sticks, he has … Continue reading
Should We Be Taking Advice From Cookies?
Opened this fortune the other day with a bit of a jolt! 🙂 Have a nice weekend! The word happiness was often used, although since they were all in their … Continue reading
Caught, Captured, Heaven-Forbid Memorialized.
At first, the poet looks like all the other men at the table. He turns toward the PowerPoint slide of the painting that the panel was meant to discuss. The … Continue reading
On Finishing Up
The creation of something complete and whole, be it good or bad–and if it’s never entirely good, it’s very often not all bad–yes, the creation of something complete seems to … Continue reading
Road Trip. Colorado, Kansas, and Who We Are
…we’re not born with unlimited choices. We can’t be anything we want to be. We come into this world with a specific, personal destiny. We have a job to do, … Continue reading
Possibility
My new niece is two weeks old. This brings my total to two nieces. Naturally, I know that Addy, Savannah, and I will certainly be traveling like mad–once they can … Continue reading
Citation
She was widely read enough to appreciate my literary wit but not so widely read that she knew my sources. I like that in a woman. I could say things … Continue reading
The Biblio-Commuter
The man’s briefcase lies across his legs like a desk and he rests his elbows on it. The U-Bahn stops, but he does not. He inhales, sits up straight, leans … Continue reading
In Bloom.
She had no expression ready for so direct a glance and with a sense of failure she fluttered and dropped her eyes. She wondered if she were blushing. She had … Continue reading
Under Lock and Dream
I left him to his envy. A colleague’s envy, when all is said and done, is the scholar’s one reward on earth. I didn’t tell him that in all likelihood … Continue reading
But You Can Drive Something Foreign…
For the very notion of homeland, with all its emotional power, is bound up with the relative brevity of our life, which allows us too little time to become attached … Continue reading
Book While You Can.
In fact most artists recognize their own weaknesses far better than the critics do. Only naturally there is no place for the public parade of this knowledge. If one is … Continue reading
On the Path, Nonetheless.
Writing is the only activity which makes me feel “only I could produce this.” Whether or not “this” is of any use is of course the crucial question to which … Continue reading
Go and Look
“All the critic can tell you with regard to Titian’s Entombment of Christ, perhaps of all the pictures in the world, is to go and look at it. What else … Continue reading
The Nice Thing About Strangers 