Object Lessons
Finished The Story of Mary MacLane and Other Writings. I sort of want to go back in time to Butte, Montana c. 1902 and stride purposefully out into Ms. MacLane's 'sand and barrenness' and smack her upside the head like so:
But there's no denying the kid had talent:
'Sometimes, early in the evening just before dinner, I sit in the stiff-backed chair with my elbows on the window-sill and my head resting on one hand, and I look out of the window at a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime. These are in the vacant lot next to this house.
'I fix my eyes intently on the Pile of Stones and the Barrel of Lime. And I fix my thoughts on them also. And some of my widest thoughts come to me then.
'I feel an overwhelming wave of a kind of pantheism which, at the moment I feel it, begins slowly to grow less and less and continues in this fashion until finally it dwindles to a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'I feel at the moment that the universe is a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime. They alone are the Real Things.
'Take anything at any point and decieve yourself into thinking that you are happy with it. But look at it heavily; dig down underneath the layers and layers of rose-coloured mists and you will find that your Thing is a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'A struggle or two, a fight, an agony, a passing - and then the only Real Things: a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'Damn everything! Afterward you will find that you have done all your damning for naught. For there is nothing worthy of damnation except a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime - and they are not damnable. They have never harmed you, and moreover they alone are the Real Things.
'Julius Caesar made many wars. Sir Francis Drake went sailing over the seas. It was all child's play and counts for nothing. Here are the Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'And so this is how it is early in the evening just before dinner, when I sit in the uncomfortable chair with my elbows on the window-sill and my head resting on one hand.'
And I like her assessment of herself, too:
'People say of me, "She's peculiar." They do not understand me. If they did they would say so oftener and with emphasis.'
But there's no denying the kid had talent:
'Sometimes, early in the evening just before dinner, I sit in the stiff-backed chair with my elbows on the window-sill and my head resting on one hand, and I look out of the window at a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime. These are in the vacant lot next to this house.
'I fix my eyes intently on the Pile of Stones and the Barrel of Lime. And I fix my thoughts on them also. And some of my widest thoughts come to me then.
'I feel an overwhelming wave of a kind of pantheism which, at the moment I feel it, begins slowly to grow less and less and continues in this fashion until finally it dwindles to a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'I feel at the moment that the universe is a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime. They alone are the Real Things.
'Take anything at any point and decieve yourself into thinking that you are happy with it. But look at it heavily; dig down underneath the layers and layers of rose-coloured mists and you will find that your Thing is a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'A struggle or two, a fight, an agony, a passing - and then the only Real Things: a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'Damn everything! Afterward you will find that you have done all your damning for naught. For there is nothing worthy of damnation except a Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime - and they are not damnable. They have never harmed you, and moreover they alone are the Real Things.
'Julius Caesar made many wars. Sir Francis Drake went sailing over the seas. It was all child's play and counts for nothing. Here are the Pile of Stones and a Barrel of Lime.
'And so this is how it is early in the evening just before dinner, when I sit in the uncomfortable chair with my elbows on the window-sill and my head resting on one hand.'
And I like her assessment of herself, too:
'People say of me, "She's peculiar." They do not understand me. If they did they would say so oftener and with emphasis.'