More than one way of coming home
It's snowing!
Last year I missed both autumn and first snow because I was in Costa Rica.
This year, I am grateful for both.
Things have been very off around here and the end of my B&N assignment has me deeply discombobulated. It wasn't just the day job I was using to isolate myself. (Though you will be pleased to note that I have had a handle on OT since Lent. Not a bad use of the season.) If I were to write about it, things would probably sound pretty bad. I have a lot to complain about it, but underneath it all, I'm fundamentally okay. One way or another it will be fine.... while every other aspect of my life is completely uncertain, I am confident of that.
I've also started reading volume 2 of Doris Lessing's memoirs. There was a day about 2 months ago that I went to the used bookstore and picked up a bunch of 'heavy lifting.' "What are you thinking, Sarah?" I wondered. "When are you going to have time to read this?"
Now I know. As my mind is starting to clear, even as my schedule is still a little over-planned, I'm finding that I am beginning to have the focus and hunger for something I can really sink my teeth into. I've fed this part of me with essays (poet Robert Hass just released What Light Can Do and it's brilliant and includes a marvelous critical essay on Martin Eden, which is one book I should not be reading right now... but is probably worth further comment) and with slim volumes of philosophy (The BP's Ecology w/out Nature is very easy going and brilliant. Ditto for Alien Phenomenology by Ian Bogost). But really, my mind has been both starving and an in a state of exhaustion for a long time.
[I would love to read some decent essays on working long-term with children's literature, heck, genre lit, and what it does to your brain. In other words, how do you feed and grow the 'grown-up'.]
Lessing is one of the grandmothers. Her work is both profoundly inspiring and disturbing at the same time. But when I read her I feel like I'm with kin. If there is one thing I can give thanks for about my Ex is that he encouraged me to read her... on a limited amount of information about both her work and mine, as it turned out, but still an excellent match.
Here's a funny New York anecdote. She was in the city for some reason appearing at a Barnes & Noble, and in an interview with Bill Moyers that would be televised. I went to see her but it was a mob-scene. The space was so small and seating so limited that people were literally climbing the bookshelves to try to get a glimpse of the legend. All I could do was just stand there and hope for a glimpse. She is quite elderly and has a feeble voice. Though she was miked I don't recall even being able to hear her. Eventually, I just went home and watched in on television. Which strikes me both as incredibly sad, pragmatic, and hilarious... a sign of the times, so to speak.
Taking up the next volume of the biography, enjoying the senses of autumn, and being present for the first snow... it struck me that there is more than one way of coming home.
Two more recently unlocked posts:
My visit to the scent studio:
http://zalena.livejournal.com/1334843.html
Another boring, but meaningful dream:
http://zalena.livejournal.com/1335188.html
Last year I missed both autumn and first snow because I was in Costa Rica.
This year, I am grateful for both.
Things have been very off around here and the end of my B&N assignment has me deeply discombobulated. It wasn't just the day job I was using to isolate myself. (Though you will be pleased to note that I have had a handle on OT since Lent. Not a bad use of the season.) If I were to write about it, things would probably sound pretty bad. I have a lot to complain about it, but underneath it all, I'm fundamentally okay. One way or another it will be fine.... while every other aspect of my life is completely uncertain, I am confident of that.
I've also started reading volume 2 of Doris Lessing's memoirs. There was a day about 2 months ago that I went to the used bookstore and picked up a bunch of 'heavy lifting.' "What are you thinking, Sarah?" I wondered. "When are you going to have time to read this?"
Now I know. As my mind is starting to clear, even as my schedule is still a little over-planned, I'm finding that I am beginning to have the focus and hunger for something I can really sink my teeth into. I've fed this part of me with essays (poet Robert Hass just released What Light Can Do and it's brilliant and includes a marvelous critical essay on Martin Eden, which is one book I should not be reading right now... but is probably worth further comment) and with slim volumes of philosophy (The BP's Ecology w/out Nature is very easy going and brilliant. Ditto for Alien Phenomenology by Ian Bogost). But really, my mind has been both starving and an in a state of exhaustion for a long time.
[I would love to read some decent essays on working long-term with children's literature, heck, genre lit, and what it does to your brain. In other words, how do you feed and grow the 'grown-up'.]
Lessing is one of the grandmothers. Her work is both profoundly inspiring and disturbing at the same time. But when I read her I feel like I'm with kin. If there is one thing I can give thanks for about my Ex is that he encouraged me to read her... on a limited amount of information about both her work and mine, as it turned out, but still an excellent match.
Here's a funny New York anecdote. She was in the city for some reason appearing at a Barnes & Noble, and in an interview with Bill Moyers that would be televised. I went to see her but it was a mob-scene. The space was so small and seating so limited that people were literally climbing the bookshelves to try to get a glimpse of the legend. All I could do was just stand there and hope for a glimpse. She is quite elderly and has a feeble voice. Though she was miked I don't recall even being able to hear her. Eventually, I just went home and watched in on television. Which strikes me both as incredibly sad, pragmatic, and hilarious... a sign of the times, so to speak.
Taking up the next volume of the biography, enjoying the senses of autumn, and being present for the first snow... it struck me that there is more than one way of coming home.
Two more recently unlocked posts:
My visit to the scent studio:
http://zalena.livejournal.com/1334843.html
Another boring, but meaningful dream:
http://zalena.livejournal.com/1335188.html