Yes. To tread likely and understand that life is passing through us not taking up residence. I used to love those cards in the pockets of library books with the names of all the other people who had read them. Sometimes (in Stockbridge!) years had passed since the previous borrower.
Thank you, Susie for the gift of your writing. I like Sharon's word scrumptious, and I would add sumptuous! Brought back so many memories from this time and also the connections with the present.
Thank you, Ani. I'm taken with how much sense memory remains from that time out in the street. It almost seems particularly potent from the perspective of being in lockdown for the last year, as if I'm visiting the larger world from my living room.
Dear Susie, thank you for once again sharing the bounty of your gifts. I enjoyed this piece and found several turns of phrase particularly scrumptious: "the exhilaration of being inhaled into the high energy crowd of 1000....."; "When I watched the insurrection on tv, my breathing became labored as if I was still running up Wall St."; "modern European history... a relentless unleashing of slaughter in three-quarter time."
All of these descriptions resonate with me and the last one especially struck a chord. Studying history in school, I was subliminally aware of how much of it was about this or that battle or war..as if the bloody resolution of differences through the domination of our reptilian brains was what was most worthy of recognition.
Also, reading your piece, I learned the meaning of hypertext! Yes, the written accounts of our experience walk through walls and speak in tongues:).
Thank you, Sharon. Sometimes I get swept up in the energy of memory. My mind, even as I'm sitting quietly in my house in Stockbridge, seems to be populated by crowds of people pressing against one another like atoms colliding.
My own saga has been wiggly with no obvious overarching plan.
Although you say this Susie, as you continue to reflect on life through your own particular lens, it is always a great pleasure to look at life through your glasses. Each time, I am stimulated and learn something.
Well I've been at it for seventysomething years and it seems to be starting to cohere. The trick, it seems to me, is to allow life to be plastic...So that it never really settles.
Would that we are just "borrowers".... thank you for giving your readers that title. I hope to live it enough.
Yes. To tread likely and understand that life is passing through us not taking up residence. I used to love those cards in the pockets of library books with the names of all the other people who had read them. Sometimes (in Stockbridge!) years had passed since the previous borrower.
Pat.....So glad to see you're reading my new blog on Substack.
Thank you, Susie for the gift of your writing. I like Sharon's word scrumptious, and I would add sumptuous! Brought back so many memories from this time and also the connections with the present.
Thank you, Ani. I'm taken with how much sense memory remains from that time out in the street. It almost seems particularly potent from the perspective of being in lockdown for the last year, as if I'm visiting the larger world from my living room.
Dear Susie, thank you for once again sharing the bounty of your gifts. I enjoyed this piece and found several turns of phrase particularly scrumptious: "the exhilaration of being inhaled into the high energy crowd of 1000....."; "When I watched the insurrection on tv, my breathing became labored as if I was still running up Wall St."; "modern European history... a relentless unleashing of slaughter in three-quarter time."
All of these descriptions resonate with me and the last one especially struck a chord. Studying history in school, I was subliminally aware of how much of it was about this or that battle or war..as if the bloody resolution of differences through the domination of our reptilian brains was what was most worthy of recognition.
Also, reading your piece, I learned the meaning of hypertext! Yes, the written accounts of our experience walk through walls and speak in tongues:).
Brava to you!
Thank you, Sharon. Sometimes I get swept up in the energy of memory. My mind, even as I'm sitting quietly in my house in Stockbridge, seems to be populated by crowds of people pressing against one another like atoms colliding.
Susie, I love this! Makes me want to tell my story.
There's no knowing where your story will go. Or which of your many stories you'll tell.
My own saga has been wiggly with no obvious overarching plan.
Although you say this Susie, as you continue to reflect on life through your own particular lens, it is always a great pleasure to look at life through your glasses. Each time, I am stimulated and learn something.
Well I've been at it for seventysomething years and it seems to be starting to cohere. The trick, it seems to me, is to allow life to be plastic...So that it never really settles.