May 2022
Sunday May 1
Wondering if Conversational Reading is still online. Nope and no post on Insta from Veronica for over a year.
Letter from Alex Ross a the New Yorker in response to my gushing note of praise to him for his piece on Thomas Mann. (Would I have written it if I had found Musil's hilarious attack beforehand??) Tiny handwriting.
April 22 2022
Dear Mr. Garlitz,
Thank you so much, belatedly, for your very kind note of Feb. 17. I am so pleased that my article found such a sympathetic and discerning reader.
With very best wishes,
signed Alex Ross
——
It is one thing to read about Pessoa in Zenith's magnificent biography, it is another thing to have Pessoa in the house for a week, shuffling around in his Moroccan robes, mumbling to himself, imbibing throughout the day, finding fault, pronouncing judgments about topics unknown.
5 May Cinco Not much excitement that I can see.
Eyes feeling better. Just read how to make compress out of sock and rice!
Day-off resumes in two days. What to do? Where to go? Last month. Take
a box to Fedex today before or after PT. Box of Claude's sheet music.
Reading about Cooper's fixation on adolescence as his metier and source of the style he creates. Probably a phd dissertation in UK. Picking up some trhings—-Blanchot (and everyone else?) wrote about Sade in the late 40s.
Also back to the Forgotten Sister. Musil's prose feels limpid after White's.
Forgetting about Juanita and the tax return for the moment. Will get nothing by calling each day. I must have chosen May 28 as the day for filing and paying. We'll see. Funds are ready, gaining a wee interest for a few days in NHB. Everything else is quiet. Ready to box and send back. Not ready to go back. Not looking forward to it. Enjoying the expanding horizons here.
flowerville_II (@flowerville_ii) Tweeted: 'The wonderful thing, on this earth, is that we are forced to feel more than to think.' Gide
Don't know enough about Gide, I guess.
Annual wrangle with guardian over the phone this morning, a Monday in May. Caitlin H assures me we will not pay twice this month, the annual premium fee. Wonder if watching all of Ozark has changed consumer behavior much across the board? Wouldn't surprise me. We started two new series on hbomax last night. Good to have good laughs with the dating romance series with the Indian actor, Patel, who plays a famous actor. And a New Zealand newcomer woman clearly out to unseat the great comedian with the great hit of a few years back and of course who's name I can't conjure.
Facetime visit yesterday in which we were instructed to question Emma so she could practice her understanding and answering. What fun that was. She is brilliant and ready!!! Eliot also wanted to say Happy Mothers day and is more ready to speak up on his topics. Today we've scheduled a lunch with Barb and Ed. Gary Snyder 92 today. Va's never heard of him.
Quiet Tuesday. Time to scrub off the patio furniture. No word yet on Lou and swimming tomorrow. Mark Haber's book arrived on kindle today and
review in the NYTimes.
Dusting the patio chairs with the devil vac. Finally got info from Juanita. Benita who phoned back from her office sounds unfortunately just like Esme on General Hospital. Eloy's father died a few days ago. We lunched at Anapurna. Nice nothing review of Mark Haber's book in the NYT.
Another screw or nail in a tire?? 11 May Hoping the car will get there and we will not need another loaner car. No real reason. Maybe a glitch in the dashboard? Endless stationery reminds us of the mental health benefits of journaling: encourages opening up, reduces anxiety, manifests positive thoughts, regulates emotions. Thank you, Endless.
Second screw in a tire on the car in two or three weeks. Where am I picking up these things? Are they strewn along our street? Thank goodness Univ VW fixed it this morning within two hours. This time they put a patch on the hole and claim it will hold. So far they haven't sent a video of the event.
Managed to buy what we need for tomorrow's surprise, beer. Wine, mochis. Will continue cleaning patio chairs tomorrow. Gust of wind just undid all the work I did on it yesterday.
Two tire problems in three weeks. Coincidence of some sort. Feels like a moral failure. A personal failure. Duped, tricked, terrorized, suitable object of attack, promoter of paranoia.
Marilyn has knee surgery tomorrow. Tomorrow will be Willow's surprise party. This morning on the way to the car dealer she said how much she liked being here, how good everything here was and how much she enjoyed having come. Hope the party comes off well. Guess we're not super keen to return home. I was glad to hear she's happy with being here. Sitting out on the patio in the sun felt so good. We had New Mexican music coming out of the built-in sound system. FM radio.
12 P Day Surprise is all. So the patio furniture will not be cleaned completely. Weather turning cooler so an indoor party will be fine. stay chill, let it all unfold. Surprise will delight. Surprise delights. Remember the Carmelite brother in Peterborough, defined God as Surprise.
Friday the 13th
Surprise went off with total success. Fine gathering, laughter, tale-telling, core fun. One set of tales even reminded me of how the brothers and the nuns before them, used corporal punishment and so I mentioned that and got attention from the crowd. In this day and age even mentioning such things takes one back to that different era, those different eras, of our childhoods, so long, now, ago.
Willow was surprised. Not until the second doorbell ring did she really realize what was up. Luckily she was reading out on the patio and so Barb had to step outside to give her a hug and yell surprise, in reverse order, and then Lou and Bob came out to repeat and verify. Super time. Lou brought a wonderful salad, Marianne supplied great minimalist appetizers, red peppers with sour cream lightly broiled, and Barb went all out and brought a tres leches cake/pie from Whole Foods. Gifts too. Book on weird things in Abq, lavender lotion and candle.
Friday night. We wrapped up Out of Africa. great graveside scene. Amazing Streep performance. Day off tomorrow. Have a place called Vegan Thai on my mind so I guess I'll head there. Voo and Lou will swim once more this week. Had to call Juanita to get Britony to tell me that they did file the tax return today. She emailed me a copy. Not impressed with that outfit. Her voice sounds way too much like Esme's on GH. Bought tix for the chatter cafe on the 22nd. Part of our farewell. Could also try Saigon City up in the same area. Know Thai but when did I last try Vietnamese? Map reminded me. Two Years ago we frequented Lime, right near the cannabis med center.
14 May
At the Flying Star this afternoon met the owner, Jean Bernstein. Later said hello to her husband and their friend, Greek Orthodox bishop of St George's. (Bishop or priest?) Jean wanted to talk and it was fascinating to talk with her. Which cake to try got us started before I knew who she was. She was so proud of the cakes and started to give details of each, even after I said I had tried all but one, the pineapple cake. That's when I asked if she were the owner. Talked about everything, the disarray in politics, how nothing gets done in the city or the state, how we lose people and business to other states. Things are dire. She was born in Danbury, CT, in 195?7?
Wonderful childhood. Moved out here fifty years ago. Art teacher in the grade schools at first. Husband had a bad motorcycle accident, she decided to try something else. They took over the failing Double Rainbow and re-did it.
Those numbers don't work. Maybe they have been in business for thirty years. Did her family move out when she was ten? Did she go to Albuquerque high? Details lost. But in 2020 she posted this on the Satellite blog: "In our more than forty years of business life, we thought we had seen and weathered it all. Instead we feel like we are in an episode of the Twilight Zone……"
Blood moon last night. Willow didn't sleep at all—-whole day of Baz Luhrman movies after Chatter. No walking. 16th today. The bank sent on the tax payment. Some relief there. Dave is buying plane tix this week on the visa card. Eloy's guy coming today to pesticide the house. Skies this morning have a strange light, overcast and perhaps smokey. Birthday this week and final swim and then packing and deciding.
When I told Ed about the talk with Jean Bernstein he complimented me by saying I should have a tv show like the one Charles Kuralt had years ago. It was a segment of Walter Cronkite's evening news called On the Road.
passage from Genet—-
Puny, ridiculous little fellow that I was, I emitted upon the world a power extracted from the pure, sheer beauty of athletes and hoodlums. For only beauty could have occasioned such an impulse of love as that which, every day for seven years, caused the death of strong and fierce young creatures. Beauty alone warrants such improper things as hearing the music of the spheres, raising the dead, understanding the unhappiness of stones. In the secrecy of my night I took upon myself—the right way of putting it if one bears in mind the homage paid to my body—the beauty of Gérard in particular and then that of all the lads in the Reich: the sailors with a girl's ribbon, the tank crews, the artillerymen, the aces of the Luftwaffe, and the beauty that my love had appropriated was retransmitted by my hands, by my poor puffy, ridiculous face, by my hoarse, spunk-filled mouth to the loveliest armies in the world. Carrying such a charge, which had come from them and returned to them, drunk with themselves and with me, what else could those youngsters do but go out and die? I put my arm around Paulo and turned my body so that we faced each other, and I smiled. I was a man. The text of my stern gaze was inscribed on Paulo. That sternness of gaze corresponded to an inner vision, an amorous preoccupation; it signified attention to a kind of constant desire, in short to covetousness, in accordance with our arrangements straight out of a novel, it indicated that this little fellow never left to itself the living, gesticulating image of its double that stood at the tribune in Nuremberg. Paulo's teeth were clean. My mustache was now near him, and he could see it hair by hair. It was not only a sign—harmless or dangerous—of the pale, nocturnal blazon of a race of pirates, it was a mustache. Paulo was frightened by it. Could it be that a simple mustache composed of black hair—and dyed perhaps—meant: cruelty, despotism, violence, rage, foam, asps, strangulation, death, forced marches, ostentation, prison, daggers?—
Strange and interesting passage. Especially for the way he attributes, his nazi character attributes the whole war as being caused by beauty. Though come to think of it, it is the ancient view, isn't it, from the Greeks, that beauty is what launches war. Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? Genet turns it so that the young men are drunk with themselves and drunk with the inner vision of amorous preoccupation that sends them to war. Well, why not? Here is the great line: Beauty alone warrants such improper things as hearing the music of the spheres, raising the dead, understanding the unhappiness of stones.
Dear Carole and Ken
We are in countdown mode until we leave. We are looking forward to seeing you and everyone. Next year we will come back May 1st. This trip we will do two nights in Charlotte to see my older brother. My sister was to come up from New Orleans but her husband can't travel for some months. He needs eye surgery and afterwards he must lay prone for a whole week.
We have been enjoying everything here. Yesterday we lucked into a brunch you would have liked. An Inn at a lavender farm, reservations always but they took us as walk-ins. A blend of Simon Pearce and Rokywold. Scrumptious Bánh Mi (trending on every menu here--Viet sandwich) and best desserts of the whole trip. Our favorite weekly event has been the sunday morning concerts with one poet. 10:30, about 80-120 people average. Started years ago under the name Church of Beethoven, now called Chatter. They have an evening cabaret once a month at the art museum, we'll try that once next week.
Pulled off a real surprise party for Va's birthday. First I've managed to do that. Two other couples helped by bringing the snacks and cake. Two of our scheduled guests canceled, Va's cousin in Seattle fell and tore her trapezius. British friend is back to business travel all over and his plans got up ended. Our friend from St Louis was here for about nine days. He's the super-catholic and now knight of malta, dear and lovely, but you can tell he's been living alone for a good while, a bit pesky and grumpy. He was happy to see the cathedral in Santa Fe on the second trip up (closed on Mondays) and here delighted at the Old Town church to find two rare black madonna statuettes to add to his collection. Otherwise, some good dinners but he usually had two gin and tonics plus wine and became somehow less delightful as a conversationalist.
I have to thank you for telling me about the car in the first place. Have enjoyed it greatly and it has been perfect. One anomalous sequence bothersome---two flat tires within three weeks. No way to know where I picked up loose screws and against Va's advice I went ahead and asked the dumb question---because it is an EV is it magnetic in some way?? Garage was great at giving us a loaner one time and fixing everything both times. Yesterday I did note with interest at the posh Inn that they have four or five ev power stations which do Not show up on the general search maps!!! I'm already wondering if it is too early to order a new model for 2025! Only One complaint which I hope they change---the off-on function works when you sit in the driver's seat. If I run into a store, there is no way I can leave Va in the car with the ac running, or the radio on, etc. Minor but surprisingly irritating in certain moments! The home station in the garage has been as easy as pie. Our house has worked fine, too. Astro turf is remarkably soft on bare feet!
Our kids are buying their plane tickets this week, so that's giving us the shape for the summer that we're looking forward to. Glad the Music Festival is back.
See you soon, hope your gardeners have been slaving away and have everything ship shape!! 😍
Bob
——
Lunched today at Church Street Cafe. Lovely oldest house in town, first sold to someone not in the family and made into its present state in 1994.
Year Casa Alegre built!!
Hi Bob and Virginia,
It was so good to hear from you. We are looking forward to your return and to having a chance to get together. We have been home for one month and have enjoyed being here for spring. The weather has been chilly one day and then hot the next. The daffodils have gone by, but the lilacs have opened. Because we finally got some rain, everything is green and very pretty. I am not sure if we told you, but the owner of our condo decided to sell so we do not have a rental for next year. There might be a chance of another rental, but it is doubtful. We have been going to that complex for twelve years so we will miss it if it does not work out. On the other hand, it was very different not having cultural activities. There is still quite a bit of Covid in New Hampshire, so we are still wearing masks in the grocery store etc. We continue to do our walks, and we noticed last week that 5 Emerson Street is for sale and under agreement for $385,000. It is an understatement to say the pictures of the house are awful.I am now quoting Ken-it’s a pig sty. We had Karen and Arthur and Gloria Sterling over for lunch last week. Gloria is doing pretty well. She has a lot of support from friends and family. We will zoom Paul Estes’ funeral this Saturday. We are still watching tv every evening. Most recently, we have been watching Ridley Road on PBS and Candice Renoir on Acorn. Candice is a darling French detective. Politics, Covid and the war continue to depress us. Kudos to Alex Ray and the Common Man for their fund raiser for Ukraine. The Common Man is matching the first million donated. Alex is in Poland currently and is making plans to go once again in the summer. Enjoy your last weeks in New Mexico. Ken is envious of the car (to say the least).
Cheers to you both and a very a happy Birthday to you, Virginia.
Carole and Ken
—-
"Who is more of an outlaw than a saint?" one character in Luis Urrea's Queen of America, thanks to Nicholas for telling me about this author.
this line just in time for Genet.
call with Eloy He wants a copy of our tax return in lieu of the Year End Statement or Schedule C which Juanita never seems to have gotten to us. If I got it, I can't find it. Search in gmail finds Eloy's apology for it not having been sent. His bookkeepers are going over all of the details as VMG transitions away from Juanita's firm to another accounting firm. Pat Kiesel is the name he mentioned. Patricia Pat Kiesel CPA shows up as on LinkedIn.
Lou due shortly for the Swan Swim lunch. Cute videos from the kids this morning, one in English, one is Spanish. Will I like reading Urrea? Have a lot of reading on the plate as it is. Will I stay with Musil? Musil for intelligence and sharpness of insight and mind in general. The story of Ulrich and Agathe is less a story and more of an archetype or something else like that. The incest goes right along with the outlaw-saint motif we know and love so well. Sitter sent a climate crisis piece by Monbiot in the Guardian. Perfectly lucid in argument but I much prefer N's reminders via another of his friends about Lao Tzu's approach to anger. That Life is the best reply to anger as N puts it. I guess by Life he means "tao." I can't get excited about arguing with the climate crisis activists but I guess if it satisfies John, that's fine.
The death of the father in MwQ captures all that we need. "The flowers and potted plants, . . . knew their responsibility better than Ulrich and Agathe. "
Big news from Ancestry.com. After how many years ago did I take their test? Now they say that yes I do have Germanic DNA——48% Germanic Europe, 32 % England and Northwestern Europe, 13 % Scotland, and 7 % Wales. It also now divides the heritage into parent one and parent two.
Lou is having a send off party on June 1st for us. Time to pack up.
cast down by the malfunctioning of the electrify home station!! More than an hour on the phone this morning. Called Ramon C to have him go over the installation. Would not be surprised it that is not up to snuff but will not say anything to Eloy about it until I know further. Wonder if electrify will say anything about the equipment being faulty? How would we prove anything either way? Wonder if EA would send anyone to check on the power installation??? Meanwhile I have the level 1 charger plugged in again. That might have to do until we leave. If necessary go out to a public charger. Will try that on Saturday to see how it could work.
Friday May 20 Chrome being hacked? Internet/computer not behaving. Car plug-in overnight a problem?
unplugging and plugging back in the modem phone calls to Xfinity useless
22 May Sunday
from Genet the other day —-
Mixed in with it, perhaps, was the concern about polluting, through treason, an institution which regards loyalty—or loyalism—as its essential quality. Perhaps I also wanted to get farther away from my own country. (The explanations I am giving occur to me spontaneously. They seem valid for my case. They are to be accepted for mine alone.) In any event, I mean that as a result of a certain frame of mind which is natural to enchantment (finding itself further exalted by my emotion in the presence of nature, endowed with a power recognized by men) I was ready to act not in accordance with the rules of morality but in accordance with certain laws of a fictional aesthetic which makes the spy out to be a restless, invisible, though powerful character. In short, a preoccupation of this kind gave, in certain cases, a practical justification to my entering a country where nothing obliged me to go, except, however, expulsion from a neighboring country.”
— The Thief's Journal by Jean Genet
"What we still refer to as a personal destiny," Ulrich said, "is being displaced by collective processes that can finally be expressed in statistical terms." Musil 785
"Such aimless, purposeless strolling through a town vitally absorbed in itself, . . . all this can evoke the feeling that being a whole and inviolate strolling human being is positively antisocial and criminal. But if one lets oneself go even further in this fashion, this feeling may also unexpectedly produce a physical well-being and irresponsibility amounting to folly, as if the body were no longer part of a world where the sensual self is enclosed in strands of nerves and blood vessels but belongs to a world bathed in somnolent sweetness." 786
from Steve Taylor's newsletter today—-his mum threw out his box of writings he had begun at age 16. Did I begin writing anything then? No memory of that.
"the alchemy of acceptance – when an attitude of acceptance brings positivity and personal growth. and his new poem
Never Enough
All the possessions that you collect
and all the wealth that you accumulate
will never be enough.
All the success that you achieve
and all the attention that you attract
will never be enough.
No matter how far your empire stretches
no matter how absolute your power grows
it will never be enough.
Desires never sleep for long.
Once they’re satisfied, they rise again, like waves,
faster and stronger than before.
Every new desire is more difficult to meet
and brings more shallow, more short-lived fulfilment
until eventually we become numb to happiness
and feel nothing but a raging frustration
that consumes us inside and makes us hate the world.
It will never be enough
until you give up the outer search for happiness
and turn inside yourself.
Beneath the restless surface of your mind
there is a natural harmony -
the radiance of pure consciousness
softly vibrating, glowing with warm vitality
like the freshness of a forest in spring.
The harmony of your deep being
never fades or slips out of reach.
The more you attune to it, the more intense it grows.
The more you touch into it, the closer it moves.
It can’t be exhausted because it’s immaterial
as intangible as air or light.
It can’t be exhausted because it’s eternal
and endlessly renews and refreshes itself.
Be still, and rest inside yourself.
Let your mind settle, and your thoughts slow down
until desires and fears dissolve away.
Then you’ll enter the deep space of being
and harmony will immerse you -
always present, and always enough.
all best wishes and blessings, Steve
Inchausti sent a photo of Mother Teresa as a young woman. Today is Monday the 23rd.
May 24 Ramon here. We need new breakers. He's gone to HD in search, may have to call around. They are in shortage—-due to . . . covid etc.
Colder today. May reach 70. Windy too. Clear and sunny. Great fungi pizza from M'Tucci's last night.
two tweets from the Musil bot that I can use perhaps to craft a review of Haber's new novel——Ramon has found the breakers he needs.
musilquoter (@Daily Musil) Tweeted: "Where art has value, it shows things that few have seen. It is conquering, not pacifying. It, therefore, sees valuable sides and connections in events that horrify others."
musilquoter (@Daily Musil) Tweeted: "to love something as an artist, therefore, means to be shaken not by its ultimate value or lack of value, but by a side of it that suddenly opens up."
Buying this house here in the West has increased our net worth by 18%.
Apart from what our portfolios have done on the stock market.
“Prison offered me the first consolation, the first peace, the first friendly fellowship: I experienced them in the realm of foulness. Much solitude had forced me to become my own companion. Envisaging the external world, its indefiniteness, its confusion, which is even more perfect at night, I set it up as a divinity of which I was not only the cherished pretext, an object of great care and caution, chosen and led in masterly fashion, though through painful and exhausting ordeals, to the verge of despair, but also the sole object of all this labor. And little by little, through a kind of operation which I cannot quite describe, without modifying the dimensions of my body, and perhaps because it was easier to contain so precious a reason for such glory, it was within me that I established this divinity–origin and disposition of myself. I swallowed it. I dedicated to it songs of my own invention. At night I would whistle. The melody was a religious one. It was slow. Its rhythm was somewhat heavy. I thought I was thereby entering into communication with God: which is what happened, God being only the hope and fervor contained in my song.”
— The Thief's Journal (Genet, Jean) by Jean Genet
Last hair cut from Max today. Vietnamese noodles at Kulantro in the Sawmill, once more a fairly poor lunch, walking at Walmart and buying ice cream. Eating a pint of Cherry Garcia on our patio in absolutely perfect weather, tv, a rerun of HG, and a late nap now.
I copy these lines always intending to comment and/or re-work them to fit me better but I do not. Kindle makes the process too easy.
“I dared not even notice the beauty of that part of the world–unless it were to look for the secret of that beauty, the imposture behind it, of which one will be a victim if he trusts it. By rejecting it, I discovered poetry. “All this beauty, however, is meant for me. I am registering it, and I know that it is so conspicuous in order to show how woebegone I am.””
— The Thief's Journal (Genet, Jean) by Jean Genet
Did I read this book a long time ago? Perhaps so. It feels right now.
27 May
“The moon cast my shadow. In every country that I left behind I had stolen and had known prisons. Yet I was not going through Europe but through the world of objects and circumstances, and with an ever fresher ingenuousness. All the wonders I beheld made me uneasy, but I hardened myself further so as to penetrate, without danger to myself, their customary mystery.”
— The Thief's Journal (Genet, Jean) by Jean Genet
30 May Monday
Leslie called today. We lined up what we think will work so they can visit and stay over the night of June 6. Hope it all works out.
Good visit with Roy yesterday and this morning. He got us watching basketball, Heat versus Celtics. We walked in Walmart when of course Leslie phone and I had left the phone in the car. Talked over the watch and then called her back. Watched a sweet Australian hallmarkish love story called Promised. Sicilian community in Melbourne in the '70s.
“Later on, when, without refusing to get excited about a handsome boy, I applied the same detachment, when I allowed myself to be aroused, and when, refusing the emotion the right to rule me, I examined it with the same lucidity, I realized what my love was; on the basis of this awareness I established relationships with the world; this was the birth of intelligence.”
— The Thief's Journal (Genet, Jean) by Jean Genet
Rohr and Genet on the same pages!! from his newsletter today—-"Immortal Diamond is an opportunity to mine for the real you that has been there all along, hidden under the trappings of ego and False Self. As Richard Rohr writes, “Life is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.” We need ego to help us function, succeed, and belong. But if we let it stay in charge, ego stands in the way of living freely and authentically, from our God-given identity and calling. We are called to “die before we die,” to discover that the promise of resurrection is true for each of us, now."
PT session later today and nails. May 31st Lou's party tomorrow eve.
Nicholas ordered a book of letters between Henry Miller and Claude Houghton!
Dear Bob,
I have taken the liberty of having this sent to you because shipping it to Switzerland was eye wateringly expensive! I will pick it up in September but feel free to open it if you had a mind to!
Love and best wishes, Nicholas
Writers Three: A Literary Exchange: On The Works Of Claude Houghton
Author: Miller, Henry & Houghton, Claude & Abramson, Ben: Introduction By Ronald Gottesman
Quantity: 1
Book Description: Literary correspondence between the writers of Tropic Of Cancer and Hudson Rejoins The Herd. First edition, hardcover, a Fine copy still in the publisher's shrinkwrap.
Fine. I'll definitely skim through it. Fascinating trio of correspondents!! I guess one is the editor.
Miller and Houghton!!
Just interested to see a new to me book in your perennial shelf---M Milner's how to
keep a diary! intrigued.
Love from the high desert. We fly next week.
Bob
Following on from A Life of One’s Own and An Experiment in Leisure, Eternity’s Sunrise explores Marion Milner’s way of keeping a diary. Recording small private moments, she builds up a store of ‘bead memories.’ A carved duck, a sprig of asphodel, moments captured in her travels in Greece, Kashmir and Israel, circus clowns, a painting - each makes up a 'bead' that has a warmth or glow which comes in response to asking the simple question: What is the most important thing that happened yesterday?
From these beads – sacred, horrific, profane, funny – grows a sense of an ‘answering activity’, the result of turning one’s attention inwards to experience real joy. What Marion Milner conveys so vividly and inspirationally is her lifelong intention to live as completely as possible in the moment.
With a new introduction by Hugh Haughton, Eternity’s Sunrise will be essential reading for all those interested in reflecting on the nature of their own happiness – whether readers from a literary, an artistic, a historical, an educational or a psychoanalytic/psychotherapeutic background.
Dear Bob,
Marion Milner was wonderful. I knew her in her 90s still working on (probably) her last book. She was born in 1900 and trained as an educational psychologist and wrote three books exploring pathways toward happiness - A Life of One's Own, An Experiment in Leisure (published in the 30s) and Eternity's Sunrise (published in the 60s). They all describe different kinds of experiments in self-awareness, embodiment, and observation. In the 1940s, she trained as a psychoanalyst (Winnicott was her analyst) and, thus, also wrote in that vein (unfortunately)!!! I had her reading Gregory of Nyssa and discussing desire, contemplation, and God over tea moving towards whiskey as evening approached! Her 'On Not Being Able to Paint' is also fascinating when she is not wandering off into Anna Freud and Klein!
Best wishes, Nicholas
As I was leaving Albertson's this evening with bags of groceries, Rich called. We talked as I drove home in heavy traffic on Coors. Beautiful light and air continued from earlier today. We have a good plan. Anne arrives at 2 on Tuesday. Wednesday we will have the morning at our hotel. After noon we will go to Jennifer's house for informal gathering. At 5:30 we will all go to dinner.
Downloaded two of Milner's books. Now I will weave her in with Genet and Musil.
He who binds to himself a joy
Doth the winged life destroy
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise.
Blake
