Friday, May 12, 2023

Big Plans

By my second reading of Jonathan Frantzen's The Corrections, my impressions of most of the family complication fell away and the last line remained foremost in my mind: "She was seventy-five and she was going to make some changes in her life." What an amazing sentence.

Time is the answer to everything, isn't it? "Had we but world enough and time..." says Andrew Marvell to his "coy" mistress who may be buying time, rather than biding it.

From Futurity magazine, via my principal, here's "Study Debunks Myth of the Fast Learner." What if I'm only now learning what most of you learned as children? What if I never learn what you know so deeply, you can barely express it? No, says Futurity, you're not behind. You just think you are.

What if we actually know the truth so deep down in our bones that it goes without saying: Love is the answer. Truth is the daughter of time. Practice kindness and compassion and joy in all things. The struggle is real. Black lives matter. Each breath is a precious gift. Focus on your breath and make your exhale longer than your inhale.

Nora is leaving and Mia is making noise about following her out of the nest.