Getting Lost Isn’t Always a Bad Thing
“Deep in the forest there’s an unexpected clearing that can be reached only by someone who has lost his way.” -Tomas Transtromer
Oh, Brother
Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that. -Ally Condie, Matched
I found this quote this morning and tucked it into my Christmas letter. Obviously, I was thinking of my kids, but then I remembered the wonderful weekend at Leavenworth in September with my husband’s family. The featured photo is of my dad with his older brothers, circa 1938, but ain’t none of us getting any younger.
So, in the midst of all the holiday bustle, that’s what I want to write about today.
Happy Birthday, Grace Paley
One of my favorite writers, Grace Paley, was born on this day in 1922. (The link will take you to her 1992 Paris Review interview.) She is best remembered for her short stories, and once, at the library, I found a set of cassette tapes of her reading her own fiction. If these are ever released on CD, I will be the first in line to buy them.
Paley was also well known for her political activism, and she wrote poetry. Here’s one, from Fidelity, published in 2008:
Anti-Love Poem
Sometimes you don’t want to love the person you love
you turn your face away from that face
whose eyes lips might make you give up anger
forget insult steal sadness of not wanting
to love turn away then turn away at breakfast
in the evening don’t lift your eyes from the paper
to see that face in all its seriousness a
sweetness of concentration he holds his book
in his hand the hard-knuckled winter wood-
scarred fingers turn away that’s all you can
do old as you are to save yourself from love
curiouser and curiouser…
I think that “curiouser and curiouser” is a line from Alice in Wonderland. Stephanie Dowrick repeats it in the writing prompt I worked on this morning. Curiosity is a recurring theme in her book, Creative Journal Writing–in my journal a couple of days ago I copied out this line: “You can become curious about a complex situation rather than overwhelmed by it” (15). Now, if I can just remember that, the next time a complex situation pops up. (A friend suggested, “Visualize yourself stepping back.” )
But, curious. When I was a little girl, my mother used to say to me, “Curiosity killed the cat,” which always made me…curious. How did curiosity kill the cat? What was the cat curious about? What about its nine lives? Did curiosity kill the cat all nine times? Or just once? Did it learn its lesson after that? Could we have saved the cat, if we’d been there?
Was my curiosity going to kill me?
It turns out, not. I’m still here. I’m still asking questions.
Also, if anyone would like to give me $2,100 for Christmas, I would like to go to New Zealand next summer and take a weeklong writing workshop with Stephanie. Picture my cheshire cat grin here. 