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| Crown Center irises, May 2019 |
Iris eyes smiling
back at the man who sees
more than a flower
by Judi Walters
haiku posted in a comment
March 30, 2011 at 9:38am
Memories are made of this
Raegan: "The moon smells good."Susannah has a thoughtful post today. I snagged her title: Cleaning Out and Looking Back. Here's the part that caught my attention:
Her mom: "What does it smell like?"
Raegan: "Ladybugs."
"I took the calendars out of the box and sorted through the papers first. Most of the paper is being recycled as it is no longer something I need. The calendars stayed in their pile. Should I keep them? Why should I keep them? I opened the first one from 2004, and I was not prepared for the flood of emotions that came to me. I read of meetings with people I have not seen in years. ... I saw notes about plays and sporting events and parties I attended ... As I turned the pages, I got married, moved to a new state and church, bought a house, said good-bye to my best friend, watched my husband graduate, said good-bye to family members while welcoming others to the family. So many memories in these pages."Looking back at memories is something I've been doing during this time at home alone. (Sorry, Clawdia, I meant home without other humans.) I'm not reading as much, though I've set up a book discussion for anyone who has the book Purple Hibiscus or has already read it. I, too, have been sorting through books and papers and tossing stuff.
Yesterday, I gave a couple of books to Rosita, who told me a few years ago that she's from Egypt. She had called to say she'd heard I was "the librarian" and could I maybe get her a couple of books out of our closed and locked library. No, I don't have access to that, but I could give her my own books. I asked her what she likes to read and who her favorite authors are. "Anything!" was her answer. She's also a knitter, but has run out of yarn and run out of books. She sounded so frustrated. I chose a couple of novels from my shelves and took them in a bag to hang on her door. Since I had called first to let her know I was coming, she met me at the door on her electric scooter and thanked me profusely. One frustration taken care of.
Walter Richard Sickert’s interpretation of boredom, which is in the Ashmolean Museum, shows another couple of bored people.
ennui / en·nui / änˈwē / noun = a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement. Example: "He succumbed to ennui and despair."I had a hard time making myself keep reading the last book in the Little Women series by Louisa May Alcott, Jo's Boys, and How They Turned Out (1886), which I rated 4 of 10 ("struggled to finish, but not worth it"). The reason I'm quoting it now is that I came across the word "ennui" three times in the text:
- "If one could have a fine house, full of nice girls, or go travelling, the summer would be delightful; but to stay at home with three selfish sisters and a grown-up boy was enough to try the patience of a Boaz," complained Miss Malaprop, after several days devoted to pleasure, fretting, and ennui (loc. 2205).
- "Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone; it keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion" (loc. 2328).
- "I think I was dying of ennui" (loc. 16186).
I made myself finish Jo's Boys as well, and, I, too, found it tough to get through. I remembered it more fondly than I found it this time. I skimmed a fair amount of it, and I think that's probably been true when I've read it in the past. The parts I remembered and really liked were the part where Jo is a celebrity, and then the 3 stories of the boys, Emil's Thanksgiving, Dan's Christmas, and Nat's New Year.
ReplyDeleteI remember each of those three boys "coming home" as young men, but I had not noticed it was at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Reading it is confusing because the author gives each character several names and sometimes gives two characters the SAME name — John married Meg, and their son John was called Demijohn or Demi for short and sometimes (unless I've confused him with another character) he's referred to as the little professor. Then there's Jo. who is also called Mrs. Jo and Mrs. Professor, a favorite character from each of the Little Women books, and the little girl named Josie, who was sometimes also called Jo.
ReplyDeleteSo not only do we have LOTS of characters, but they have lots of names and nicknames. It was also confusing that "Dolly" was a boy, though for me Dolly is a girl's name, as in Dolly Madison. Dolly was short for Adolph — or was it Adolphus? And I think there were Ned, Ted, and Todd. After awhile, I just didn't care.