Keep on keeping on
"so much that's worthy occurs by accident"
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I did a 21-day meditation thing with Alicia Keys and Deepak Chopra. It was good guidance for me, as my meditation practice slips and needs reinforcements now and then. I’m not feeling so good lately — in body and soul, to tell you the truth. I’m not going to muse and mull over reasons like I might have in the past. They are actually quite obvious and go beyond the pandamnic. My own navel-gazing doesn’t much interest me. My good friend said yesterday, You should write about it. We are fully bodies, aren’t we, and I am a body hunted by a hunter hare-brained with a stupid gun and deadly aim.
I marvel at the faithful.
I fantasize nearly every day these days about a reading retreat. The things I want are to be alone with woods nearby, rain, a pile of New Yorkers, a book or two. I’d like three nights. I don’t want this recreated at home. I don’t know if this is possible. Send me a box of rain.
Reader, what are you reading? I am working on a re-read of Jane Eyre and then Wide Sargosso Sea, preparing for a scholarly class in late July. Doesn’t that sound deeply satisfying? I’m considering a class on capitalism — on unhooking from it. The class is led by two women, one of whom, Jen Lemen, has taught me so much over the last year that I can’t even write about it, yet. I have finished a sometimes laugh out loud, fairly light but beautifully written novel called Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. I’m also re-reading with my various students: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and some magical realism. I was struck by this poem by Stephen Dunn the other day. It’s called “The Contrarian’s Advice to Himself” and it was published in the online magazine “Rattle.” Here’s the link. I love that last bit:
And if you believe that genetics
has given you one face
but your job is to create
for yourself another, try not to worry
when you fail. So much that’s worthy
occurs by accident. The Bible
couldn’t have been written by people
who thought they were writing the Bible.
I’ve said it before, but reading is my only constant.
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A rainy reading retreat sounds like pretty much how I wish I could spend my life 💙 Also a class on capitalism. I have a gazillion books to read, but it sounds like you've been having input from other sources -- would love to hear more!
I'm reading Jeremy DeSilva's book First Steps on the evolution of bipedalism. He's a paleoanthropologist and a very accessible writer (I took his bipedalism class on EdX and it was a lot of fun). Tried to read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash because so many people reference it but it was just too much work (difficult syntax for me to engage with + published in 1992 so a ton of outdated and over-explained stuff about the internet). Read the Murderbot series twice because it was fun. And Sara Wolf's Bring Me Their Hearts, which is a kind of YA not-really-zombies with a snarky main character who doesn't overdo it. Definitely a romance novel element and I don't really enjoy romances but it was fun enough I didn't mind that aspect.
Meditation can be so good for the body and mind. Then, why am I not practicing? Like you, I'm off and on about it. My wish for you is that you are able to make your reading retreat come true.