1. rub honey into the night's back.
2. make sure the moon is fed.
3. bathe the ocean
4. warm sing the trees
(nayyirah waheed)
Warning: the following entry will be filled with nothing but good news, without even including the plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech. Which was adorable.
How about this business of us having another moon?! I told a friend about this and he replied: US??? Yes! Earth has our usual moon, AND apparently a tiny (perhaps 300 feet across) other moon. It is not an asteroid (circling the sun), it is circling us.
I find this incredibly romantic. A tiny moon has quietly been circling for a long time; and like all loyal people in our lives, it doesn't go very far, no matter how ridiculous we get.
Also I don't need to point out the obvious: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was probably more intuitive than we even knew. The Little Prince was the first book I read that blew my mind. The first book that I knew was too much for me to handle: so clearly important; so clearly over my head.
I mean the whole draw a box because you can't draw a sheep thing nearly stopped me cold (you can do that???!!).
Apparently the story was a lot about de Saint-Exupéry's own life—"his search for childhood certainties and interior peace, his mysticism, his belief in human courage and brotherhood, and his deep love for his wife Consuelo, but also an allusion to the tortured nature of their relationship."
Which explains a lot: there is no better inspiration for good writing than a tortured relationship: a love that is impossible to fix or end.
"Election Day dawned like any good June day in Iceland: overcast and in the forties. Guðni had said that he was going to spend the day relaxing at a football match, and had invited me along. We met for lunch at his headquarters, where cake and coffee had been laid out, with Icelandic zeal. I counted at least twelve kinds of cake and six kinds of cookie, and scarcely a sign of a savory dish. Icelanders feel about eating cake the way New Yorkers feel about not eating cake: it is a sign of their relentless commitment to self-improvement. (The hot coffee, I was assured, kept the cake from being unduly caloric.)"
So to repeat: there is a country on our planet, in our solar system, circled by at least two moons where the people drink coffee at any time of day or night with impunity. Moreover, they maintain that drinking coffee with cake reduces the calories of the cake.
That's like saying mashed potatoes are healthy if you eat them while drinking tequila. Oh stop tutting! I dare you to find the research that refutes this!
We are winding down here in Portugal, our strange little oasis of pink tourists and fish restaurants. An island of jolly hockey sticks in the middle of a laid back latin country.
I picked up Thomas on our way to tennis and he was by the side of the road in his straw hat, holding a tennis racket and his golf bag. If only I had had a camera....says it all really.
More good news for the bloggies: we are soon going to one Schloss Elmau for Michael's b day. That rare vacation experience that combines excessive exercise with lectures by German nihilists. Frankly, I am atwitter: so many depressed intellectuals to flirt with, so little time.
Finally, in case Andrew and I ever feel we have done little right as parents-I would direct your attention to the sweetest duo of F and Hanna. She says she likes to talk to him because he is funny and he listens. One evening I found them on the floor of the bathroom: he face down on the bath mat "trying to get some sleep" and Hanna prattling on at his side. On her last night, per Wehlen tradition, Frederick gave this toast:
"Here's to Hanna: It is a treat that you even exist; and such a miracle. And it is a treat that you have survived, though that is slightly less of a miracle statistically speaking.
Thanks for coming to Portugal."
Who says two semesters of Exeter Biology don't a romantic make ?
1 comment:
Wow drop everything just write. Ma
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