The Edna St Vincent Millay poem reminded me strongly of some of the work of Dorothy Parker, which also reminds me how important the witty covering up of heartbreak - and anything important and revelatory - used to be. Maybe it's no different today - we twitter the important stuff but disguise it as trivia. What's missing most of the time is the wit.
Both Edna St Vincent Millay and Dorothy Porter tell me to stiffen that spine, tip that hat, raise the martini glass and put your best kitten-heeled foot forward.
Which I think would be fine advice if I were living in last century. It's just that we take ourselves and our responsibilities so seriously these days. I have rules - some of them of my own making - about almost everything I do. I thought today, I need to meditate. That will save my life. But is that the way to meditate, I immediately asked myself. Shouldn't you have some moment of epiphany first? And what are the rules? I can't surely just breathe in love and breathe out anger? It must be more complex than that. I'll have to do a course!
Oh dear, and I'm already past my (self-imposed) bedtime....
A blog where I talk about the reading, writing, post the Tuesday Poem and, sometimes, show some knitting.
No comments:
Post a Comment