Mary - I have to read this posts two or three times just to absorb the basics. So layered and beautifully written! This sentence "I would have dreamt all this because kitchens and men and new men and old ones and getting old and needing repair, and Viking stoves, and big-chested refrigerators are all about love despite what your stomach tells you." stands out - especially that part about what your stomach tells you. So often as we explore new love, our stomach is there sending gentle warnings that are unfortunately easy to ignore in the new found excitement. Another standout post... from the poems to the kitchens to the men... I loved every word.
you do not make it easy to binge this memoir this chapter is like sensing a fresh gush of spring water emanating from an unknowable chasm or cavern in an otherwise pristine clear Florida river exerting the contradictory if magnetic pull of danger and excitement of the unknown beneath... demanding of being able to just float
Mary, I'm so glad I'm re-reading your memoir. I realise now that I read it too quickly the first time around. I really enjoyed it at the time but I didn't give it time to sit with me. Now, I'm taking my time with each chapter (and also applying to them a lot that you've discussed with Eleanor on "This Writing Life") and I can see a lot better the richness of what you did here. I'm particularly enjoying how each chapter takes us in an unexpected direction, while at the same time building on what you shared before.
Literally: If you find yourself traveling at the speed of light, you're already light. Einstein's relativity proves, and countless experimental observations show, that you cannot get there from a lower speed without using all the energy in the universe.
Teacher and Student: Without sex, but like sex, they create something new for both.
Mary, Mary, the lives we lead. This just keeps getting better, the revelations well paced, the ironies, shall we say piquant? The use of Donne, and the selections, is superb. What's your relationship to kitchens now?
This gives new life to "literal meanings." The paragraph beginning: Bongiorno continues to advise ... is so poignant and has stuck. It's wonderful how you have blended Bongiorno's teachings with your own experience. I am going to look up more on Andrew Bongiorno. Thanks, Mary.
What I tried to do here you understand so well in not seeing this as a digression, but instead as a tie to my experiences. Thank you for that close read.
Mary - I have to read this posts two or three times just to absorb the basics. So layered and beautifully written! This sentence "I would have dreamt all this because kitchens and men and new men and old ones and getting old and needing repair, and Viking stoves, and big-chested refrigerators are all about love despite what your stomach tells you." stands out - especially that part about what your stomach tells you. So often as we explore new love, our stomach is there sending gentle warnings that are unfortunately easy to ignore in the new found excitement. Another standout post... from the poems to the kitchens to the men... I loved every word.
Oh, Susan, I'm so glad you are now reading the memoir. We have been meant to connect ... Great comment.
you do not make it easy to binge this memoir this chapter is like sensing a fresh gush of spring water emanating from an unknowable chasm or cavern in an otherwise pristine clear Florida river exerting the contradictory if magnetic pull of danger and excitement of the unknown beneath... demanding of being able to just float
Maybe, just float???
Mary, I'm so glad I'm re-reading your memoir. I realise now that I read it too quickly the first time around. I really enjoyed it at the time but I didn't give it time to sit with me. Now, I'm taking my time with each chapter (and also applying to them a lot that you've discussed with Eleanor on "This Writing Life") and I can see a lot better the richness of what you did here. I'm particularly enjoying how each chapter takes us in an unexpected direction, while at the same time building on what you shared before.
So glad, Ollie. A lovely comment on the writing--and you are correct that I am re-teaching myself, learning all the time, here: https://marytabor.substack.com/s/this-writing-life
You've been such a grand virtual friend. We really must have an in-person when you travel. xo
That would be wonderful Mary! I can see us having dinner and talking all night about literature. I'm looking forward to it coming true one day. ☺️
I really enjoyed this. And Donne's "Teach me to hear mermaids singing" is a gorgeous line, isn't it?
Absolutely agree about Donne's line that feels so au courant--a writer who lasts through time.
Literally: If you find yourself traveling at the speed of light, you're already light. Einstein's relativity proves, and countless experimental observations show, that you cannot get there from a lower speed without using all the energy in the universe.
Teacher and Student: Without sex, but like sex, they create something new for both.
Already light: love that, Bill.
I want to add: How eloquent this comment is, Bill. You should be writing--and my guess is that you are!
Mary, Mary, the lives we lead. This just keeps getting better, the revelations well paced, the ironies, shall we say piquant? The use of Donne, and the selections, is superb. What's your relationship to kitchens now?
Great comment and terrific q. Here's my answer: Complex q., based on how I use the word "kitchens". More coming about kitchens and men.
This gives new life to "literal meanings." The paragraph beginning: Bongiorno continues to advise ... is so poignant and has stuck. It's wonderful how you have blended Bongiorno's teachings with your own experience. I am going to look up more on Andrew Bongiorno. Thanks, Mary.
What I tried to do here you understand so well in not seeing this as a digression, but instead as a tie to my experiences. Thank you for that close read.