Oh Mary you just tear at my heart sometimes. Isn't it sad that as we age we can all say that we can relate to so many different things, on so many different levels? And why is it, watching all those movie clips I find myself with tears in my eyes? Is it the rueful memory of youth, and the first kiss forgotten, only to be brought up again and revisited anew?
What a heart-breaking-mending chapter. And in the spirit of kinsugi, where restored vases celebrate the break with gold-flecked glue, you too, are more beautiful from the fall.
I remember reading Graham Greene's 'Journey Without Maps' in my late teens or early twenties. His journey was set in an actual place, Liberia. But I always took it as very much a metaphor for how life might go. And I think that's how I've experienced it.
I find that with each chapter, you amaze us and throw us more puzzles to solve - about you, but also about ourselves. Wonderful.
I liked this story chapter - deeply personal, vulnerable. As an older man myself, I can imagine why D. might have had problems with intimacy, especially a spontaneous blowjob. Things don’t work the same way now, for me anyway. But, I don’t blame you. The issue is that you didn’t know why he turned you down, only that he did. Great map joke and timely. Passed it on to some Jewish college friends. Getting excited about invitations from D. about getting together, and without a blowjob.
The metaphor of an unsettled map is powerful and apt. The metaphor can be applied to an individual, but it can also be applied to countries, because an unsettled map typically means a war is underway as a means of setting, or trying to set, new boundaries.
The wisdom that comes from the vase that broke reads like a hug. Like, embrace the fall and the restoration and even restoration is not the right word, I think, as the vase that broke will never be like before but perhaps better for having made that journey. And also, we're not self-made and how we need the "other." Another stunning chapter and this one has had an even bigger impact to me.
This may be my favorite chapter of yours, Mary, because of all that it holds in tension. That recipe looks delicious (even with my lactose intolerance), but the scene it conjures is heartbreaking. I find D's jokes hilarious (I'm an inveterate teller of ribald jokes, myself), but they are not funny at all in context. This is what Ben Percy calls the art of reversal. He uses the scene in Jaws when the men are laughing and swapping dating stories as an illustration. Suddenly Quint recalls a shark attack years ago that he barely survived, and the mood shifts. We're made defenseless by the humor and then feel the gut punch more. I like your chapter better as an illustration. Heartbreaking (but I'll be sharing those jokes..., and they made me feel your pain much more keenly)
Oh Mary you just tear at my heart sometimes. Isn't it sad that as we age we can all say that we can relate to so many different things, on so many different levels? And why is it, watching all those movie clips I find myself with tears in my eyes? Is it the rueful memory of youth, and the first kiss forgotten, only to be brought up again and revisited anew?
What a heart-breaking-mending chapter. And in the spirit of kinsugi, where restored vases celebrate the break with gold-flecked glue, you too, are more beautiful from the fall.
So much to get one's teeth into here...
I remember reading Graham Greene's 'Journey Without Maps' in my late teens or early twenties. His journey was set in an actual place, Liberia. But I always took it as very much a metaphor for how life might go. And I think that's how I've experienced it.
I find that with each chapter, you amaze us and throw us more puzzles to solve - about you, but also about ourselves. Wonderful.
Mary, this is heartbreaking and delicious in equal measure - and by 'delicious' I don't only mean the food... 🙂
I liked this story chapter - deeply personal, vulnerable. As an older man myself, I can imagine why D. might have had problems with intimacy, especially a spontaneous blowjob. Things don’t work the same way now, for me anyway. But, I don’t blame you. The issue is that you didn’t know why he turned you down, only that he did. Great map joke and timely. Passed it on to some Jewish college friends. Getting excited about invitations from D. about getting together, and without a blowjob.
The metaphor of an unsettled map is powerful and apt. The metaphor can be applied to an individual, but it can also be applied to countries, because an unsettled map typically means a war is underway as a means of setting, or trying to set, new boundaries.
The wisdom that comes from the vase that broke reads like a hug. Like, embrace the fall and the restoration and even restoration is not the right word, I think, as the vase that broke will never be like before but perhaps better for having made that journey. And also, we're not self-made and how we need the "other." Another stunning chapter and this one has had an even bigger impact to me.
This may be my favorite chapter of yours, Mary, because of all that it holds in tension. That recipe looks delicious (even with my lactose intolerance), but the scene it conjures is heartbreaking. I find D's jokes hilarious (I'm an inveterate teller of ribald jokes, myself), but they are not funny at all in context. This is what Ben Percy calls the art of reversal. He uses the scene in Jaws when the men are laughing and swapping dating stories as an illustration. Suddenly Quint recalls a shark attack years ago that he barely survived, and the mood shifts. We're made defenseless by the humor and then feel the gut punch more. I like your chapter better as an illustration. Heartbreaking (but I'll be sharing those jokes..., and they made me feel your pain much more keenly)