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Published on 01/05/1998 All articles from this issue

From a writer's notebook - 1997

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By Mary Cristy

A View from the Hills

"Each of us feels lucidity only in those whose ideas are in the same state of confusion as our own." Marcel Proust.

"Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world's worst roommate, like having Janis Joplin with a bad hangover and PMS come to stay with you." Ann Lamott, "Bird by Bird."

"When we undergo a change uncelebrated and unmarked, that transition is devalued and rendered invisible." The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book., Susan Page.

"To receive a present handsomely and in a right spirit, even when you have none to give, is to give one in return." Leigh Hunt.

"O, how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad although it was also beautiful. ... And sometimes it seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all; but then it passed and nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning ... or wise ... and still one knew nothing, perhaps was still waiting and listening." Hermann Hesse, "Narcissus and Goldmund"

"The little deer is killed mostly for its musk, used as a perfume base; because one musk pad ( a large gland in the male's belly skin) brings up to $500 in Kathmandu, the musk deer is disappearing from Nepal." Peter Matheissen, "The Snow Leopard."

"Men no longer despise gentleness and tolerance when they feel themselves outwitted." Heinrich Mann, "Young Henry of Navarre."

"Deep grief, deep love, how naturally do these ally themselves with religious feelings and all these - love, grief, religion - are haunters of solitary places." Thomas De Quincy, "Suspiria de Profundis."

"The moment you definitely commit yourself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help you that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in your favor all manner of unseen incidents ... and material assistance which you could never have dreamed would come your way." W.H.Murray, "The Scottish Himalayan Expedition"

Of Dr. Andrew Bell who founded Trinity College, his legally separated wife wrote spitefully and publicly: "To that supreme of rogues who looks the hang-dog that he is ..." and, "To the ape of apes and knave of knaves who is recorded to have once paid a debt - but a small one ..." Thomas De Quincy, "Dr. Samuel Coleridge."

"Because they are bred to produce a maximum of white meat, turkeys today have breasts so massive they can't get close enough to mate, and have to rely on artificial insemination. And thereby lies a turkey's tale." Sharon Tyler Herbst, "Never Eat More Than You Can Lift."

"Burgundy makes you think of silly things, Bordeaux makes you talk of them and champagne makes you do them." Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.

"Every human enrichment, no matter what it be, is but dust, unless by uniting itself to a centre of immortal love, it becomes the most precious and most incorruptible of all things." "The Thought of Teilhard de Chardin," Emile Rideau.

The books from which most of these quotations derive are delightful, mystical, inspirational, informative, provocative, deserving of love, or combinations thereof, and may be obtained through your local library.

Happy reading. Happy New Year!