Month: April 2007

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.
– Bertrand Russell

Glorious sunny day in New York. Slept fitfully last night, and woke up to run only to find my ipod crapping out after 2 miles. Alas, alas. Of course with no music and no mileage being tracked I had to stop (how’s that for determination?). Talk about needing outside validation. Pathetic!

Standing outside Lever House last night with a colleague, waiting for our car, I bumped into Tim walking home … moments like that make New York – and the world in general – feel small. Nice! Next visit I plan to see Alexandra and the children.

Seeing Leonora & Frank for brunch & bloodies this weekend, which will be great. Plus the CES auction which is always good for a rowdy evening.

In New York for two days, and found this picture on my cell phone. It just makes me laugh. This is a kid who knows how to pout.
On the subject of children, tonight I get to see Schuyler and her almost-one-year-old, Roscoe, tonight, and Missy and her bump! Babies all around.
Have I mentioned that I love my job??!!!

I simply adore Eat, Pray, Love. Somehow, especially because I am listening to it, I feel like I’m talking to myself, or listening to myself talk. I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s writing style, her topic is salient, and I find myself alternately laughing and nodding in somber agreement.

A long passage – but so far my favorite:

“I know the sad longing to delay the end of another February 4. This sadness is one of the great trials of the human experiment. As far as we know, we are the only species on the planet who have been given the gift – or curse, perhaps – of awareness of our own mortality. Everyone here eventually dies; we’re just the lucky ones who get to think about this fact every day. How are you going to cope with this information? …. over the years, my hypersensitive awareness of time’s speed led me to push myself to experience life at a maximum pace. If I were going to have such a short visit one earth, I had to do everything possible to experience it now….
I should say here that I’m aware not everyone goes through this kind of metaphysical crisis. Some of us are hardwired for anxiety about mortality, while some of us just seem more comfortable with the whole deal. You meet a lot of apathetic people in this world, of course, but you also meet some people who seem able to gracefully accept the terms upon which the universe operates and who genuinely don’t seem troubled by its paradoxes and injustices….
Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time – when pursued like a bandit – will behave like one; always remaining one county or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door of the motel just as you’re banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant. You have to admit that you can’t catch it. That you’re not supposed to catch it. At some point, as Richard keeps telling me, you gotta let go and sit still and allow contentment to come to you.
Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well – that would be the end of the universe.”

How can one not smile when offered this “card” by a happy 4 1/2 year old?

Listening to Eat, Pray, Love in the car – I love it. One passage resonated. Elizabeth (narrator and memoirist) writes about learning of a family whose mother and three year old son were both diagnosed with cancer in one year. Her reaction: “Oh, wow. That family needs grace.” Her sister’s reaction: “Oh, wow. That family needs casseroles.” And how, ultimately, casseroles are grace.

I thought of that as I picked up Byron and Sarah for swimming yesterday (their mother, my friend, is in the hospital), dropping off a dinner and some cupcakes.

And, right now, I sure could use a little grace. If it takes the form of casseroles, I guess I’m open to it. First choice would be the universe making itself a little bit clearer to me, though a cheese and breadcrumb topping ain’t a bad idea.