Mon 16 Jan 2006
12:42 pm

Here are some excerpts, copied into my handwritten journal, from Virginia Woolf’s A Moment’s Liberty, the shorter diary:

“Clive has never forgiven me — for what? His personal remarks always seem to be founded on some reserve of grievance, which he has decided not to state openly.”

“The coarseness of Shakespeare I can see would distress her; she would deal with it intellectually. All her generation use their brains too scrupulously upon books, seeking meaning rather than letting themselves run on for pleasure, which is more or less my way, and thus naturally richest and best.”

“The cold bites through. These last days have been like frozen water, ruffled by the wind into atoms of ice against the cheek; then, in the shelter, forming round you in a still pool.”

“...everything as bright as fire in the mist...”

“Oh detestable time, that thus eats out the heart and lets the body go on.”

“A very fine skyblue day, my windows completely filled with blue.”

“I have made a very clever arrangement on the new board that L gave me for Christmas: ink, pen tray, etc. I never cease to get pleasure from these clever arrangements. So death will be very dull.”

“As for the beauty, as I always say when I walk the terrace after breakfast, too much for one pair of eyes.”

“Maynard not well; cramp in the muscle of the heart. His toes curl up.”

“No statement today. Cabinet meeting. Just as in violent personal anxiety, the public lapses into complete indifference. One can feel no more at the moment.” (talking about peace talks with Hitler before WWII)

“Then over all a feeling of the senselessness, futility, so that there was a dilution of emotion.” (I related this to why people get frustrated but don’t act when it comes to social justice and other issues)

***

School buses didn't run today as there was no guarantee the grid roads would be ploughed early enough. I left Everett at Grandma's overnight again and will pick him up this afternoon. Spent this morning working and must now go outdoors and dig my van out of the snow.