Has anyone else read "The Elegance of the Hedgehog"? I'm half through and it feels like such an original.
One of the themes in the book is loneliness--how we seem hard-wired for community and really seem to flounder without it.. Thinking, too, about Steve's blog of the concert and how the two people he went with were looking to connect more with him and he was looking to connect more with the music. And even Tim's passing.....how that could have been such a lonely stretch for Tim and Suzanne but instead it was a gorgeous picture of community. A small world, really, built around him and finishing their house with family and friends and Eagles music and drinking and laughter.
So in this book, Elegance of the Hedgehog, it's about one expensive apartment building in Paris and the concierge of the building and a 12 year old resident and the new Japanese owner of one of the apartments. All very subtle and wonderfully rich but yeah, loneliness keeps coming up.
It's been hard for me to live apart from my daughters the last few months and my women friends of long-standing and my wonderful hairdresser/shrink Beau. I really had created such a rich complete world in Colorado. But I go for walks in the dry canyon near our home here and more often then not I walk with one of my Colorado friends via cellphone. So I stay connected with all the richness but I build new life here with Mac. I feel such a completeness here with him. We went for a walk last night in the blustery chilly wind and I could warm my hands in his and then we made our first fire of the season in our woodstove and read by it's warm glow. So this is another world we are co-creating, the world of marital happiness, and it has its own cycles and I am trying to savor all the nuances. That's what I'm learning from the book.....nuances are way cool.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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ReplyDeleteOur older cat, Cora, just walked across my stomach. Now she's standing next to me purring, considering what to do next. She has pretty easy rounds. Lots of alone time to stretch out and sleep. But she also gets out and bonds with nature. In the house she tries her best to stay away from our other cat, Lenny, and our dog, Milo, who like to gang up on her and chase her around. So not all relationships are conducive to satisfying alternatives to aloneness. Or maybe that's not true. Maybe even being picked on beats sheer isolation. But yes, the question of how much alone time is enough, and then what to do when you're topped out.
ReplyDeleteDonna, I think you need a Lear Jet.