Lightly Child. Lightly.

Posted on by Live & Learn

Nothing to be done, he thinks, nothing at all. Short-term memory loss is an inevitable part of growing old, and if it’s not forgetting to zip your zipper, it’s marching off to search the house for your reading glasses while you’re holding the glasses in your hand, or going downstairs to accomplish two small tasks, to retrieve a book from the living room and to pour yourself a glass of juice in the kitchen, and then returning to the second floor with the book but not the juice, or the juice but not the book, or else neither one because some third thing has distracted you on the ground floor and you’ve gone back upstairs empty-handed, having forgotten why you went down there in the first place. It’s not that he didn’t do those kinds of things when he was young, or forget the name of this actress or that writer or blank out the name of the secretary of commerce, but the older you become, the more often these things happen to you, and if they begin to happen so often that you barely know where you are anymore and can no longer keep track of yourself in the present, you’re gone, still alive but gone. They used to call it senility. Now the term is dementia, but one way or the other, Baumgartner knows that even if he winds up there in the end, he still has a long way to go. He can still think, and because he can think, he can still write, and while it takes a little longer for him to finish his sentences now, the results are more or less the same. Good.

— Paul Auster, Baumgartner: A Novel (Atlantic Monthly Press, November 7, 2023)

Notes:

  • 50% thru a short book. Man can write.
  • NY Time Book Review by Fiona Maazel, November 6, 2023: “Paul Auster Walks the Long Valley of Grief in a New Novel. In ‘Baumgartner,’ a professor contends with mortality and the haunting memory of his wife.”
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

34 thoughts on “Lightly Child. Lightly.”

  2. I read the few Amazon comments and this one stuck with me:
    “A person has no life without being connected to others, and if you’re lucky enough to be deeply connected to another person, so connected that the other person is as important to you as you are to yourself, then life becomes more than possible, it becomes good.”
    Your short review and recommendation would normally make me order a copy right away. (no longer possible, I still have too many books to read before not seeing anything anymore) – and I would have liked to read the NYT review too, only to gorge a bit more on this gifted writer.

  3. Just read something quite pertinent to our tendency to clutter our minds with things we need to do… Sorry I can’t link it for us.

    “The Red Queen Fallacy

    In Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, Alice finds herself in a strange world, where everything seems to be backwards, a lesson she learns as she begins running with a mysterious character known as The Red Queen.

    “The Queen kept crying “Faster! Faster!” but Alice felt she could not go faster.” No matter how fast Alice ran, she never got to where she was going. “However fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.” Finally, the Queen propped Alice “up against a tree, and said kindly, “You may rest a little now.”

    As Alice catches her breath, the Queen explains that life works a little differently in her strange country:

    “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

    The parable of the Red Queen¹ has become a warning for modern life, where many of us inhabit that same type of strange country. We too often experience our existence as a frantic race to keep up, a frenzy of typing fingers and stressful calendars, racing toward an unknown destination but never quite arriving.” [cf Brian Klaas]

    When I was 4 and 5, I found Lewis Carroll’s books intriguing but I felt a bit creeped out. Now, I’m amazed by his wisdom and creativity.

    1. Love this Valerie. Thank you. This is my favorite passage:

      Alice came to a fork in the road. “Which road do I take?” she asked. “Where do you want to go?” responded the Cheshire cat. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then,” said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

      Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

      1. So, I always thought it was “giddy up” and I had to look to Google to see what was up. Turns out “ap” is the American spelling, and for that I feel you have betrayed us Canadians…

  6. …and to add to the impressive list of books and quotes, my thought process immediately went to “Wherever you go, there you are”. My sister bought this for me as I was grappling with idea of retirement – complicated further by my ability to perseverate as a matter of course. Huxley, Carroll, the Scarecrow in The Wizard Of Oz – all share the common denominator of connection; underscoring the comfort derived from relationships – they must be intertwined so that we know we’re ok – and not alone

    2. Once again Mimi sends me to the dictionary lol. “Perseverate”… A wonderful word 🙂

      Perhaps I took a wrong turn studying computer science in college rather than English and composition. Computer science terms/acronyms/vocabulary are, by definition, obsolete within about three years lol. English on the other hand (thank God) continues to appear timeless (for the most part anyway.)

      I know some interesting obsolete phrases and acronyms. A couple of examples:

      EBCDIC: which stands for “Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Character set”.

      Actually, I think I will quit there. I think you get the idea… Lol.

      3. I don’t know…Paul, you certainly have an impressive command of the English language – and now you’re adding cryptic acronyms to the mix…Given their rapid obsolescence, I would say you have a better command (see? The only computer term I know, also an instruction given to a dog if that’s your thing) of the language than most…😉

  7. Well, I love Canada and have Canadian relatives, but I am 100% American (and less proud of it as the years go by sadly)… But I have NEVER heard the expression: “Giddyap!”… so I will enjoy being proud of that for a few minutes 🙂

  8. So many great exchanges here. What a beautiful, intelligent, and kind-hearted group you assembled here, Dave. Thanks for that.

  9. It’s funny though, he speaks of thinking, thinking – if a thought leaves my head, I simply presume I have used my brain too much, and it’s a sign to get out and use my body!

    1. Beth, you are in very fine company:

      Let your mind and heart release all that disturbs you. Let your body be still, and all the frettings of your body, and all that surrounds it -let the earth and sea and air be still, and heaven itself; and then think of spiritas streaming, pouring, rushing, and shining into you, through you, and out from you in all directions while you sit quiet. – Plotinus

      You and Plotinus

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