Notes:
- Photo: Krzysztof Niewolny @ Grudziądz, Polska. (via Unsplash)
- Background on Caleb/Wednesday/Hump Day Posts and Geico’s original commercial: Let’s Hit it Again.
Tag: Quotes
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
I don’t have the energy to run around in a leotard and anklets, but I see how old people get used to dust and stickiness, mild filth and mildewed towels. It’s not because they are too blind or weak to do anything about these problems necessarily but because they have just seen too much. When you’ve buried all your closest friends, how worked up can you get about a trace of lipstick on a coffee cup or a ribbon of dust on the frame of the photo of someone you’ll never see again? You’ve buried two wives and two brothers who loved you and left you—how seriously can you take the worn spot (now sort of a hole) at the back of the chair? Perspective is useful, of course: It’s why very few people want to be eighteen again. But the other side is having so much perspective, it’s hard to give a damn about anything happening here in the real.
― Amy Bloom, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (Random House, March 8, 2022)
Notes:
- Portrait of Amy Bloom and Brian Ameche along with Background story: People.com – Novelist Amy Bloom Shares ‘Excruciating’ Journey After Her Ailing Husband Chose to Die By Assisted Suicide
- NY Times Book of the Week: When Her Husband Said He wanted to Die, Amy Bloom Listened
Guess.What.Day.It.Is?
Notes:
- Photo: Khloe Arledge. (via Unsplash)
- Background on Caleb/Wednesday/Hump Day Posts and Geico’s original commercial: Let’s Hit it Again.
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
He points to those with hidden symptoms in a chapter reflecting on the deaths of Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade and Alan Krueger. There is mental and physical agony in this life, and Bruni does not judge anyone’s decisions; rather, he grieves the losses and appreciates the grace. There is virtue in stoicism, but there is also danger in what strong people can hide. His own situation has made him even more keen to understand the other whose public face contradicts a private suffering. He proposes that each person should have a sandwich board listing her pain and how she adapts: “Imagine that our hardships, our hurdles, our demons, our pain were spelled out for everyone around us to see.” Bruni’s sandwich board would read: “Eyesight compromised, could go blind.”
You ask, why announce your troubles? Doesn’t everyone have something? “Well, yes. Tell us anyway,” I think Bruni would reply. Maybe if we knew, we might slow down, turn and fumble toward each other. Perhaps, then I could say that you’re not alone, and I’m rooting for you, because I am.
— Min Jin Lee, in her book review of Frank Bruni’s “The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found” titled “Eyesight Compromised. Could Go Blind.” (NY Times Book Review, Feb 28, 2022). Bruni had a rare stroke several years ago which damaged his optic nerve and severely impaired his eyesight. Read more here.
Guess.What.Day.It.Is?
Notes:
- Someone’s not happy about the Ukraine situation either.
- Photo: Ricardo Gomez Angel @ Gizeh, Ägypten. (via Unsplash)
- Background on Caleb/Wednesday/Hump Day Posts and Geico’s original commercial: Let’s Hit it Again.