All That Is

Originally Posted Thursday, April 4, 2013

Gray, wet air bounces tree limbs about and noisily shakes the rain from the leaves in the murky non-light of morning.  There is terrible weather somewhere, I think.  Here is only the spooky reminder of it.  Gusts of wind scare me after my big loss in the hurricane so long ago.  I understand them now, these gusts, how they come in isobar waves, growing stronger and stronger until the last one snaps huge tree trunks in two as if that is what they were meant to do.  It is like nothing I've seen before. 

On the other hand, I enjoy the gray weather that suggests you sit inside with soft music and and a long desired book and plenty of warm liquids.  It is dreamy weather, a respite from the active living that requires so much personal energy.  I would like some tranquil time. 

I have high hopes, too, that there is a good book to read.  I must pick it up this morning as I didn't pre-order it online.  James Salter's "All That Is."  For Salter, all that is is what remains: art and literature.  We live life through memory and he is our most beautiful chronicler of what to remember and how.  He has long been called "a writer's writer."  If you read him much, you will hate writers who do not love the sentence, the word.  He presents a story through atmosphere and mood and moment.  If you love his works, you will be dissatisfied by clumsy writers--dare I say it--like David Foster Wallace--whose works progress through paragraphs and ideas. 

It is supposed to rain here for days.  I may play hooky from the factory tomorrow and lie on the couch and read read away the hours. 

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I am trying to claw my way back to a more artful existence.  I've read more in the last few weeks than I have in many months preceding them.  I am sprucing up the house, both inside and out, trying to bring back the charm it once owned.  I have been sloppy and depressed and have let it go, have let go of it.  But the elements of charm are still here.  I must order and rearrange and augment and enhance.  It is doable.  I once knew how.  I am determined to know how again.