15 March 1983: Rebecca West

Dame Rebecca West died on 15 March 1983. She was ninety.

Rebecca West

Rebecca West

“It is always one’s virtues and not one’s vices that precipitate one into disaster.”-Rebecca West

“It isn’t only living people who die, it is great stretches of living, which can die even when the people who lived there still exist.”-Rebecca West, The Birds Fall Down

Fun Fact: Rebecca West and H.G. Wells were the parents of author Anthony West (1914-1987). The latter had a contentious-at-best relationship with his mother, who never married his much-adored father. Let’s just say that his childhood was a sticky, complicated mess and leave it at that.

Since I’ll Likely Never Top Last Year’s Birthday Letter to Jack Kerouac, Here it is Again

[This originally appeared on the blog one year ago.]

Oh, Jean-Louis. You problematic, magnetic SOB. Ninety-two years to the day after your birth, and we-the writers, readers, and open souls of the world-still cannot escape your torturous orbit. As for me: my heart is willing, but my mind is not quite able to sprint the final few yards into your embrace. I promise to try again, like I always do. You know how it goes. It’s not you, it’s me. It’s not me, it’s you. It’s the two of us, together. I love you and hate you and love-hate-hate-love you. This dance we do will never end; the steps and the rhythm will change, but the tune will echo to eternity. Until next time.

Love and kisses and shrugs,

Maedez

On the Road

On the Road

“I was surprised, as always, by how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.”-Jack Kerouac

[Alternative Muses] Coming and Going: Elizabeth Barrett Browning/Georgia O’Keeffe Mashup

“Earth’s crammed with heaven…But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”-Elizabeth Barrett Browning (born on 6 March 1806)

Blue #2 by Georgia O'Keeffe, circa 1916

Blue #2 by Georgia O’Keeffe (died on 6 March 1986), circa 1916.

Mostly It Is Loss/Our Revels Are Now Ended

For my friend Glen, who died yesterday.

Arthur Schopenhauer Quote

Arthur Schopenhauer Quote

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air: And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.”-William Shakespeare, The Tempest