Reading and writing

[In writing group, we each drew three random words to write from. Mine were joy, despair, create. And then we were off . . . . ]

"He don't have no despair," says Faulkner's character in "The Spotted Horses." It is such a joy to go back to reading Faulkner after years away. How was he able to create such true-to-Southern-life characters? The class is a joy, reading him again is a joy, and it inspires me, just as his work used to do, when I was much younger.

Reading Faulkner requires the willingness to pay close attention, and be willing to read slowly his long, dense sentences, sometimes whole paragraphs, with no punctuation at all. But I'm enjoying it so much again, that it's worth the effort.

During that period in my life, I read Southern writers almost exclusively. I have Faulkner books on my shelf that I haven't touched in years. Now I want to go back to them again. I also have other books by Southern writers, and one book about Southern writers.

Isn't it funny the reading tangents we go on? From teen fantasy (the Eragon trilogy my grandchildren introduced to me), back to quality literature. And missing my friend Jeaninne all the time, for the book lists we used to share.

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[The next assignment came from "Numbers," by Mary Cornish. Addressing the question, "What have you recently added to your life? What do you need to subtract from it?]

What have I added to my life lately? Writing group. It's brought fun back into my life, and gotten my brain going again. I've been wanting to record my memories, so that my daughter and my grandchildren will have something to refer to when they are curious about what life was like for me, growing up in Oak Ridge. So now having an outlet for those memories gives me great pleasure.

What I need to subtract from my life is the accumulation of junk that builds up all around me. This is harder than I realized--harder than it sounds. Every time I want to clear out my books, I come upon books I haven't read in a long time--like the Faulkner books. So how am I going to dispose of Faulkner, when I've just rediscovered him? "What a puzzlement!" as the King of Siam told Anna.

I have this dream of organizing all the parts of my life--and adding and subtracting perfectly. And that someday I'll have a lovely comfortable home surrounded by my books, my stitching, and my family (including Toby, of course). Somehow I don't think this is a very realistic goal. Somehow that perfection doesn't seem very attainable.

Adding and subtracting--I always did have trouble with numbers!