Weekly Wikems. Blue.

Hi, everyone,

hope all's well with you.

It's Thursday, and wikems are still showing signs of life :-)

I've just finished "A Spool of Blue Thread." It's wonderfully rich like any of Anne Tyler's books. Perhaps the one that has more surprises than her other novels. 

Do we always know ourselves? Do we really know those who surround us, the closest people - our spouses, parents, siblings, kids?.. Should we always try to get to know them?

Pick up "A Spool of Blue Thread" and dive into Anne Tyler's world. Everything she writes makes you delight in life - a great big tangle of things - so much more.

"Blue" is one of the characters. That prompted my wiki choice for today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue

Here's my contribution:

"The clear sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering." (Wikipedia)

Try telling yourself

the clear sky and the deep sea

are not blue at all - 

you know what you see.
Lord Rayleigh would understand,
for he saw it too,

before he rebelled
against the invisible,
took the light apart.

He used to see it,
before he scattered himself
'long the path of truth.  

Looking forward to your wikems.

Live for the Love of it,

Sasha A. Palmer ("Happy")

The Labor of Love. Part II

If I were to assume a role of a ‘literary doc’, I could probably claim that each of Anne Tyler’s novels has a power to resolve a specific condition.  I could write out prescriptions similar to this one:

Patient:  A longtime married woman, 40-sh, (almost) grownup kids.

Condition:  Does not feel needed, respected, loved.  Wishes she could just take off.

Treatment:  Ladder of Years. 

I am not going to be that ‘doc.’ Any attempt to categorize Anne Tyler will inevitably fail.  Her novels do not specifically target small segments of the audience.  Her writing is much too deep for that.   You do not have to be a married 40-ish woman with grownup kids to immensely enjoy Ladder of Years.  The point is that if you are indeed that woman, there is a good chance you will not merely enjoy the book, but will benefit from it greatly.  Anne Tyler addresses a large number of personal issues, and she deals with them so well that at times a page of her writing can do more healing than a professional session with a psychologist.

I remember reading The Amateur Marriage for the first time.  I did not feel too happy about my own marriage then.  In fact, I felt desperate.  I thought it was coming to an end.  I picked Anne Tyler’s book, and – though I had long dropped the habit – I went on and checked out the ending.  I read the last few pages.  To say that I was moved would not be enough.  I was transformed.  It was all there: love, loss, regret, longing…  It was the essence of beauty and profound sadness. 

I remember thinking, “This man had what I have, and he lost it.  For the rest of his life he is going to long for it, but he will never get it back.  I do not want this to happen to me.  I will do everything to prevent this from happening to me.”  Now, years later, still married, I thank Anne Tyler for reminding me back then that marriage is a labor of love.   

So is great writing – work done for the love of it, and for the sake of others.  Is it not what our life is all about? 

Live for the Love of it,

The Happy Amateur

The Labor of Love. Part I

I want to talk about a very special friend.  A friend who has done so much for me.  A friend who knows me so well, it is scary.  A true friend who rejoices with me when I am happy, and helps me pull through when the times are rough.  We have never met.  To my deepest regret, we probably never will.  She is a great contemporary American writer.  Her name is Anne Tyler.

I am normally a very slow reader.  That is, if I am not reading Anne Tyler.  I still tend to read the same passage over and over again, go back to a particular phrase, etc., but my mind will not be at rest until I have finished Anne Tyler’s novel.  (Not that it will be at rest when the book is finished, either, for I will keep hearing the characters’ voices in my head for quite some time.)  I have not read all of her novels yet.  The ones I have read, I have gulped down:

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons, Saint Maybe, Ladder of Years, A Patchwork Planet, Back When We Were Grownups, The Amateur Marriage, Digging to America.  

They are all gems.  Unique, brilliant, beautiful.  Critics may put them on their scales in an attempt to prove which one weighs more, which one is ‘more of a gem.’  They may look at them through the prism of their criticism, and point out occasional flaws.  Gems will remain gems.  I do not know if gemstones really possess healing properties, but Anne Tyler’s novels surely do.

Apart from being a terrific read, they are among the best counselors one could possibly find.  Subtle, unobtrusive, and yet profoundly convincing.  Never dogmatic, or pushy, they will only offer help if you seek it.  If you do, you will get help, but prepare yourself for a bumpy ride on an emotional roller coaster.  It is not always easy to read Anne Tyler.  Just like it is not always easy to live, or love.  It is a labor.  We have to do our part.    

Live for the Love of it,

The Happy Amateur