Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mermaid Quilt, Annie Dillard book

This was such fun to work on. The stitching doesn't show too well, but I included a seahorse and a crab in the background quilting.I've recently finished reading The Maytrees by Annie Dillard. It took forever to read - I was constantly going back to reread passages that I couldn't make sense of. However, one page in particular caught my brain on fire (figuratively speaking).
Lou hoped scandalously to live her own life. A subnormal calling, since civilization means cities and cities mean social norms. She wanted only to hear herself think.
.... ....The one-room ever-sparer dune shack was her chief dwelling from which only hurricane or frost exiled her. Over decades, she had reclaimed what she had forfeited of her own mind, if any. She took pains to keep outside the world's acceleration. .... ....In the past few years she had let go her ties to people she did not like, to ironing, to dining out in town, and to buying things not necessary and that themselves needed care. She ignored whatever did not interest her. With those blows she opened her days like a pinata. A hundred freedoms fell on her. She hitched free years to her lifespan like a kite tail. Everyone envied her the time she had, not noticing that they had equal time.

1 comment:

Please - share your wisdom...