January 22, 2011

At this hour, the windows of one house on Sunset Mountains blaze into my windows unbearable golden brilliance from the setting sun.

Lectured on Blake’s cosmology to two classes last week, and had to smile at the recognition of its truth in my own life. I cannot be awake long, cannot go about my activities long, without being engaged in spiritual war, all my armies arrayed on the horizon. Therefore almost every spare moment is spent in sleep, the rule of Tharmas, at once escaping from battle and strengthening myself for it.

Bought a floor lamp from an antiques store on Broadway. The owner tried to guess where I was from. He didn’t believe it was here, or, more distantly, Ohio. I told him I visited England often and that seemed to him nearer to the truth. That I am a resident of his town was too outrageous to believe. I have been in his store twenty times. Must have made no impression heretofore.

Tom and I were talking a little too long about things he didn’t know this morning at Starbucks, so Jack turned to me and said, “Do you have any children?” He has three strong sons, if I remember rightly. It leveled the field immediately. No, it put him on the high ground.