November 16, 2013

Visited Peter’s class to talk about Hamlet, a sort of annual event now. What happened was that I learned about Hamlet. The classroom was full of boys. How does he do that?

There are two visions of my life: the one other people have (so they say) of fulfilment and achievement; the one I have of frustration and emptiness. I don’t insist that my view is right, only that I wonder why I have it if it isn’t. To spur me on to greater things? Then who is the spur-master and what are the greater things?

Whole Saturday with not a minute of it pre-scheduled. I quiver with delight, bid the dark to stay a little longer so I can busy about before the others awake.

Vast woodpeckers making the bird feeders sway when they alight.

Tried to get to Rome for New Year’s, but the one return trip the Internet would even show involved either passing through CDG in Paris or a 9 hour layover at Gatwick. Too weary for either option. Facebooked my former students in Nashville and begged them to let me come there.