Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Blessings
I finished Blessings by Anna Quindlen yesterday. The story is about an elderly woman named Lydia Blessings. She grew up in a wealthy, advantaged family, dividing her time between New York and the family home in a small town. Choices she has made during her life bring her into her 80th year waiting for the beginning of the life she was meant to live.
Skip, a man in his 20s, fresh from a ten-month stint in the county jail for accessory to armed robbery, is afraid that this is the life he was meant to live and that beginning, middle and end are indistinguishable. By virtue of being himself, he lands a job as caretaker of Blessings. He is aware that what all of the guys at McGuinely’s say is true: he’s damned lucky to land such a plum job.
The acceptance with which both Skip and Lydia respond to their individual fates is challenged by the arrival of a baby in box placed on the garage steps at Blessings.
I enjoyed this book. The texture of the story mirrors life at Blessings farm. It is an evenly paced story, solidly written. The history of characters develops slowly, taking root within the context of the story. This provides a gradual understanding, built up over time, and an appreciation for the balance of the connections between them. What I liked about this small story, the gradual and even rhythm of the storytelling, is that it echoes the truth of life’s larger story. It is not a roller coaster ride from one BIG moment to the next with a huge REVELATION blaring PROFOUND MEANING at the end. Revelations do not come like the bolt of lightening that strikes the barn and leads Lydia Blessing to the discovery of the child. Revelations come in small moments: an overheard snippet of conversation, a section of a tattered photograph found in a forgotten wallet, the feeling evoked by the sound of a spoken name, and are set in an interconnected context of a thousand moments just like these. In the end, the huge revelation, blaring profound meaning, is really just a knowing, and hopefully an acceptance of what has always been true.
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
What good is having a blog ...
if you can't rant every now and then?? I hate DSL. That's all I really wanted to say. I used to have cable, back in those happy days of yore. Log on and never fear, my browser would bring wherever I wanted to surf. I could cruise the net and watch Six Feet Under. Life was happy then. The cable provider in our area is like a heroin pusher. They turned me on to the sweet experience of never-ending net access and the digital cable guide. But it all came at a price. "Go ahead, buy your own modem, we don't mind." Of course they don't, because for the next bizillion months of my life, I sent them a check* for $100+ a month. And once I'd tasted their savory offerings of foreign movies at 3am and home shopping around the clock, how would I ever live without it? I thought I was made of sturdier stuff. I thought I could just unplug and go for the dsl. I grew up with out cable. I walked to school. I lived half my life without a cell phone. I was so wrong. I hate dsl. Half of the time when the phone rings, I get bumped off. Half of the time when I try to blog in the morning, I get bumped off. Half of the time when I'm just staring at the screen, minding my own business...half of the time when I'm downloading my bank statement...half of the time when I'm reading television without pity...it's hell I tell you. Hell. I spent a few hours wandering around my house today, tethered to my cordless phone via headset, talking to the dsl help desk. After lenghty discussions about my wireless network, and restating my problem to four people who probably live in another country, my cordless phone battery went dead. Or maybe the phone company...(write your conspiracy theory here).
* if you pay bills online, as I do, it removes you a little bit from the physical pain of paying a huge sum for air. Writing a check somehow dignifies the experience and makes it a little more real, if that's possible.
