Book journal entry

I added an entry to my book journal this morning, which is always a pleasure.  I take extraordinary pride and pleasure in my book journal, which I've kept since 1974.  I'm now into the sixth volume, although I've switched over from the black sketchbooks I've always used and am instead using a small black three-ring notebook where I add typewritten (despite being an anachronism, this is a better and more vivid word than the bland and mechanical descriptor" word processed") pages instead of handwriting pages.

Writing about a book after I've finished reading it helps me think about it again, place it in the context of other books I've read, and savor passages again that I liked enough to mark while reading.   But most importantly, writing about a book is a way to save one little part of my interior life.  Emotions are a part of the experience of reading a book, and thus my book journals are a record of characters, stories, sentences and writers that meant something to me. 

For the record, I wrote this morning about Meredith Hall's memoir "Without a Map," and tomorrow I'll write about "In the Lake of the Woods" by Tim O'Brien, which I finished two night ago.  I can't wait to see what I have to say about that book!

 

Back to School

My grandson Kerry was glad to get back to school today.  He's in fourth grade, happily back to the routines of Mrs. Ford's classroom at Davidson Elementary School.  Part of that routine is writing sentences, which I help him do on the phone most weeknights.  Tonight's homework was to write a paragraph about "any phylum of animal you have studied in school", using 5 words from the week's vocabulary.  Kerry chose the harp seal, and cranked out his sentences with ease, including one that noted how a harp seal is slower than a motorboat but faster than a turtle.  

Kerry's return to school was probably quite a bit less dramatic than the entry of the Obama daughters into their new school.  I heard a photographer talking on NPR about a photo she took this morning in the Obama apartment, and I looked it up online:  the girls are in their coats and backpacks, smiling up at their dad who's talking to them, while Michelle, wearing her coat and obviously about to go with them to school,  looks on serenely.  A sweet picture, capturing the energy and love in the family.  I wonder if they had homework tonight?

Which things matter?

Of all the things that happen in a year's time, how do you pinpoint the things that really mattered, that will really make a difference for your life from here on out?  I wondered about this as I completed my year-end review of 2008 (a New Year's ritual I've done for years and years). 

It's easy to go through the calendar and list things that happened (three trips to Davidson, N.C. and one to Las Vegas; Mom moving back to her apartment; 5 overnights at the cabin, etc.). My calendars and daily diary track such events with precision.  

I can also name the emotional high point and low point of 2008:  the election of Obama and our dear dog Spud's death.  I'll remember those two things, I'm sure, but are they the ones that matter in the long run to who I am?  What were the things that helped me grow? What gave me wisdom or insight? What decisions did I make that will make a difference somewhere in the future? 

I think I'll designate 2009 as the Year of Introspection.  I'll try to take more time to examine my inward journey and note down what I thinking about as well as which plays I'm going to and who I'm having lunch with.     

Postponed holiday

   New Year's Day is my favorite holiday.  For me, it's a day for quiet and introspection.  I have only one set ritual which is to write a year-end review in my journal.  I go through my calendar for the previous year, write out the significant days (travels, plays and concerts, special dinners, celebrations or funerals), and then think about what seemed to occupy my thoughts the most during the year.  The entry ends with a paragraph or two about what I look forward or expect to happen to in the new year, and a short list of resolutions. 

    This year, New Year's Day was pretty much preempted when Mom had another choking episode and had to go to the emergency room.  I spent the afternoon sitting with her in the bleak, curtained-off hospital room, and then sitting with her in her apartment until she went to bed.   No doubt this is a foreshadowing of some of what 2009 will be about.

   So today, Jan. 2 has turned into my holiday.  I'll turn to my journal sometime today or tonight.  I've taken down the old calendars and put up the new ones.  I'm starting this blog as one of my resolutions.  The house is perfectly quiet, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this ever-so-small little day of beginnings.