aimless musings

Sunday, April 22, 2007

tidbit from Joan...

Manfred Mann, "Blinded by the Light" *rock*

Senioritis has taken hold of me with a deathgrip. I'm still enjoying my classes, but I have to say that my actual motivation to do this whole "work" thing...stunted. I'm blinded by the light of graduation and moving on, so much that studying for an exam longer than 10 minutes seems extensive and unnecessary. (So far my arse has avoided nips from my negligence...but it must be right around the corner, eh?)

One of my favorite courses this quarter is my Women & Literature course. Here's a snip from a personal essay by one of my favorites, Joan Didion.

"The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to wrte things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss."

Joan Didion, "On Keeping a Notebook".

Here are a few shots from my excursion to The Ridges this week. I'm sure I'll head up there again even though it's such a long drive (30 seconds)