"We can look
around us those of us who are nibbled but unbroken, from the shimmering vantage
of the living. Here may not be the cleanest, newest place, but that clean
timeless place that vaults on either side of this one is no place at all." Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.
Today
is my birthday and from my mother and by contrast, not my grandmother, I
have learned to be above board with my age. When I was little my
grandmother always told me she was 108. She thought I would understand that it
was a fib. I was oblivious to the concept and asked, "but grandma, by
now you must be 109." After that she never told anyone her age. As a
result my mother was always honest with her age. On her 75th birthday she told
me when she turned 50 she got terribly depressed, she thought she was over the
hill. At 75 she realized she was in the prime of her life. At 79 the night
before she died she told Ari (a friend) that she looked forward to turning
80. He sang her a song as a response. Today I am 51 and I walk the
dog feeling nibbled but unbroken. I swam in the pond when I was exhausted at
the end of the work day. It may not have been the cleanest water, but from the
vantage point of water level the world was timeless and the geologic quality of
clay seemed to vault over my momentary questions.
Happy Birthday -- reading your blog makes you timeless from my vantage point!
I landed on your blog while Googling someone else. I am inspired to go down to my pottery and begin throwing again after a long absence. I think I'll take the dill that's in an old milk jug on my cupboard and put it in one of my pots.