Wednesday, 12th December. Vishiskaya, a great Russian opera singer, becoming a
non citizen during Soviet period, has died…KSUC played tribute song, “Dance of Death”
Mougorsskey, set to music by Shostakovich, conducted by her husband who died
five years ago. Putin declared her "no 1
national citizen of Russia".
Four rabbits
came this morning, the youngest the least timid and wanting most to eat! Rose at 6:15 AM so the dawn was upon us…and what
a beautiful one; if I ever have doubt about being here at Dorland, all I have
to do is rise with the dawn…! Build a
fire… feed the birds…clouds gathering over the far mountains…
Jill invited me to come to “benefit’ at TGIF…as she was on her own. She bought me a cobb salad for lunch and a beer, which equaled about $10USD and was fine…I don’t like the darkness or the interior of the place; I like being outside. I visited farmers market and got small cap; I don’t know who it will fit, perhaps, Izzy. . and found beautiful plant, called “Christs’…” but I could not purchase it; I am leaving. -- and then I went to Barnes and Noble and found Maxine Hong Kingston’s “I Love a Good Margin to my Life”, which I promptly read. . She is also 65 years old, like Paul Auster, like me! I had chosen Joan Didion’s latest book when I came home, and now again, we are full circle, and I am selecting her book to read.
I had thought of
buying this when I returned, but instead got Joan Didion’s book, which was mostly
about the death of her daughter, but also about being over 70 years old. Aging, and acceptance of death, her
husband’s and her daughters.
I start
the Kong Kingston which is a memoir in the form of a long poem. She takes Thoreau’s notion of a “broad
margin”, hoping to expand her vista, and quotes, “I am standing on top of a
hill; /I can see everywhichway-- /the long way that I came, and the few/places
I have yet to go. Treat/my whole life as
if it were a day.”
On her
journey as writer, peace activist, teacher, and mother, Kingston revisits her
most beloved characters: she learns the final fate of her Woman Warrior, and
she takes her Tripmaster Monkey a hip Chinese American, on a journey through
China, where he has never been ,a trip that becomes a beautiful meditation on
the country then and now…she shows that life is being lived as it was always,
despite the “opening up”. Which is true.
Of her marriage, “Can’t divorce until we get it right.’ Love, that is. Get love right”…She reflects on aging, as she
turns 65 -- her voice is described as
humble, elegiac, practical – in essence, Chinese
Jill next
meets her husband and her daughter’s boy friend, to go to Murietta to get a
hourse. She goes through the historical
downtown created by Juan Murrieta, and then to buy the horse, which is a rescue
animal; a “cowboy broke the jaw of the horse with an iron pole”, but she has
retrieved him and he is a fine horse, of 14 years old…and good for trail
riding. Good lines, good breeding, and still in good shape inspite of the abuse and brutality of the previous cowboy owner. Jill has gotten new horse and
new saddle for her birthday. Her husband
has also brought grandchild a pony…So
an adventuresome day and I got out of my box…returning, I read. Enjoy my last
hours here.
Jill and her husband and I then went to buy a horse…one of which I approved. A young woman who rehabilitates horses that have been abused and then sells them again….like my father once did ....her partner left and took horses with her; she says, “she had issues”…She is nice young woman, and I think, courageous, to rehabilitate the horses. We spent the whole day out…I didn’t work at all…
