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The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I cannot go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
--Theodore Roethke
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Joy's Updates - Straight from the Horse's Mouth.
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Wednesday, January 08, 2003
The Hours
I haven't read the book adapted for the screenplay or Mrs. Dalloway which was part of the movie and about a day in the life of an aristocratic English woman who was preparing for a party. She was known as a hostess and wonders if she's missed something crucial in her life. The acting was superb all through the film and the segues between stories visually incredible. I really liked it. The plots weave between the time Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman who is almost unrecognizable) wrote Mrs. Dalloway (1923) to other characters in later decades. We see her writing the suicide/farewell note in the first frame and then watch her put rocks in her pockets and wade out into the river to drown herself. She was 59 which brings thoughts of lists I made about people my age who are dead, but I digress. The other characters have their own stories which relate to the book. Julianne Moore plays a housewife who is totally unhappy, pregnant, and has a son (1951). She is reading the Woolf novel. A lot of time is spent baking her husband a birthday cake. Meryl Streep plays an editor who lives in NYC in 2001 with her lover Allison Janney and whose ex-lover or maybe husband Ed Harris is dying of AIDS. His nickname for her is Mrs. Dalloway, and both women's first names are Clarissa. She has a daughter played by Claire Danes. The pace was slow which gave time to enjoy their performances and let the events sink in. At the basis of it is the pain caused by those who cannot or do not love and how alone people feel inside. Well, it was more uplifting than that play Karla who was in purgatory after being executed for a double murder in Texas (when Dubya was governor, of course). Some of us who think like stand-up comedians have our dark sides and don't mind movies and plays that appeal to that part of us.
The Hours was the working title of Mrs. Dalloway and included a character, a reader, and a writer. Michael Cunningham is the author of the book and wrote about the inspiration for his novel in the glossy, informative program they gave us. Many of us commented that we've never received anything like this before at the advanced screenings. I get free tickets to some of them because I joined NIFF, the Nashville Independent Film Festival, and get more of them than the cost of membership. If some of you do this, too, let me know, and we can drive up together. They are usually at Green Hills or 100 Oaks.
I had lunch with Emma today and then we went to visit the president of our support group who has a recurrence of ovarian cancer. When she introduced me and said, "This is Joy from my support group. She has lymphoma." I thought, "I HAD lymphoma" but didn't say anything since it wouldn't have been appropriate. I was glad to realize that I've already made the transition to past tense. Yea!!
When I was driving to and from Chattanooga this weekend, I listened to the Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers tapes of The Power of Myth. I wish I'd gone to Sarah Lawrence and had Campbell for a teacher. He's wonderful.
6:10:00 PM
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