Thoughts from McCann

It's been a while, readerfriends. I've got some catching up to do, but until I finish that, here are two thoughts from Colum McCann from a talk at (my favorite bookstore) Greenlight last May.

"I never have a perfect day"

"Who in the world was more aware of their bodies in the nineteenth century than a slave?"

Happy New Year!

Oracles

Kamenetz' discussion of oracles in The Jew in the Lotus has got me thinking about the influence (or non-influence) of oracles in my own life. The word has always evoked a Cassandra figure for me, but if I try to reimagine it, I can trace something more like a hint. Maybe oracles are just hints with hindsight. I'm more comfortable with that than with the idea of some predetermined future stretching out in front of me. I don't care to know the odds, but if there are small signs along the way that I can put together to get an idea of what might be in front of me, I'll do it.

I imagine these hints as autumn leaves swirling in a puff of air - or perhaps as clouds in the sky, the shape up to the beholder. They don't tell you what you'll do, but they influence you as you decide what might be possible.

Guess Who

Guess the author or the subject. Don't google.

"He was a new beginning and every new beginning returns the world. In him, the rainforests were pristine and the sea had not been blunted. He was a map of clear outlines and unnamed hope. He was time before or time after. Time now had not spoilt him. In the space between chaos and shape there was another chance."