to the sea,

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea" Isak Dinesen

This has been my calendar for July. This morning I decided to take Dinesen's advice with all three kinds of salt water. I worked in the morning, cried all day, and since I'm not near the sea, my family thought I could just learn how to wake board - which I did.
And it's not that I'm "cured" yet, but I made it through the day. I'll be back in about a month, I have missed you.

- wake boarder who can't actually get over the wake

Monsieur Antoine de Saint-Exupery,

This is another cryptic post. I'm sorry. It won't make sense unless you've read The Little Prince. But if you start reading it right this second, you'll be done reading it in an hour at the most. It's a quick read, and it's excellent.

I’ve read Le Petit Prince several times in French, but this was my first time in English. My copy is a high school graduation present from Rachel, Melissa, and Jeff. On the inside cover they wrote, “thanks for taming us, and letting yourself be tamed.” All week I kept turning to page 21:

If someone loves a flower of which just one example exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that’s enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars. But if the sheep eats the flower, then for him it’s as if, suddenly, all the stars went out.

It feels complicated right now, but I really just wanted to thank you for helping me remember how much I love the sound of wind in the wheat fields.
britt

Mr. Sedaris -

It’s not one I’d recommend to my mother, but I loved it so much that I carried it in my sleeves during Commencement (I just graduated from BYU with a BA in English).

I bought When You are Engulfed in Flames at DCA last Monday. As always, you made me laugh uncontrollably with lines like, “Three men are shot to death while attending a child’s christening, and you tell yourself, Sure. They were hanging out with the wrong crowd” (112). But to me, this book felt more reflective and thoughtful than what you’ve written before. My favorite essays were about Hugh, like “Keeping Up,” “All the Beauty You Will Ever Need,” and “Old Faithful.” They were hilarious and articulate, but more than that, they made me think about love, companionship, and acceptance. All this, you wrote unapologetically, without a trace of irony, as if there is a soft spot beneath your occasionally irreverent humor.

Thanks for those essays; they gave me something to think about besides where I’m going to live next month.

britt

Washington, DC

Picture from Paul. Cherry Blossoms right next to Washington Monument

They told me you were beautiful in the Spring. Well, today is the first day of Spring and, holy crap, they weren’t kidding. I love all the cherry blossoms, and as I walk through the city they remind me of something I learned from Anais Nin (via the introduction to the new Alicia Keys album). "And the day came when the risk it took to remained tightly closed in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to bloom."

britt

"Dear Incomprehension,

It's thanks to you I'll be myself, in the end."

- Samuel Beckett
(but mostly Jesse)

Mr. Hesse,

I have some 35 mm that I'm developing right now... I have at least that camera.

In the Glass Bead Game you wrote a poem called “Stages.” I read it for the first time this summer, and it moved me to tears, so I memorized it. I’ve been in DC for 19 days. From the moment I boarded the plane in Idaho Falls, “Stages” kept running through my head. “In all beginnings dwells a magic force for guarding us and helping us to live.” This is definitely a beginning: I left BYU, moved to DC, became a legal intern. I feel overwhelmed by the new people, places, vocabulary, and sleeping patterns, but underneath all of that, I understand what you mean by “magic force.” I wouldn’t have been able to find a way to say it, but you did. Thanks. And congratulations on that Nobel Prize for Literature – you totally deserved it.

Sincerely,
brittney

Darling James Russell Mercer,

(photo by ree)

Now, James, I don't know you. Still, when my friend Caitlin introduced me to the Garden State soundtrack, I knew I would love you forever. But I'm writing you about Turn On Me. (which, I'm sad to say I didn't discover on my own; Ben helped me with that). Anyway, tonight on the 12,000th playing, I finally appreciated the last line, "The worst part is over, now get back on that horse and ride." I needed that.

You are the best,

britt

joint (but not similar) details

This semester I'm not taking a single English class. And this summer when I realized I wasn’t going to be an English major anymore, that I was going to graduate, and leave academia behind, I was devastated. For weeks, I seriously considered going to get a Masters in Romantic British Literature just so I wouldn’t have to leave. But graduate school is kind of an expensive thing to do "just for fun." I eventually realized that even though I was graduating, I wouldn't stop learning. I would continue to read, and continue to surround myself with intelligent people. So this semester, in addition to my readings for Political Science classes, I've been reading Plato's Symposium and Carson McCullen's The Ballad of the Sad Cafe. Last night I read something in Sad Cafe that I liked almost as much I liked what I have been reading in 1 Corinthians.



First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons -- but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved.



The beloved can also be of any description. The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. The beloved may be treacherous, greasy-headed, and given to evil habits. Yes, and the lover may see this as clearly as anyone else. But that does not affect the evolution of his love one wit. A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of the someone a tender and simple idyll. Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself. It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.

brief details

Dominic West reading the proposal scene from Pride and Prejudice makes me secretly wish I took coffee breaks. This is an absolutely genius advertising campaign. I've started thinking about what I can do with a 15 minute break: reading a poem, writing a thank you note, calling a friend, and, of course, listening to Dominic. Listening to him has made me reconsider the way I pronounce "incredulity." It has also made me consider using the word "incredulity."

p.s remember when I took an Austen class?

details of "other pens"

So I'm in a Jane Austen class taught by Nick Mason. Obviously, I love Nick Mason, I love the stuff we read, I love the people in the class, it's just a fabulous experience. But one of my favorite little details about this class are the covers of the books (I hate it when I have to buy ugly books). The 2008 Oxford World's Classic editions of Austen's novels are absolutely beautiful. So on the coffee table would go some of my texts for the class.

Because I love my Jane Austen class:

• Northanger Abbey
• Sense and Sensibility
• Pride and Prejudice
• Mansfield Park
• Emma
• Persuasion

We just finished reading Mansfield Park, and I wanted to include one of my favorite parts. I think it would be cute to engrave on a journal or something. "Let other pens dwell on guilt and misery."

detail #4

Well, when my hard drive crashed I lost my summer book list. But from what I put back together, I'm doing a pretty good job with detail #4. I've done some C.S. Lewis, Dandelion Wine, and next is Crucial Conversations then Dubliners. But just to give you a sample of what I'm reading, I wanted to include what I read last week in The Problem of Pain. I know theology isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the ex-Philosophy major in me will read this stuff until I die. Courtney blogged about this quote earlier and it just reinforced how much I loved this book.

At the beginning of chapter 3:
"Love can forbear, and Love can forgive...but Love can never be reconciled to an unlvoely object.... He can never therefore be reconciled to your sin, because sin itself is incapable of being altered; but He may be reconciled to your person because that may be restored." Traherne

delectable details

A while ago, I bought a bag of plums from Costco.  I finished it today.  For every one of those little plums I thought, "They taste good to her."  

To a Poor Old Woman

by William Carlos Williams

munching a plum on

the street a paper bag

of them in her hand

They taste good to her

They taste good

to her. They taste

good to her

You can see it by

the way she gives herself

to the one half

sucked out in her hand

Comforted

a solace of ripe plums

seeming to fill the air

They taste good to her.

plot details

I am putting together my summer reading list, and I am shocked by how heavy everything is.  James Joyce's collection of short stories, the last 200 pages of Les Mis (again),  some C.S. Lewis, and other equally wonderful and exhausting readings.  So I would really appreciate a list of good stories.  Nothing abstract, or necessarily philosophical, just a really good story.  A story where a bunch of friends all survive something by helping each other.  Or a story where two people overcome all odds to be together.  Or a story about a family who moves from LA to live on a farm.  I really, really don't care.  I just need something with a plot.  Something I might even be able to read in one sitting because I just can't put it down.  help?  please?