Lucky to be at the beginning of a February break week, that New England school-break tradition that my sister down in Philadelphia always ribs me about. Her own school students soldiering bravely through the winter without a similar vacation week. How in the world do you get to 180 school days??, she insists. Hey, I’ll take it.
And over the course of a wonderfully slow day–from a wake up in the Square with its views of a winter-frozen Charles river to the arrival of the blue black evening sky outside the living room window–a chance to do some reading.
And two sentences of note:
One from a pretty gripping article about the Indianapolis Colts player Marvin Harrison and the allegations of a 2008 shooting in Philadelphia. A witness recalling details to the author of the article, and words that remained. One prepositional change, so close, to the book of nearly the same title by Buzz Bissenger about former mayor (and now PA governer) Ed Rendell. The lead sentence:
A prayer in the city, four words long: I ain’t seen nothin’.
The other from Richard Russo’s Bridge of Sighs. The draw of going back into imagined lives in small town America. And in that imagination, perhaps the most real in intricacy and simplicity. The main character Lucy (a boy with the unfortunate middle and first name of Lou and Charles, or Lou C., as forever inadvertently named by an elementary school teacher doing roll call on a first day of school). Description of a perceived remoteness in his expression and demeanor at times, something like worry.
A temporary worry, in other words, of the sort that would expire of its own volition, predictive of nothing and indicative only of the human condition.
Have to love the chance to slow down and put the everyday away for a bit.
Sometimes, the Sentence Really Says It
Lucky to be at the beginning of a February break week, that New England school-break tradition that my sister down in Philadelphia always ribs me about. Her own school students soldiering bravely through the winter without a similar vacation week. How in the world do you get to 180 school days??, she insists. Hey, I’ll take it.
And over the course of a wonderfully slow day–from a wake up in the Square with its views of a winter-frozen Charles river to the arrival of the blue black evening sky outside the living room window–a chance to do some reading.
And two sentences of note:
One from a pretty gripping article about the Indianapolis Colts player Marvin Harrison and the allegations of a 2008 shooting in Philadelphia. A witness recalling details to the author of the article, and words that remained. One prepositional change, so close, to the book of nearly the same title by Buzz Bissenger about former mayor (and now PA governer) Ed Rendell. The lead sentence:
A prayer in the city, four words long: I ain’t seen nothin’.
The other from Richard Russo’s Bridge of Sighs. The draw of going back into imagined lives in small town America. And in that imagination, perhaps the most real in intricacy and simplicity. The main character Lucy (a boy with the unfortunate middle and first name of Lou and Charles, or Lou C., as forever inadvertently named by an elementary school teacher doing roll call on a first day of school). Description of a perceived remoteness in his expression and demeanor at times, something like worry.
A temporary worry, in other words, of the sort that would expire of its own volition, predictive of nothing and indicative only of the human condition.
Have to love the chance to slow down and put the everyday away for a bit.