Cassandra Langer

Memory is that thing that seems to run on its own track through you mind, especially this time of the year. I find myself mulling over my life in the context of both big and small picture. I am not a global historian who concentrates on the larger issues exclusively. I think along with Proust and others that it is the small things of life that make it truly extraordinary rather than the Big Bang about which none of us can do anything.  We all are running around busy with life trying to make things happen that matter to us. At the same time we are part of the cosmos happening.  In the coming year I am going to try and remember that emptiness leaves room for miraculous things to happen.

Wishing each and everyone of you a New Year filled with everything you desire and deserve. More than anything I would like to see 2010 be a year of peace on earth and good will toward all things large and small on this little planet of ours.

Am reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It is beautifully written and the pacing keeps your attention. Saw Up in the Air two days ago. The scriptwriter’s are terrific and this is a film for our times. It is really nice to see an adult film that doesn’t take the cheap shots way out with high speed chases, vampires, etc. Rereading Shakespeare’s sonnets–the Peter Pauper Press edition. There is something so comforting and delightful about holding a beautifully made slim volume in your hands and turning really lovely thick paper with beautiful dark print; page after page of some of the best sonnets ever written. In Shakespeare’s verses “beauty’s Rose” never dies.