chrysanthemum

Today's subject line is from Thomas Merton's "At One In Spirit," which includes an excerpt from a 1968 speech to Alaskan nuns (Essential Writings, ed. Bochen, 158-164) - an essay I do not agree with, for the most part, but was drawn into reading through some of its striking claims, such as "Simply making a resolution to do something difficult and then doing it does not protect the soul from its own contradictions."

Wolf Kahn, I can relate to more. For example:

I've never been afraid to be influenced. I'm still being influenced. Everything I like, I want to swallow up and disgorge it again. How could I make a secret of having been influenced by Bonnard? It's clearly visible in the paintings - the paintings give the game away. And it doesn't matter. To deal with categories, what's going on in the art world, what the critics say, I think that's wrong. When I paint, all I think about is one brush stroke after another. That's what you have to think about.

and

A painting is done when it no longer gives you a royal pain in the ass.

One of my Scifaikuest poems has been republished at 7x20, a twitterzine.

I borrowed Amos Vogel's How Little Lori Visited Times Square from the library last week:

From new york

I hadn't known it was illustrated by Maurice Sendak. It was published in 1963 and was still in print as of 1996. "Lori" is a boy. Sendak draws cute dogs. I don't know why this combination of things has me mildly flummoxed, and it's certainly not important; I'm just recording it here so that I can look it up again six months from now when I'm trying to remember, "What was that odd picture book...?"

Finally read Emily Bazelon's NYT Magazine interview of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Others have rightfully highlighted Ginsburg's statements on affirmative action and reproductive choice, but what stood out for me was her statement on statements (in reaction to a brouhaha over something Sotomayor said):

Think of how many times you've said something that you didn't get out quite right, and you would edit your statement if you could....Once Justice O'Connor was questioning counsel at oral argument. I thought she was done, so I asked a question, and Sandra said: Just a minute, I'm not finished. So I apologized to her and she said, It's O.K., Ruth. The guys do it to each other all the time, they step on each other's questions. And then there appeared an item in USA Today, and the headline was something like "Rude Ruth Interrupts Sandra."